A map of Germany made after the Swedish Campaign of 1630–48

Summary

The Elizabethan small‐scale maps of towns, beginning with Cuningham's Norwich (1559) and ending with Speed's collection in his Theatre, are often underrated by historians. If used intelligently, these maps, which combine a ground plan with perspective drawing, can give much useful historical information, particularly about the main street pattern; fortifications or other buildings, since demolished; and the extent of suburban development. Large‐scale maps of this and later periods provide not only a reliable record of the changes in the street plan, but often depict the structure of houses or the various kinds of industrial undertakings, and give historical or statistical details of great importance. Many have borders filled with accurate engravings of buildings, since demolished. From the time of Leake's great survey of London (1665), but especially in the second half of the 18th century, an increasing number of towns had accurate surveys made at a scale of approximately 1: 5,000. The best of these show the house plots in detail, the relation of the built‐up area to the open spaces, and land use in the environs. In the first decades of the 19th century plans of the greatest detail and reliability were made for some of the larger towns on a scale of 1 : 2,500. All are valuable material for the student of social and economic history.     

Adversarial Map-Making in Pre-Reformation Lancashire

Abstract

'Adversarial Map-Making in Pre-Reformation Lancashire'. A map in the National Archives dated to 1531 showing part of the Fylde in Lancashire has been published on several occasions; but its relationship to another map in the National Archives has not previously been recognised. These two maps were made by the opposing parties in a dispute before the court of the Duchy of Lancaster, and may be the earliest examples of adversarial map-making in a case before an equity court. The case concerned land which had apparently long been regarded as intercommon, but which was now being claimed to be in exclusive ownership. The newly recognised map was made to illustrate recently acquired documentary evidence as to the ownership of the land in question. This map appears broadly trustworthy, and was accepted as such by the court; but the defence map seems rather to have been designed to mislead. In recent years the defence map has been regarded as evidence for the appearance of the locality concerned in the 1530s, but this study shows that it was in fact regarded by the court as unreliable, thus highlighting the need to treat all maps other than those actually commissioned by the courts themselves as partial and therefore suspect.     

Saxton's Maps of England and Wales: The Accuracy of Anglia and Britannia and Their Relationship to Each Other and to the County Maps

ABSTRACT

From measurements of the graticules on Saxton's two general maps of England and Wales—the atlas map Anglia and the wall map Britannia—together with other evidence, it is argued that neither map was drawn according to any specific projection, but that both were effectively produced as ‘flat-earth’ maps with the graticules superimposed afterwards. Digital versions of Saxton's maps and of a modern map, the 1:1 million Ordnance Survey transport map, are used in a number of comparisons by means of the computer program MapAnalyst. These comparisons allow the scales of the two Saxton maps to be determined. They also show that the maps are of almost the same accuracy in terms of the positioning of settlements, typically within about 4.6 kilometres, in spite of a difference in scale of a factor of about 3.6. This fact and the direct comparison of the two Saxton maps in MapAnalyst show that they are basically the same map, and it is concluded that a version of the wall map was the first to be drawn and that Anglia is a reduced copy prepared for the atlas. The lengths of Saxton's miles as used on the two maps are calculated and compared with other determinations. The relationship between the two general maps and the county maps is briefly considered, and it is provisionally concluded that the relationship is a close one.     

Mapping Medieval Geographies: Geographical Encounters in the Latin West and Beyond, 300‒1600

Abstract

As the most important specialized enterprise in eighteenth‐century Germany, the Homann map printing firm affords a good case for an investigation of the factors underlying map production. Commercial success seems to have rested on the production of maps which made a political statement as well as presenting geographical and topographical information. Publication of maps concerning specific events, such as sieges, or based on new surveys had no chance of success until the publishing firm had achieved commercial stability with its basic stock of maps.     

Changing mental maps of the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions

ABSTRACT

Little empirical research has considered the way in which macro-regions are perceived outside academic and political circles. Such studies alone can determine what regional narratives mean for the wider public, and the extent to which they coincide with region-building images produced by elites. This article examines the mental maps of high school seniors in 10 cities in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions, focusing upon their perception and knowledge of other countries in those areas. Despite efforts at region building since the Cold War, the two regions remain divided on mental maps. Students have little knowledge of countries across the sea from their own, although such knowledge is generally greater among those from coastal (and particularly island) locations. A comparison with maps constructed by Gould in 1966 reveals that the perception of countries within one's own region among Italian and Swedish students has become more negative over the last 50 years.     

Marshall islands navigational charts

Abstract

The discovery of an unpublished document is here used to propose a new interpretation of the production in Venice of world maps for Ottoman clients. It is suggested that three Ottoman princes had been interested in acquiring maps in Venice in the early 1550s as part of their struggle for succession to Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, and that these maps were different from the famous Hajji Ahmed map, prepared by Giacomo Gastaldi. It is also suggested that the persons involved in creating these maps did not (as previously asserted) include the Venetian publisher Giustinian, whose later attempt to publish Gastaldi's map was blocked for political, and not only religious, considerations.     

Maps and Memory: Readings of Cartography in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Song China

ABSTRACT

This essay traces the early history of the genre of the empire map in China, examines twelfth-century steles and printed maps of the Chinese territories, and analyses contemporary viewings and readings of maps in this genre. It argues that such maps reached a much broader readership of literate elites over the course of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and acquired new political significance as maps became powerful symbols in debates concerning the pros and cons of negotiated peace.     

Chronicle for 1993

Abstract

Theory is not a goal in itself but a means of enriching the history of cartography by stimulating new research questions and objectives. In this paper the concept of ‘transparent maps’ (carriers of an image of the external reality of the world) and ‘opaque maps’ is introduced. The notion is approached structurally (standards of graphical representation, drawing, geometry, text); through the sociology of the map (map makers, institutions, the public); and through seeing maps in their cultural and historical context (an approach which raises issues of the definitional boundaries of the history of cartography and which is arguably one of the most stimulating perspectives today as fostered by, in particular, contributors to the History of Cartography). Finally, attention is drawn to three important topics for the research agenda: the links between maps and culture; maps as a language of communication and as instruments of power; and the links between perception, logic and mnemonics.     

The China Maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville: Origins and Supporting Networks

Abstract

By 1735, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville had produced forty-one maps of the Qing Empire, or China, a process significantly more complex than scholars have hitherto appreciated. A close study of d’Anville’s maps and their originals has revealed their relationship with the different versions of a Chinese atlas, the first of which was completed early in 1718, the outcome of nearly a decade of collaborative surveying between officials of the Qing Empire and European missionaries. The precise origins of some of the maps are identified for the first time, and the network behind the remarkable intercontinental exchange of cartographical material that allowed d’Anville to produce his China maps is also discussed, thereby illustrating the central role of the French Jesuits, as well as the connection with St Petersburg.     

A Conservation Management Plan for Gordion and its Environs

Abstract

A Conservation Management Plan for Gordion and its Environs has been developed by a multidisciplinary team within a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania (both the School of Design and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) and Middle East Technical University (Faculty of Architecture) in Ankara. The project has involved a new approach to the protection of cultural material at the site itself, as well as the survey and documentation of a 140 km² area, with Gordion as its centre, to include the village of Yass?höyük and five nearby villages, historic sites, höyüks, or settlement mounds, and tumuli, or burial mounds. The project utilized photographs and standardized forms in the documentation of public and private buildings and areas. Based on this survey, the values of the site and its environs were reassessed, and an action plan presented for all project stakeholders. One of the primary stakeholders is the local population, who must be made aware of the damaging effects of deep ploughing to the tumuli.     

Academic Cartography,Internal Map History,and the Critical Study of Mapping Processes

ABSTRACT

Academic cartographers consistently expressed an interest in the history of map form (design and practice), at least until the 1980s. This essay reviews the formation of academic cartography, primarily in central Europe and the United States, and the scholarly work on the internal history of cartography that was clearly manifested in Imago Mundi. Internal map history catalysed the development of socio-cultural map histories after 1980 but did not itself change along those new lines. This was unfortunate because it is by paying attention to internal questions of the physical and graphic form of maps and the practices of mapping—albeit critically reconfigured as the processes of producing, circulating and consuming maps—that map historians will discover new and fertile intellectual ground.     

David Alfred Woodward (1942–2004)

Summary

In the documentation of historical phenomena and facts, maps and charts share their place with written records, objects, pictures, coins and some other material. In this paper, the graphic presentation in map form is compared with the written documentation.

As a contribution to the discussion about the rôle of maps and charts in the attribution of historical evidence, their rôle has been graded into six levels. The confusion about and the mistrust in the value of maps and charts as pieces of historical evidence may be remedied by dividing them into six categories of decreasing value.     

The Títulos de Ebtún,Yucatan, Mexico: Mapping Maya Communal Identity in a Colonial Spanish Notarial Context

ABSTRACT

The main focus in this article is on four maps from colonial Yucatan, Mexico (c.1542?1821). The maps illustrate a two-volume set of Maya notarial documents called the Títulos de Ebtún and concern disputed communal rights to Tontzimin, one of the sparse water sources (cenotes) of this arid limestone region, and its surrounding arable land. Mention is also made of two maps of the province of Mani that were included in treaties agreed with the Spanish authorities as a final record of Maya claims to traditional agricultural rights. Although all these maps were produced by Spanish officials, they relate to broader colonial mapping traditions in Yucatan and embody a clear Maya influence. At the same time, they reveal the effect of Maya mapping practices on Spanish notarial and mapping traditions at the close of the colonial period.     

Relief Maps and Models in the Archives of The Palestine Exploration Fund in London

Abstract

The primary objective of the article is to present the relief maps and models of Palestine, Jerusalem and some historical monuments, which are kept in the PEF Archives in London. We will describe each of these objects, try to identify its date, maker, and circumstances of its making. We will present them according to the site represented in them, but suggest also classifying them as (a) artifacts brought as souvenirs from Jerusalem; (b) models and relief maps created by the Fund and its members as a product of their scientific endeavours; and (c) models and relief maps created by scholars who were not directly connected with the PEF.     

Caspar Vopel's Ventures in Sixteenth-Century Celestial Cartography

ABSTRACT

This paper concerns the undertakings in celestial cartography of the sixteenth-century Cologne cartographer Caspar Vopel. Copies of his printed celestial globe and of the celestial maps included on his world map are also described. Vopel's celestial mappings display his extraordinary interest in astronomical myths through a series of conspicuous iconographic features. In particular, Vopel's introduction of the images of Antinous and Coma Berenices is revealed to have been inspired by a humanist edition of the Ptolemaic star catalogue. Finally, a study of the celestial maps on the copies of Vopel's world map by Valvassore (1558) and by Van den Putte (1570) shows that these represent different editions of Vopel's world map and that the celestial maps on the world map of Matteo Pagano were in turn copied from those on the world map of Valvassore.     

Monks on the move? An assessment of mobility at the medieval Nubian monastery of Ghazali,Sudan (ca. 680–1,275 CE)

The location of Ghazali monastery away from the Nile valley within the relatively isolated environs of the Bayuda desert presents a landscape suggestive of mobility toward the monastery by those who chose to reside there as monks. To assess this potentiality, a sample of 37 individuals from the monastic cemetery (Cemetery 2) were analysed for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O to assess residency during dental enamel formation. The data generated bring into question the nature of mobility to Ghazali monastery, particularly in regard to the potential movement of people from the Nile valley, adjacent desertic landscapes, and further afield.     

Mapping Sxwóxwiymelh: A Pre-contact Settlement in the Upper Fraser Valley,Southwestern British Columbia

Abstract

Maps and mapping are fundamental to archaeology. Archaeologists sometimes fail to recognize that the maps we use and create are fraught, like material culture, with interpretive complexities. These complexities arise from the fact that maps are created with social meaning dependent on the context in which the map was created and used. Here, we relate our experience with maps and mapmaking at the pithouse settlement of Sxwóxwiymelh, in southwestern British Columbia. We review the mapping history of the site, highlighting the contexts in which the maps were constructed and how they influenced subsequent interpretations of the site. We describe our deconstruction of these earlier maps and how we combined them to create a more accurate and detailed map that presented a rendition of the site as it was prior to significant modern development. This process of map deconstruction and construction allowed us to see several previously unknown details about the ancient settlement (e.g., house form, relative house size, and feature spacing) of Sxwóxwiymelh. In general, this process provides conceptual and practical lessons for incorporating previously collected map data into archaeological research.