Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <a...@lomaxdesign.com> wrote:
> I was astounded to see that painting, I thought perhaps it had been > hacked. But it appears to not be an anachronism, though the glasses > certainly look modern. Live and learn. > Serious comment: People in the past often had better technology and more knowledge than we give them credit for. For example, from ancient times most educated people knew that the world is round. Greek astronomers estimated the size of the world with pretty good accuracy. It is myth that sailors or the nobility opposed Columbus because they thought he might sail off the edge of the world. This myth was invented out of whole cloth in the 19th century. They opposed Columbus because they had better knowledge of size of the earth and of the Eurasian continent, and they knew that Asia was too far away to reach with his ships sailing west. If he had not bumped into the Americas he would have starved long before he reached Asia. - Jed
