In his book he describes what he calls the “ Flat Error.” This is the modern belief about earlier generations that tells us more about ourselves than about the people in the past. His specialist knowledge is in the intellectual history of the medieval world. Russell is a Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. So how did we get into the situation where a widely held believe that the ancients thought the world was flat, is so devoid of factual support? The answer to this question is provided in the very readable and authoritative historical study: Inventing the Flat Earth by Jeffery Burton Russell (1991). They simply point out the ancient Greeks who mention the earth is spherical, and mistakenly make assumptions that before this, a flat earth cosmosgraphy was commonly held.įirst of all, it is interesting to note that nearly all scholars of the medieval period, contemporary and past, have concluded that medieval people believed the world to be round. In this short paper I would like to deal with the Flat-Earth Myth that still remains popular among uninformed scholars and historians today Even Wikipidia claims that many early civilizations subscribed to a flat earth cosmography, although they fail to provide proof of any kind. One of the arguments that they have given, is that the ancients were technologically deficient and believed that the world was flat, and thus were afraid to venture very far from home. Some of our readers have been surprised at the suggestion that the Nabataeans may have traveled as far as India, China, and possibly even South America.
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