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The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BC still based on the flat Earth paradigm. World maps assuming a spherical Earth first appear in the Hellenistic period. The developments of Greek geography during this time, notably by Eratosthenes and Posidonius culminated in the Roman era, with Ptolemy's world map (2nd century AD), which would remain authoritative throughout the Middle Ages. Since Ptolemy, knowledge of the approximate size of the globe allowed cartographers to estimate the extent of their geographical knowledge, and to indicate parts of the globe known to exist but not yet explored as ''terra incognita''. With the Age of Discovery, during the 15th to 18th centuries, world maps became increasingly accurate; exploration of Antarctica and the interior of Africa was left to the 19th and early 20th century. ==Antiquity== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「early world maps」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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