Abstract
In the sixteenth century, dozens of nautical maps represented the Amazon River as a giant snake with its tail in the Andes Mountains and its head on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The scientific goal of this paper was to explain the evolution and relationships of these maps. The research method used was a comparative analysis of the shapes on hundreds of sixteenth-century maps followed by mathematical geoinformation modeling of two-dozen. This paper created the following types of models (generalizations) for this shape of the Amazon River: (1) pick one map as being characteristic and then remove all details except for the snake-like representation of the Amazon River, (2) use image processing software to average the individual pixels in the human brain or an image stored in a computer, and (3) make a mathematical model of this snake-shaped river. This paper primarily used this third approach. The following river geometry parameters were used: Number of cycles of the shape, Distance of the river from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean, Distance from the start to the end of the sinusoidal portion of the river, Average Period of the river, Average Amplitude, and Average Width. The results of this research show that the Giant Snake Model for the shape of the Amazon River was often used on sixteenth-century nautical world maps. It was invented by Antonio Pereira, Sebastian Cabot, and their cartographers in 1544–45 AD. This is a mathematical representation of the Giant Snake Model:\({\text{Amazon River North}} - {\text{South Position}} = Ce^{Dx} {\text{Sin}} ((F - Ex)x) - Gx\) as a function of x, the west to east position. The first exploration of the Amazon River by Europeans occurred in 1541–42. For the next 60 years, few Europeans explored the Amazon, so the geospatial information about it remained static. Then around the turn of the seventeenth century, many explorers and proselytizers (Priests trying to convert the natives to the Roman Catholic religion) traversed South America. Knowledge about the shape of the Amazon River became better. This new knowledge instigated the creation of better models with more realistic shapes for the Amazon River.
Der Amazonas modelliert als Riesenschlange
Im 16. Jahrhundert wurde der Amazons in Dutzenden von Seekarten als riesige Schlange, mit ihrem Schwanz in den Anden und ihrem Kopf an der Küste des Atlantiks, repräsentiert. Das wissenschaftliche Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Entwicklung und die Beziehungen dieser Karten zu erklären. Die gewählte Forschungsmethode ist eine vergleichende Analyse der Formen auf Hunderten von Karten des 16. Jahrhunderts, gefolgt von einer mathematischen Geoinformationsmodellierung, bezogen auf eine Auswahl von zwei Dutzend dieser Karten. In diesem Artikel werden die folgenden Arten von Modellen (Verallgemeinerungen) für diese Form des Amazonas erstellt: (1) sie wählen eine Karte als charakteristisch aus und entfernen dann alle Details außer der schlangenartigen Darstellung des Amazonas, (2) sie verwenden Bildverarbeitungssoftware, um die einzelnen Pixel im menschlichen Gehirn oder ein in einem Computer-gespeicherten Bild zu mitteln, und (3) sie erstellen ein mathematisches Modell dieser schlangenförmigen Fluss repäsentation. In dieser Arbeit liegt dabei ein Schwerpunkt auf dem dritten Ansatz. Dabei werden die folgenden Parameter der Flussgeometrie verwendet: Anzahl der Zyklen der Form, Entfernung des Flusses von den Anden zum Atlantischen Ozean, Entfernung vom Anfang bis zum Ende des sinusförmigen Abschnitts des Flusses, durchschnittliche Periode des Flusses, durchschnittliche Amplitude, und durchschnittliche Breite. Die Ergebnisse dieser Forschung zeigen, dass das Riesenschlangenmodell für die Form des Amazonas häufig auf nautischen Weltkarten des 16. Jahrhunderts verwendet wurde. Es wurde 1544–45 n. Chr. von Antonio Pereira, Sebastian Cabot und ihren Kartographen erfunden. Dies ist eine mathematische Darstellung des Riesenschlangenmodells: \(Amazon \, River \, North - South \, Position = Ce^{Dx} {\text{Sin}} ((F - Ex)x) - Gx\) als Funktion von x, die West-Ost-Position. Die erste Erforschung des Amazonas durch Europäer fand in den Jahren 1541–42 statt. In den nächsten 60 Jahren erforschten nur wenige Europäer den Amazonas, sodass die georäumlichen Informationen darüber statisch blieben. Um die Jahrhundertwende durchquerten dann viele Entdecker und Missionare Südamerika (z.B. Priester, die versuchten, die Ureinwohner zur römisch-katholischen Religion zu bekehren). Das Wissen über die Form des Amazonas wurde besser. Dieses neue Wissen veranlasste die Erstellung besserer Modelle mit realistischeren Formen für den Amazonas.
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Notes
Abraham Ortelius dominated map making in last third of the sixteenth century. He edited and published the first atlas of the world: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World) in 1570. The original Latin edition comprised 70 maps on 53 uniformly sized sheets with accompanying explanatory text. It was the most authoritative and comprehensive collection of maps and geographic information produced in this period. Over seven thousand copies of the Theatrum were printed in thirty-one editions with explanatory text in seven different languages. Because Ortelius’ atlas was so popular Gerard de Jode’s atlas of 1578 Speculum Orbis Terrarum was a commerical failure. Mercator’s 1595 Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura suffered a similar fate (Monmonier 2004).
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Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Joaquim Alves Gaspar for pointing out to us the Mega website https://mega.nz/folder/moN3iSjL#0a57E0iCJijqGqtCKT67ww, which contains over 140 sixteenth-century maps. We thank Dr. Dennis Edler for fine-tuning the German abstract.
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Bahill, A.T., Gitzen, G.D. The Amazon River Modeled as a Giant Snake. KN J. Cartogr. Geogr. Inf. 71, 173–194 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42489-021-00082-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42489-021-00082-3