# Phantom settlements and Map Traps (debunks the missing islands conspiracy)



## Draco (Mar 3, 2021)

What is a map trap?
“Map traps, trap streets, phantom settlements, cartographer’s follies and copyright easter eggs are the cartographer’s watermark. They are created to ‘trap’ anyone copying their work - their inclusion in someone else’s map serves as proof that the map has been copied.”

source:Maps, Traps & Phantom Settlements

A good mordern example is 1998 agloe, New York:
“*Agloe* is a fictional hamlet in Colchester, Delaware County, New York, that became an actual landmark after mapmakers made up the community as a phantom settlement, an example of a "copyright trap" and similar to a trap street. Agloe was put onto the map in order to catch plagiarism as it appears only on their map and not on any others. Soon, using fictional "copyright traps" became a typical strategy in mapmaker design to thwart plagiarism. Agloe was known as a "paper town" because of this.”

source:Agloe, New York.

another example is back in 2008, there was a flurry of interest in a town called Argleton in West Lancashire which is also fake




In conclusion: all those missing islands from old maps are most likely to be part of these phantom settlements in which map makers used to make to catch copyrighted material.


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## Zermund (Mar 4, 2021)

Draco said:


> What is a map trap?
> “Map traps, trap streets, phantom settlements, cartographer’s follies and copyright easter eggs are the cartographer’s watermark. They are created to ‘trap’ anyone copying their work - their inclusion in someone else’s map serves as proof that the map has been copied.”
> 
> source:Maps, Traps & Phantom Settlements
> ...



Copyright is a modern phenomenon.
To make books valuable, they were often attributed to other writers (mostly ancient ones) in ancient times.
Anyway, they worked together on maps.
No cartographer could draw the world by his own vision.
It was always a matter of collecting and improving information from others.
The production of cards was complex and expensive.
A copy was no less complex than the original.

It leads to false conclusions that the 21st century should be compared with the 18th century or even older


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## 6079SmithW (Mar 4, 2021)

Thanks for the interesting post. 

I have no doubt that this may be a good reason for a small number of phantom hamlets etc, but it completely misses the larger issue.

Antarctica drawn in detail in the 1600s - without ice!

Pre Columbian maps showing the American continent. Etc etc 

All of this points to a highly advanced worldwide civilization, which your argument does little to address.


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## Timeshifter (Mar 4, 2021)

Draco said:


> In conclusion: *all* those missing islands from old maps are *most likely *to be part of these phantom settlements in which map makers used to make to catch copyrighted material.



That is a big leap! Do you have any further substantial evidence to corroborate your idea?


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## NigeWz (Mar 4, 2021)

That's a huge call. How do ANY of us know that ANY map ever drawn is accurate?
I don't think for a second that early maps were drawn by guys on ships. We know that air-balloons were around for a long time before the scum caused the Hindenberg 'disaster' in 1937. It seems to me that if you wanted to draw a fairly accurate map, then using an air-balloon would perhaps be the best way to go about it.


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## veeall (Mar 4, 2021)

I think there's a methodology for coming up with these explanations: make it simplistic, easily comprehensible at first sight, let it sound trivial and obvious, mundane to the point the target audience will feel ashamed at 'almost' falling into believing a conspiracy theory. Try not to excite, kill the interest with boring story.


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## Hidden Rabbit (Mar 4, 2021)

The main problem of Cartography is that Cartography is not possible. 
You need to fly in a hot air balloon, airship, airplane with a camera to draw a map. Have you ever seen the quality of the map? Excellent work in the most inaccessible places  

I heard that before the 1st World War there was a lesson for the military, to walk from city to city with a stopwatch to find out the real distance in places of interest to you.  However, there were maps of incomprehensible seas, mountains, rivers, swamps)) 

Disappeared cities, villages are normal. It's just need to look for better on different maps. 
Destroying, hiding, renaming, building up the star's fortresses with Football Stadiums is their favorite event.


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## veeall (Mar 5, 2021)

I'm not sure this 'Map Traps' concept works in real life, maybe in miniscule scale, few minor bogus feats on the map, but over time they still would accumulate on copies of the copies of the copies, discrediting map authors and defeating the whole idea of mapmaking. Just imagine all mapmakers having this secret copyright-holder agenda, each one faking few parts, afterwards, others compiling the presented data from different accounts into their 'updated' maps. And to think, this all supposedly happening while serving the upper class customers/employers - just doesn't seem very feasible in the long run.


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## Hidden Rabbit (Mar 5, 2021)

And more, the officials draw such "Egyptian" pictures of the building of super-objects 

 Some house. Super industrial constructs and  primitive after-catastrophe house 

Music Pause.


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## wild heretic (Mar 5, 2021)

Draco said:


> In conclusion: all those missing islands from old maps are most likely to be part of these phantom settlements in which map makers used to make to catch copyrighted material.



No. 

1. Scale of changes are too big. 
2. Old maps seem to be often a collection of sources put together. Some are carbon copies of old maps, or parts thereof. Some are made purely from information from one voyage, e.g. Captain Cook or Captain Bering, some purely from a number of voyages.


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## tobyahnah (Mar 6, 2021)

Draco said:


> What is a map trap?
> “Map traps, trap streets, phantom settlements, cartographer’s follies and copyright easter eggs are the cartographer’s watermark. They are created to ‘trap’ anyone copying their work - their inclusion in someone else’s map serves as proof that the map has been copied.”
> 
> source:Maps, Traps & Phantom Settlements
> ...


Another explanation for the 'watermark' explanation, from Wiki and others, could be a false flag operation to 'debunk' the entire concept, and possibility, of Stolen History. The longer one looks at 'History' the more questions there are about it's veracity and/or truth.


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## fabiorem (Apr 2, 2021)

Zermund said:


> Copyright is a modern phenomenon.
> To make books valuable, they were often attributed to other writers (mostly ancient ones) in ancient times.
> Anyway, they worked together on maps.
> No cartographer could draw the world by his own vision.
> ...




They were sometimes anonymous as well, or used trade sigils in place of an author's name. The sigil indicated a guild which made the treatise, which was then dedicated to its apprentices.


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## Worsaae (Apr 2, 2021)

If they include watermarks to figure out fakes, then does it not stand to reason that they do the same in historical books? Fake persons? Fake events?


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