ORCID

0000-0002-8963-5058

Keywords

Historical Archaeology, cartography, historical ethnography, Age of Discovery, interdisciplinary

Abstract

This thesis examines the 1575 Spanish edition of the Cosmographia, a geographic textbook initially authored by Peter Apian and expanded by Gemma Frisius, as a source for anthropological inquiry into early European encounters with the Americas. Little attention has been given to the text’s potential as a source for anthropological analysis, particularly regarding its representations of the Americas and the cultural information embedded in the geographic data. This study addresses that gap by applying a Four-Field anthropological framework—cultural, biological, linguistic, and archaeological—to this edition, which incorporates excerpts from Ieronimo Girava’s qualitative and quantitative description of the Americas, including a table listing 174 toponyms accompanied by historic latitude and longitude coordinates. Although some of these locations correspond to recognizable places, many are ambiguous or unidentifiable. These discrepancies present methodological challenges but also provide an opportunity to reevaluate the geographic knowledge embedded in early modern cosmographic literature.

The theoretical framework of the study situates the project within historical archaeology, emphasizing the productive relationship between documentary evidence and the archaeological record. Written accounts produced during the early period of European contact often contain biases rooted in imperial, religious, and political contexts; however, when critically interpreted they can provide valuable clues about landscapes, settlements, and cultural interactions that may not be preserved archaeologically. By integrating anthropological perspectives with historical cartography and linguistic analysis, this thesis proposes a method for extracting and evaluating such information from early printed texts.

This research demonstrates that the Cosmographia can serve as a valuable interdisciplinary source for understanding early contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Beyond identifying potential locations of lost or obscure toponyms, the project illustrates how Renaissance cosmographic texts can contribute to ongoing archaeological and anthropological investigations of the early modern Atlantic world.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

John Walker

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Anthropology

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Identifier

DP0053260

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