Ptolemy Code Cracked!

**Armatus** · October 02, 2010, 07:23 PM

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...720513,00.html

A 2nd century map of Germania by the scholar Ptolemy has always stumped scholars, who were unable to relate the places depicted to known settlements. Now a team of researchers have cracked the code, revealing that half of Germany's cities are 1,000 years older than previously thought.

The founding of Rome has been pinpointed to the year 753. For the city of St. Petersburg, records even indicate the precise day the first foundation stone was laid.

**Acco** · October 03, 2010, 08:06 AM

Interesting. I've been noticing a lot of ancient German discoveries lately.

**Legio** · October 03, 2010, 08:08 AM

That's really cool.

**Magister Militum Flavius Aetius** · October 03, 2010, 08:37 AM

Beast - this belongs in the archaeology forum though...

**René Artois** · October 03, 2010, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Magister Militum FlaviusAetius

Beast - this belongs in the archaeology forum though...

Did they dig up the code?

**Their Law** · October 03, 2010, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by René Artois

Did they dig up the code?

Tom Hanks discovered it after following a series of riddles from the Louvre gallery to Vienna, all the while being chased by an albino monk.

Though seriously this is a very interesting bit of news.

**Akar** · October 03, 2010, 08:38 AM

This is clearly hitlers doing.

**saxdude** · October 03, 2010, 11:12 AM

Such a legacy...

**CiviC** · October 03, 2010, 02:31 PM

Is this archeologically confirmed?

**Armatus** · October 03, 2010, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by CiviC

Is this archeologically confirmed?

I didn't cross reference it, if that's what you mean.

Rainy Realm of Barbarians

One of these drawings depicts "Germania Magna," the rainy realm inhabited, according to Roman sources, by rough barbarians whose reproductive drive, they said, was giving rise to an alarming number of tribes.

**CiviC** · October 04, 2010, 04:20 AM

Originally Posted by Armatus

I didn't cross reference it, if that's what you mean.

I mean if there are archeological findings to confirm the existence of those ancient cities.

**Hookah Smoking Caterpiller** · October 03, 2010, 03:00 PM

Good News everyone.

**motiv-8** · October 03, 2010, 03:07 PM

Awesome discovery. Cartographers everywhere go wild!

**Xanthippus of Sparta** · October 03, 2010, 04:51 PM

Cool stuff....

On a sidenote, this is great news for TW modders who are map making in the ancient period.

**Theseus1234** · October 03, 2010, 05:59 PM

Yay!

**clandestino** · October 04, 2010, 05:45 AM

Ptolemy map gives geographic coordinates of places which existed in his time, however due to inaccuracy of his coordinate system location of certain places can't be pin-pointed with exact certainty, which gives a lot of room for guessing and speculation, for example one city mentioned by Ptolemy on the territory of present day Serbia is variously identified with three or four present day cities in a radius of 100 km.