Bit by bit the other side of the controversy — the one supported by facts — is bring heard.
1421 Exposed, which will be officially launched on May 1, is a web site put together by academics and researchers to combat Gavin Menzies’s theory that the Chinese discovered the world in the 15th century, and, in particular, to refute the authenticity of Liu Gang’s purported 1418 map of the world. Via MapHist.
When the Chinese map story first broke a few months back, I was worried that the academic skeptics weren’t getting their side of the story out as effectively as Liu and Menzies were, but they’ve been getting better at it. Fortunately, the media loves a controversy. [via Jonathan Crowe]