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Archaeological Evidence of Ophir’s Gold

In 1946, archaeologists discovered inscribed pottery shards referencing Ophir's gold...

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🌍 Lequios People at 10°N on the South China Sea, not Ryukyu? Ptolemy's Isles in The Sinus Magus as the South China Sea, Not Near Modern India?

Mercator's Findings in 1538:

Lequios (1538) = 10°N consistent with the Philippines not Ryukyu (25°N)

Mercator's Findings Correcting Ptolemy's Paradigm in 1569:

Barusses Isles = South Philippines; Basacatas = Palawan
Aurea = Chryse = Zipangu = AN ISLAND!
Ancient Ganges = Indochina ≠ India
Taprobane = Sumatra ≠ Sri Lanka (Following Mela's words)

"Taprobane is said to be either a very large island or the *first part of the second world**, but because* it is inhabited, and because no one reportedly has circumnavigated it, the latter interpretation is as *good as true**.” – Pomponius Mela, 43 A.D., Chorographia Bk II, § 3.68-71 [Read Garden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps]*

Sumatra is the second Taprobane from ancient texts which Mela and Mercator define. Many confuse this because they are negligent to test each narrative to see whether Sri Lanka or Sumatra is referenced as Taprobane. Reading Mela's map correctly would place Argyre Northeast of Sumatra which is never near modern India, but in the Philippines. Chryse is East of Tamus Peninsula (South China) as Luzon is (never in Japan!). [Read Our Previous Blog.]

Traveling to the East, Mela defined the second world begins at Sumatra as Taprobane in the ancient perspective, not Sri Lanka which he defines the confusion and its resolution. That is why so many ancient maps including Mercator (1569) note such. Mercator was not wrong nor confused on that, and many maps maintain this perspective. Modern cartographers unaware of the history are misunderstanding the well-recorded nuance. Let's restore this now.

Editor's Note (Addition): We could produce an entire book on the historic references and maps that affirm Taprobane as Sumatra. Anyone who thinks that unthinkable, has never read ancient history nor viewed ancient maps in the slightest. Telling us Mela did nto say what he clearly said as well as so many others only to claim Mercator was confused is defined as witchcraft, not scholarship. Here are some such examples:

"Betwixt the West and the South is the Trapobana, or Samatra," – Mendoza, 1583, p. 9.
Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum By Johann Huttich / Simon Grynaeus / Oronce Fine labels Sumatra as Taprobane, as does the 196 B.C. Map of Erasthones and many others. [Read Garden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps]

Above: Gerard Mercator's map of the world on a double cordiform projection, published in 1538 and held in the New York Public Library. The American Library of Congress's description of the other copy, held by the American Geographical Society Library, states: This world map on two sheets is an early work of the famous Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512–94). Only two copies of the map are extant: this one from the American Geographical Society Library, and one at the New York Public Library. Wikimedia Commons.

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | June 23, 2025

The Lequios People (1538) and Mercator's Correction of Ptolemy's Maritime Route to the Golden Isles (1569)

He Almost Had It... Until Colonial Blindness Took Over.

A Step in the Right Direction.

The God Culture Team

🌎 Context: The Mercator 1538 and 1569 World Maps

In 1538 and 1569, Gerardus Mercator issued what would become two of the most influential maps in history. Designed for navigation, the Mercator projection dramatically shaped the way Europeans viewed the world. But what most don't realize is that embedded within this map is a deep tension between ancient sources and colonial reinterpretation.

Mercator wasn't blind. He read Pliny. He cited Mela. He even referenced Josephus, Hipparchus, Strabo, and others. And he knew something was wrong with how geography was being handled. But despite grasping the errors, he failed to correct them fully. His partial reforms remain a smoking quill of early cartographic revisionism.

A Step Towards Restoration Correcting a Paradigm

Mercator writes: "...great errors are introduced..."

"That which long experience teaches, in order to advance with the object of a perfect knowledge of truth and not to be blinded by error, should be so established that, after discarding all which obvious reasons reveal to be false, that which is probable is retained until, every test and every reasoning being in agreement, the facts themselves in their very truth are placed before the eyes. It is so in geography.

Should we, at the first incidental occasion, transpose, modify or discard the discoveries of the ancients, not only will we not improve but, by correcting a single error we will alter a hundred truths and, in the end, we will have an extremely confused mass of lands and names in which neither the parts will appear under their true names nor the names on their proper parts. Somewhat in this fashion has been done today by geographers in the map of India..."

– Text and Translations: Based on "Text and translations of the legends of the original chart of the world by Gerhard Mercator issued in 1569". Hydrographics Review. 9/2: 7–45. 1932. Reported in Complete Detail With Translation by Wikipedia, which we affirmed as valid and accurate from other sources.

Gerard Mercator's Map of the World, 1538

In both Greco-Roman and early Renaissance cartography, one name stands out on the edge of Asia, placed in the tropics and poking into the South China Sea—Lequii populi. This mysterious people have long been misidentified by scholars, often conflated with the Ryukyu Islands or Japan. But 16th-century maps like Mercator’s 1538 World Map locate the Lequios People not at 25°N where Ryukyu lies, but at 10°N, aligning precisely with the region of the Philippines. It appears on a peninsula that sticks out into the area of the Philippines indeed. This is in addition to Mercators detailed description of Ptolemy's Golden Isles in the Far East, not near India. However, he will fail in this regard on this next map.

This Smoking Quill entry unites that geographic truth with another ancient itinerary—Pliny the Elder’s maritime voyage to Chryse and Argyre [Read Blog], the Isles of Gold and Silver. For 2,000 years, scholars have twisted Pliny’s clear route, erasing islands, fabricating peninsulas, and distorting climates. Even Mercator, in his attempt to correct what he knew was wrong in the cartography of his time, still maintains some propaganda from fraudulent Jesuit maps. But when we read Pliny's own words—and align them with ancient maps and consistent latitude data—the Philippines reemerges as the ancient land of Ophir.

🌍 Lequii Populi at 10°N

Mercator’s 1538 World Map places Lequii populi just above the equator, at approximately 10°N, directly facing the Sinus Magnus Sinarum (South China Sea).
This rules out Japan or Ryukyu, which lie far north (25–45°N).
It matches Luzon and adjacent isles, consistent with:
Barbosa (1516): Places Lequios near Luzon.
Spanish records (Government Maps and Documents): Describe the "Lequios, Liquis" and similar as dominant gold traders. This includes Spanish Royal Cartographers such as Ribeiro (1526-1529), Santa Cruz (1539), Cabot (1544), etc. in Mercator's time.
Though his later map will bow to Jesuit Colonial pressure on this as well as Zipangu, one cannot erase this from this earlier mapping. Mercator serves as evidence of this Jesuit manipulation in fact.

Lequios were not Japanese—they were Filipino islanders. Their prominence in early global trade is buried in false conflations, just like Chryse. [Read the full Smoking Quill Series for massive detail].

Though full clarity will not emerge with Mercator, this is a step in the right direction.

thegodculture@proton.me

Mercator 1569 world map composite of all 18 sheets. Basel copy of the 1569 world map photographed by Wilhelm Krucken. He holds the copyright for the high definition photographs but he permits use of these medium resolution scans. Gerardus Mercator. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Text and Translations: Based on "Text and translations of the legends of the original chart of the world by Gerhard Mercator issued in 1569". Hydrographics Review. 9/2: 7–45. 1932. Reported in Complete Detail With Translation by Wikipedia , which we affirmed as valid and accurate from other sources.

🥇 In 1569 Mercator Identifies the Philippines as Ptolemy’s Barusse Isles

In Sheet 12 of his map [Wikipedia aptly catalogues these sheets with translations, which we confirmed from other sources including the map], Mercator places the following at 18°N, 163°E (Actual Isles 10 or so degrees South of that):

“Barusae insulae praecipuae sunt 5 istae Mindanao Cailon Subut cum reliquis duabus Circum versus...”

Translation: "The principal Barusse Isles are the five following: Mindanao, Cailon, Subut and two others..."

This is a direct identification of Mindanao, Cebu (Subut), and Cailon (Samar/Leyte?) as the Barusse Islands of Ptolemaic fame—known from classical geography as major eastern lands.

From there, one can begin to assess the rest of Ptolemy but Mercator fails in this regard. He was not familiar with Magellan's correcting Cattigara into the Philippines as Leyte/Caraga (Surigao), nor centuries of maps labeling Cebu as Sabadibae. [See below]

✅ This eliminates Sumatra or Celebes as potential Barusse candidates.

✅ This places the Barusse archipelago in the Philippines, firmly, on the same line as Sabadibae, Cattigara, and Iabadu. [See below]

✅ In Mercators logic using Ptolemy's mapping: If Barusse is the South Philippine Isles, then, Luzon is Aurea/Zipangu/Chryse as its Southern tip is almost the same latitude. You don't move that into Japan and claim to offer a credible theory.

1569 Mercator Map of Barusse Philippines

🥇 Mercator Identifies Palawan as Ptolemy’s Basacata Isle

In Sheet 12 of his map, Mercator places the following inscription next to Palohan (Palawan):

"Palohan insula, Ptol. Basacata."

Ptolemy places Basachata on the same parallel as Aurea. This is explosive. You don't move that to Japan.

✅ In Mercators logic using Ptolemy's mapping: If Basacata is Palawan, then, Luzon is Aurea/Zipangu/Chryse on the same elevation. Any notion of Japan over 20 degrees too far North is nonsense, especially when one would have to move Basacata and all the Isles of Gold there too.

This is likely Bataraza, Palawan or even Busuanga linguistically. These are very close.

📍Focus on Ptolemy:

Barusse = Mindanao (Mercator).
Basacata = Palawan (Mercator. Lateral to Aurea on the Ulm 1486 map and roughly parallel).
Aurea Chersonesus (true logic based on Ptolemy) is marked as a major golden landmass on numerous maps from the 2nd to 16th century, originating in Ptolemy.
Ptolemy was either unaware or ignored Mela, Pliny, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Arrian, and Dionysius of Alexandria before his time. Or... he is being misrepresented and misread which Mercator believed to be the case.
Magellan corrected Cattigara into Leyte/Caraga (Surigao)
Sabadibae is mapped for centuries as Cebu [full maps in Garden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps]

Iabadu's capital is Argyre according to Ptolemy also aligning with Caraga on Mindinao and Leyte whose former name was Abuya, the likely origin of Iabadu etymologically.
Chrysoanos (Chryse) River is positioned on Ptolemy's Aurea. Pereira and Mercator equate these. Josephus and Columbus equated Aurea as Ophir. Many charts also indicate this Southeast of China as well. This is Luzon appropriately on ancient maps as a whole. [full maps in Garden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps]
Palawan is the most beautiful place on Earth and the obvious Isle of Good Fortune using reason.
Maniola is mapped in the Philippines and indicated as the name of its currency before the Spanish as well as a national designation or one of a portion or all of Luzon at times. These are the ten major isles of the Philippines. The 1492 Behaim Globe labels the shoals in the West Philippine Sea Maniola.
The Satyr Islands according to Father Colin and others fit Mindoro which boasts a legend of tribes with tails a few finger lengths. Whether true or even embellished, the legend is there.
On a map this next peninsula after India would be Burma, never the Malay Peninsula, which it does not match. It is not an actual peninsula but an island and it corrects with the rest of these islands into the Philippines.

It appears Ptolemy's geography can indeed be understood even today. We are observing a map of the Philippine Isles here.

📍Conclusion:

Mercator’s error—though partially corrected—was to accept Ptolemy’s island references (like Barusse), but then misplace Aurea as Japan or in its vicinity, ignoring his own alignment data. If Barusse and Basachata are in the Philippines, then Japan is geographically disqualified as Aurea, Chryse, or Ophir.

❌ Mercator’s One Major Error: Calling Japan Zipangu and Chrise

Though Mercator’s map corrects many errors, he does conflate Japan with Zipangu (labeling it "Zipagri") and "Chrise". This fails his own logic demonstrating residual Colonial bias even though he did awaken, at least in part. He also labels Ryukyu as Lequios, a new designation that never matched the historic Lequios in North Luzon. Clearly he gave in to Jesuit pressure of that time.

"Japan, called Zipagri by M. Polo the Venetian. Formerly Chrise."

This contradicts:

Columbus, who places Zipangu at 20–22°N, far too south for Japan.
Behaim, whose map depicts Zipangu encompassing Luzon Island. Most maps from 1154-1744 place Chryse somewhere between 7° and 30° N which never leads to Japan's big island but encompasses ALL of Luzon Island, where it is placed.
Marco Polo, who describes Zipangu as resplendent in gold—something ancient Japan did not possess until the 700s A.D. (according to their professors). Japan fails the geography and resource tests for Zipangu [Watch Videos: Part 1 and Part 2].
Tamus Peninsula according to Mela is most certainly the South China point. Conflating that Northward is not logical. Chryse opposite that point is definitively Luzon, never Japan. [Top]

Mercator reflects an early academic trend: trying to force new geography into old names without accurate sourcing forgetting his own logic as well as Ptolemy's. He was close—but not quite. He did at least correct Chryse as an island, which every credible reference does. He places it far away from the Malay Peninsula, which was never Aurea in any sense.

➡️ For an accurate breakdown of Pliny’s full route to Chryse (Ophir), see our dedicated analysis: [Pliny’s Maritime Route to Chryse]. For a plethora of historic maps to Chryse and Zipangu in the Philippines, read Garden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps. Also, the Colonial Jesuit Trail of Tears follows for Chryse.

Mercator's views were not quiet in his time. He corrected academia at that time saying:

📜 Direct Quotes from Mercator’s Commentary:

"Hence it is certain that the whole of our continent is surrounded by water and that all its coasts were known to the ancients and it is clear that the descriptions thereof are founded on their own observations..."

"Somewhat in this fashion has been done today by geographers in the map of India, in that, most absurdly, they place this very celebrated River Ganges further west than the promontory of Singapore [Malay Peninsula meaning Chryse is East of Malay]..."

✅ Mercator exposes the error: modern maps (even in his era) wrongly put the Ganges west of Taprobana (Sumatra), contradicting ancient sources.

"[cont.'d] ...and than Taprobana, though, according to the ancients, it lay much further to the eastward [Mela, reference above]; then, also, they upset and confound the whole map of India, as given by Ptolemy, by not allotting to it anything beyond the said promontory."

✅ He defends Ptolemy and exposes how modern geographers erased much of the ancient Far East.

"[cont.'d] ...But we must most strongly rebut this opinion in order that Ptolemy's authority be not shaken and that the geographical truth be made manifest, which truth requires no less accuracy in the names than in the positions of places."

🔥 Mercator calls it a blunder of names and positions—meaning the mapmakers aren’t just wrong geographically, but are also distorting identity and meaning.

"...we put forward on the subject of the positions of the Ganges and of the Golden Peninsula, that they are yet very far from reaching the limit of this chart..."

🧭 He places both the Ganges and the Golden Peninsula (Chryse) beyond Sumatra—not in India, not in Burma, and not in Malaysia.

The Ancient Ganges was not placed where the modern Ganges exists. Part of this is the conflation with the Pison River by Josephus, misleads many because they do not realize what Mercator did. The ancient Ganges was not the modern one, just as ancient India was not the nation we call India today but the entire Orient in use. Mercator states:

"the Ganges, which (according to these men) should come a long way before, should have been placed a great distance after Taprobana [Sumatra]."

📏 Confirming Strabo: the Ganges is 20,000 stadia (almost 2,000 miles) from the Indus.

"And, further, the Royal Road of 20,000 stadia, which runs from the Indus to the Ganges and Palibotra, according to Strabo, Book 15, would not permit the Ganges to be placed elsewhere than where we, with Ptolemy, have put it."

20,000 Stadia = 2,000 miles

✅ Mercator invokes Strabo’s measurement and firmly asserts the Ganges must lie further east than Sumatra. This is reflected by several early maps. Rather than understand this nuance, many supposed scholars turn on Mercator and others as being wrong when they are the ones not aware.

"In fact, the most deeply indented part of the Bay of Bengal, to which the old Ganges is transferred today, cannot be sufficiently distant from the Indus, if the directions and their dimensions be maintained..."

📉 Modern maps fail the test of scale, proportion, and position. The Bay of Bengal’s Ganges cannot be the ancient Ganges if one honors ancient measurements and routes. As seen in the above map created for this demonstration, 2,000 miles would be more like the Irwaddy River. Anyone thinking that has to appear similar in name is also unaware that this area is called India Gangem from which the word Ganges truly derives. Even in its naming it is beyond India affirmed by Strabo and Mercator.

🧭 Conclusion:

Mercator exposed the colonial shift that moved the Ganges westward, and misplaced Chryse (the Land of Gold). Just because they were messing up maps to hide these lands, does not equate to academic theory. That is propaganda. His correction is unequivocal:

✅ The Ganges lies east of Sumatra. (That was not wrong to the ancient view)
✅ Chryse is not Burma, Malaysia, or Sumatra—but beyond them.
✅ This matches Pliny’s, Mela’s, and the Periplus’ description of Chryse and Argyre—islands east of the Ganges, which only the Philippines fulfills.

❌ Mercator falls for Jesuit propaganda and assumes erroneously that Japan is Zipangu when it fails the resources (by more that 60% failure), and geography of Marco Polo's account. Their not reading the actual account but picking out Colonial propaganda is also not a view. It has no foundation.

🔥 Final Thoughts

Mercator helped restore a more accurate worldview which everyone should test. He began dismantling Ptolemaic errors, exposed navigational distortions, and placed the Philippines where they belong—at the center of classical Eastern geography. Though he didn’t fully realize Zipangu’s true position, his inclusion of the Lequios People in the region of the Philippines (1538), the Barusse Islands and Basacata Isle in the Philippines (1569) affirms that ancient knowledge never vanished. It was just misread.

The Philippines is not a peripheral dot—it is the core of the Isles of Gold.

#LequiosPeople #SmokingQuill #MercatorMap #ChryseRevealed #PhilippinesOphir #ZipanguTruth #AncientGeography #ColonialReversal #IslesOfGold #HistoricalMaps #BarusseIsles #TheGodCulture

🌍 The Colonial Trail of Tears: Chryse & Argyre

Chryse and Argyre were never mythical. They were simply erased from the map by those who refused to follow the route. A perfect example is Ravenstein's irresponsibly interpretation of Behaim's Globe which he either could not read, or intentionally mislead the world.

They are still here. In the Philippines.

And the record has spoken.

#ChryseRevealed #SmokingQuill #AncientGeography #IslesOfGold #PlinyTheElder #BiblicalHistory #PhilippinesOphir #ColonialErasure #ForgottenMaps #MaritimeAsia #TheGodCulture #HistoricalTruth #GoldOfTheEast #GardenOfEdenRevealed #PlinyRouteDecoded #LostIslandsFound #AncientVoyages #ChryseInPhilippines #PlinyDecoded #TheSmokingQuillSeries #AsiaHistoryRewritten

“The final page wasn’t colonial ink — it was joy, justice, and memory.”