Cockatoo discovery reveals flourishing medieval trade routes around Australia's north
June 25, 2018, University of Melbourne
Images of an Australasian cockatoo have been discovered in a manuscript dating from 13th century Sicily, now held in the Vatican library.
This finding reveals that trade in the waters in and around Australia's north was flourishing as far back as medieval times, linked into sea and overland routes to Indonesia, China, Egypt and beyond into Europe.
The four images of the white cockatoo feature in the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II of Sicily's De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds), which dates from between 1241 and 1248.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-cockatoo-discovery-reveals-flourishing-medieval.html#jCp
