Golden Chersonese

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Details from Nicolaus Germanus's 1467 copy of a map from Ptolemy's Geography, showing the Golden Chersonese, i.e. the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia in the modern world. The horizontal line represents the Equator, which is misplaced too far north due to its being calculated from the Tropic of Cancer using the Ptolemaic degree, which is only five-sixths of a true degree.

The Golden Chersonese or Golden Khersonese (

Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography
.

Name

The earliest references to a fabulous land of gold that could be interpreted as places in South East Asia may be found in Indian literature. In

Suvarnadvipa (the Golden Island or Peninsula, where dvipa might refer to either a peninsula or an island)[2][3] Greek knowledge of lands further to their east improved after the conquests of Alexander the Great, but specific references to places in South East Asia did not appear until after the rise of the Roman Empire. Greek and Roman geographers Eratosthenes, Dionysius Periegetes, and Pomponius Mela had written about a Golden Isle (Khrysē, Chryse Insula),[4][5] which some in modern times argued to mean Sumatra while excluding the Malay Peninsula.[6][7] Pliny in Natural History, however, referred to Chryse as both a promontory and an island.[8]

Ptolemy's

Godinho de Erédia.[1] Although gold is now not a major product of modern-day Malaysia, it is still being mined, for example in Raub in Pahang.[11]

Cartographic references

Urb. Gr. 82, done according to Ptolemy's 1st projection c. 1300. The Indian Ocean is depicted as a closed basin. The Golden Chersonese is the peninsula to the far east, just prior to the Great Gulf
.
Aurea Cersonese, the Golden Peninsula, near Java in the Indian Ocean, on the map of Andreas Walsperger, c.1448
Martin of Bohemia's Erdapfel

The Golden Chersonese appears in the map of

Dragon's Tail peninsula
.

The Golden Chersonese is shown on the

Three Magi
who worshipped the newborn Christ at Bethlehem.

Zipangu (Japan), which was said to be "rich in gold" by Marco Polo. An expedition was sent to find the purported islands in this location under the command of Pedro de Unamuno in 1587.[12][13]

Geographical locations

The names of various geographical features and settlements of the Golden Chersonese are given in

Mediterranean as they may not be based on astronomical observation, and therefore cannot be reliably used for identification.[1] Ptolemy's work was also copied and translated over many hundreds of years, with the oldest surviving version copied over a thousand years after it was written, and errors may have been introduced.[15][16]

Rivers

The Ptolemy map shows three rivers which are joined together to form as their source a single river which does not actually exist. It has however been suggested that this might be an indication of the existence of an ancient transpeninsular route that linked Perak and Pahang, a short cut between the east and west coasts of the Malay Peninsula.[17]

  • Khrysoanas river, meaning "River of Gold", proposed to be various rivers on the west coast, from the Trang River (in southern Thailand) or Lungu River, to the Perak River or the Bernam River, or further south the Muar River.[18][15]
  • Palandas river, proposed to be Johor River by a number of scholars.
  • Attabas river, which most authors agreed to be the Pahang River.[19]

Settlements

Other features

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Wheatley 1961, pp. 138–159.
  2. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 177–184.
  3. doi:10.4000/archeosciences.2072
    .
  4. ^ May also be translated in forms such as the Isle of Chryse, Chryse Island, &c.
  5. ^ Gerini 1909, pp. 78–79.
  6. ^ H. Kern, "Java en het Goudeiland Volgens de Oudste Berichten", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Volume 16, 1869, pp.638-648.[1]
  7. ^ Udai Prakash Arora, “Greek Geographers on the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia”, in Chattopadhyaya, D. P. and Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture (eds.), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, Vol.1, Pt.3, C.G. Pande (ed.), India's Interaction with Southeast Asia, Chapter 6, pp.184-185.
  8. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 128–129.
  9. ^ Gerini 1909, p. 78.
  10. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 131–136.
  11. ^ Choong En Han (March 16, 2014). "At least 5 gold mines in Malaysia are under foreign listed companies". Media Checker.
  12. ^ The Travels of Pedro Teixeira, tr. and annotated by W.F. Sinclair, London, Hakluyt Society, Series 2, Vol.9, 1902, p.10.
  13. ^ E.W. Dahlgren, “Were the Hawaiian Islands visited by the Spaniards before their Discovery by Captain Cook in 1778?”, Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, Band 57. No.1, 1916-1917, pp.1-222, pp.47-48, 66.
  14. ^ Linehan 1951, pp. 86–98.
  15. ^
    ISBN 9781317279037
    .
  16. ^ Mintz, Daniel. "Manuscript Tradition in Ptolemy's Geography". University of St Andrews.
  17. ISBN 9781461671992
    .
  18. ^ Linehan 1951, pp. 86, 88–91.
  19. ^ Linehan 1951, p. 88.
  20. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 268–272.
  21. ^ Linehan 1951, pp. 91–92.
  22. ISBN 9789674610234
    .
  23. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 151–152.
  24. ^ Linehan 1951, pp. 92–93.
  25. ^ Wheatley 1961, p. 156.
  26. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 152–153.
  27. ^ a b Wheatley 1961, pp. 154–155.
  28. ^ Linehan 1951, p. 97.
  29. ^ Wheatley 1961, pp. 153–154.

Bibliography

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