[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":27},["ShallowReactive",2],{"hreflang:/en/zoom/p2ch1z3-thule-the-geographical-riddle-that-was-never-solved":3,"zoom:p2ch1z3:en":7},{"fr":4,"en":5,"es":6},"/zoom/p2ch1z3-thule-lenigme-geographique-qui-na-jamais-ete-resolue","/en/zoom/p2ch1z3-thule-the-geographical-riddle-that-was-never-solved","/es/zoom/p2ch1z3-tule-el-enigma-geografico-que-nunca-se-resolvio",{"period":8,"chapter":17,"zoom":20},{"id":9,"title":10,"titleEn":10,"titleEs":11,"range":12,"rangeEn":12,"rangeEs":13,"covers":14},"p2","Antiquity","Antigüedad","≈ 600 BC → 51 BC","≈ 600 a. C. → 51 a. C.",[15],{"filename":16,"url":16},"Lionel Royer - Vercingetorix Throwing down His Weapons at the feet of Julius Caesar.jpg",{"id":18,"title":19},"p2ch1","Marseille and the Phocaeans",{"id":21,"title":22,"chapterId":18,"html":23,"hasEn":24,"isFallback":25,"seoDescription":26},"p2ch1z3","Thule: the geographical riddle that was never solved","\u003Chr>\n\u003Cp>The main chapter presented Pytheas’s voyage and his scientific observations. This zoom lingers on a question Pytheas left open more than 2,300 years ago: the exact location of \u003Cstrong>Thule\u003C/strong>, the mysterious land he placed six days’ sail north of Scotland, which has never ceased to fascinate geographers and historians.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🗺️ A first ancient landmark\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The geographer \u003Cstrong>Ptolemy\u003C/strong>, in the 2nd century CE, placed Thule at the latitude of the \u003Cstrong>Shetland Islands\u003C/strong>, helping to firmly anchor this identification in ancient geography. The Middle Ages, however, muddied the waters: once the Vikings had revealed the existence of \u003Cstrong>Iceland\u003C/strong>, the two lands — Shetland and Iceland — were frequently conflated under the same name of Thule by authors such as Adam of Bremen or Saxo Grammaticus, with the exception of certain English sources, such as the so-called Cottonian map, which took care to distinguish them.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>❓ Competing hypotheses that remain unresolved\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Modern historians and geographers have never definitively settled the question, and several candidates remain in contention. Iceland remains a widespread hypothesis, consistent with medieval tradition. Others propose the \u003Cstrong>Faroe Islands\u003C/strong> or the Estonian island of \u003Cstrong>Saaremaa\u003C/strong>. A fairly widely adopted theory identifies Thule with a point on the \u003Cstrong>Norwegian\u003C/strong> coast, with some recent researchers even proposing the specific island of \u003Cstrong>Smøla\u003C/strong>, off western Norway. A more radical hypothesis, put forward by the researcher \u003Cstrong>Lucio Russo\u003C/strong>, proposes locating Thule as far as \u003Cstrong>Greenland\u003C/strong>, on the premise that Ptolemy’s \u003Cem>Geography\u003C/em> contains a systematic longitude error that needs correcting.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This persistent uncertainty is not a failure of historical research, but the symptom of a lost founding text: without Pytheas’s original work, \u003Cem>On the Ocean\u003C/em>, historians can only work from fragmentary citations and summaries transmitted by later authors, who themselves sometimes disagreed with one another over the distances and headings reported.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🧠 Key points\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>Thule, described by Pytheas as six days north of Scotland, has never been located with certainty.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>Ptolemy placed it at the latitude of Shetland; the Middle Ages often conflated it with Iceland.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>Modern hypotheses include Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway (the island of Smøla), Estonia (Saaremaa), and even Greenland according to Lucio Russo.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>This uncertainty stems from the loss of Pytheas’s original work, known only through fragments.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n",true,false,"The main chapter presented Pytheas’s voyage and his scientific observations. This zoom lingers on a question Pytheas left open more than 2,300 years ago: the",1786625708039]