ANCIENT GLOBE CARVED
INTO OSTRICH EGGS
Thought to have been created around 1510, this may be the oldest globe depicting the New World.
What’s unique about this globe is that it’s carved on an ostrich egg and is the size of a grapefruit. The globe, made from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs, was discovered by an Austrian collector and is labeled in Latin. Interestingly, North America is depicted as a group of scattered islands, and for many countries and territories in the world, like Japan, Brazil, and Arabia, this is the oldest known engraved depiction on a globe.
The Washington Map Society believes it to be the oldest surviving engraved globe to show the New World and mentions that it “contains ships of different types, monsters, intertwining waves, a shipwrecked sailor, and 71 place names, and one sentence, “HIC SVNT DRACONES” (Here are the Dragons)”.
Clancy's comment: Wow. That's an interesting find.