The Itakian map

A map of the world, purported to be from the Third Age.
A controversial document, the map - if real - is obscenely rare, as the cataclysmic upheavals between the First and Second Ages have remade the world and destroyed any physical evidence of the people who lived there. While artefacts from these early Ages are unheard of, enough Third Age artefacts exist that this artefact's authenticity is a real and exciting possibility.

Authenticity

It's not the only map before the third cataclysm, but they're vanishingly rare.
While it is may never be possible to make a definitive confirmation of the tablet's authenticity, it remains controversial. Experts have tenatively confirmed that the writing is accurate to their best understanding of the alphabet and grammar, and the geographical changes have been compared to the best predictions of paleo-cartographers and found to be plausible.

Controversy

The provenance of the map is not without its detractors. It represents the earliest use of the word 'Easiteron' to describe the continent, a name which is not used again until the development of @Qêrpúian in the early Fourth Age. Further, it is asserted that repairs done while the tablet was placed in a domestic setting, and the modifications made to add brackets and shelves to it have delierately obscured evidence of modifications and later additions to the text. Some of the fainter detail work, alleged to be depictions of extinct beasts, is alternatively explained by a child drawing on the tablet while it was a table.

Historical Details

Background

Found in the provice of Itakia, by workers digging drainage ditches during the draining of the salt mashes in the south of the Theolisian peninsula, the tablet was not initially recognised as a potentially valuable historical artefact. Its decorative surface let to it being rescued from a spoil heap by one of the diggers, and gifted to his father for use as a table.
Following the owner's death, the table was gifted to his eldest child, who used it as an outdoor table, where the decoration was recognised as writing was recognised by a local Qā-Jāre priest with an interst in the history of the religion.

Type

Manuscript, Historical

Medium

Stone

Authoring Date

Alleged to be from the Third Age

Location

Theolisian peninsula