Cartography
"Mapmaker" redirects here. For other
uses, see Mapmaker
(disambiguation).
"Cartographer" redirects
here. For the album by E.S. Posthumus, see
Cartographer.
The oldest original cartographic artifact in the Library of Congress:
a nautical chart of the Mediterranean Sea. Second quarter of the
fourteenth century.
Cartography (in Greek chartis
= map and graphein = write) is the study and practice of making geographical maps.
Combining science, aesthetics, and
technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in
ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
The fundamental
problems of cartography are to:- Set the map's agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing. Traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries.
- Represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections.
- Eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the map's purpose. This is the concern of generalization.
- Reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization.
- Orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of map design.
A. History
Copy (1475) of St. Isidore's TO map of
the world.
The earliest known map is a matter of some debate, both
because the definition of "map" is not sharp and because some
artifacts speculated to be maps might actually be something else. A wall
painting, which may depict the ancient Anatolian city of Çatalhöyük (previously known as Catal Huyuk or
Çatal Hüyük), has been dated to the late 7th millennium BCE.[1][2] Other known maps of the ancient world
include the Minoan “House
of the Admiral” wall painting from c. 1600 BCE, showing a seaside community in
an oblique perspective and an engraved map of the holy Babylonian city of Nippur, from the Kassite period (14th – 12th centuries BCE).[3]
The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps, beginning at latest with Anaximander in the 6th century BC.[4] In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy produced his treatise on cartography, Geographia. [5] This contained Ptolemy's world map
- the world then known to Western society (Ecumene). As early as the 700s, Arab
scholars were translating the works of the Greek
geographers into Arabic.[6]
In ancient China,
geographical literature spans back to the 5th century BC. The oldest extant
Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated
back to the 4th century BC, during the Warring States Period.
In the book of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, published in 1092 by the Chinese
scientist Su Song, a star map on the equidistant cylindrical
projection.[7][8] Although this method of charting seems
to have existed in China even prior to this publication and scientist, the
greatest significance of the star maps by Su Song, is that they represent the
oldest existent star maps in printed form.
Early forms of cartography of India
included legendary paintings; maps of locations described in Indian epic poetry, for example, the Ramayana.[9] Indian cartographic traditions also
covered the locations of the Pole star, and other
constellations of use.[10] These charts may have been in use by
the beginning of the Common Era for purposes
of navigation.[10]
Mappa mundi is the general term used to describe
Medieval European maps of the world. Approximately 1,100 mappae mundi are known
to have survived from the Middle Ages. Of these,
some 900 are found illustrating manuscripts and the remainder exist as
stand-alone documents (Woodward, p. 286).
The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi
for Roger II of Sicily
in 1154.
The Arab geographer,
Muhammad al-Idrisi,
produced his medieval atlas Tabula Rogeriana in 1154. He incorporated
the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Far East, gathered by Arab merchants
and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to
create the most accurate map of the world up until his time. It remained the
most accurate world map for the next three centuries.[11]
In the Age of Exploration,
from the 15th century to the 17th century, European cartographers both copied earlier maps (some of
which had been passed down for centuries) and drew their own based on
explorers' observations and new surveying techniques. The
invention of the magnetic compass,
telescope and sextant enabled increasing accuracy. In 1492, Martin Behaim, a German cartographer, made the
oldest extant globe of the Earth.[12]
Johannes Werner
refined and promoted the Werner map projection. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller
produced a globular world map and a large 12-panel world wall map (Universalis
Cosmographia) bearing the first use of the name
"America". Portuguese cartographer, Diego Ribero, was author of the first known
planisphere with a graduated Equator (1527). Italian
cartogapher Battista Agnese
produced at least 71 manuscript atlases of sea charts.
Due to the sheer physical difficulties inherent in cartography, map-makers
frequently lifted material from earlier works without giving credit to the
original cartographer. For example, one of the most famous early maps of North America is unofficially known as the "Beaver
Map", published in 1715 by Herman Moll. This map is an exact reproduction
of a 1698 work by Nicolas
de Fer. De Fer in turn had copied images that were first printed in
books by Louis Hennepin,
published in 1697, and François
Du Creux, in 1664. By the 1700s, map-makers started to give credit
to the original engraver by printing the phrase "After [the original
cartographer]" on the work.
The oldest original cartographic artifact in the Library of Congress: a nautical
chart of the Mediterranean Sea - second quarter of the
fourteenth century Cartography (from Greek
χάρτης chartis, "map"; and γράφειν graphein,
"write"), or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human story
for a long time, possibly up to 8,000 years.[1] From cave
paintings to ancient maps of Babylon, Greece, and Asia, through the Age of Exploration, and on into the twenty-first
century, people have created and used maps as the essential tools to help them
define, explain, and navigate their way through the world. According to some
scholars,[who?] mapping represented a
significant step forward in the intellectual development of human beings and it
serves as a record of the advancement of knowledge of the human race, which
could be passed from members of one generation to those that follow in the
development of culture.
Maps began as two dimensional drawings. Although that remains the nature of
most maps, modern graphics have enabled projections beyond that.
B. Earliest known maps
The earliest known maps are of the heavens, not the
earth. Dots dating to 16,500 BCE found on the walls of the Lascaux caves map out part of the night sky,
including the three bright stars Vega, Deneb,
and Altair (the Summer Triangle asterism), as well as the Pleiades
star cluster. The Cuevas de El Castillo
in Spain
contain a dot map of the Corona Borealis
constellation dating from 12,000 BCE.[2][3][4]
Cave painting and rock carvings used simple visual
elements that may have aided in recognizing landscape features, such as hills
or dwellings.[5] A map-like representation of a
mountain, river, valleys and routes around Pavlov in the Czech Republic has been dated to 25,000 BP, and a 14,000 BP polished chunk of sandstone from a cave in Spanish Navarre may represent similar features
superimposed on animal etchings, although it may also represent a spiritual
landscape, or simple incisings.[6][7]
Another ancient picture that resembles a map was created
in the late 7th millennium BCE
in Çatalhöyük, Anatolia, modern Turkey. This wall painting may represent a plan of this
Neolithic village; [8] however, recent scholarship has
questioned the identification of this painting as a map.[9]
Whoever visualized the Çatalhöyük "mental map"
may have been encouraged by the fact that houses in Çatalhöyük were clustered
together and were entered via flat roofs. Therefore, it was normal for the
inhabitants to view their city from a bird's eye view. Later civilizations
followed the same convention; today, almost all maps are drawn as if we are
looking down from the sky instead of from a horizontal or oblique perspective.
The logical advantage of such a perspective is that it provides a view of a greater
area, conceptually. There are exceptions: one of the "quasi-maps" of
the Minoan civilization
on Crete, the “House of the Admiral” wall painting,
dating from c. 1600 BCE, shows a seaside community in an oblique
perspective.
C. Ancient Near East
Maps in Ancient Babylonia were made by using accurate surveying techniques. For example, a 7.6 ×
6.8 cm clay tablet found in
1930 at Ga-Sur,
near contemporary Kirkuk, shows a map of a river valley between
two hills. Cuneiform inscriptions label the features on the
map, including a plot of land described as 354 iku (12 hectares) that was owned
by a person called Azala. Most scholars date the tablet to the twenty-fifth to
twenty-fourth century BCE; Leo Bagrow
dissents with a date of 3800 BCE.[page needed]
Hills are shown by overlapping semicircles, rivers by lines, and cities by
circles. The map also is marked to show the cardinal directions.[1]
An engraved map from the Kassite period (fourteenth–twelfth centuries BCE) of Babylonian history
shows walls and buildings in the holy city of Nippur.[11]
In contrast, the Babylonian World Map,
the earliest surviving map of the world (c. 600 BCE), is a symbolic, not a
literal representation. It deliberately omits peoples such as the Persians and Egyptians, who were well known to the
Babylonians. The area shown is depicted as a circular shape surrounded by
water, which fits the religious image of the world in which the Babylonians believed.
Examples of maps from ancient Egypt
are quite rare, however, those that have survived show an emphasis on geometry
and well developed surveying techniques, perhaps stimulated by the need to
re-establish the exact boundaries of properties after the annual Nile floods. The Turin Papyrus Map, dated c. 1300 BCE, shows
the mountains east of the Nile where gold and silver were mined, along with the
location of the miners' shelters, wells, and the road network that linked the
region with the mainland. Its originality can be seen in the map's
inscriptions, its precise orientation, and the use of colour.
D. Ancient Greece
1. Early Greek Literature
In reviewing the literature of early geography and early conceptions of the
earth, all sources lead to Homer, who is considered by
many (Strabo, Kish,
and Dilke) as the founding father of Geography.
Regardless of the doubts about Homer's existence, one thing is certain: he
never was a mapmaker. The enclosed map, which represents the conjectural view
of the Homeric world, was never created by him. It is an imaginary
reconstruction of the world as Homer described it in his two poems the Iliad
and the Odyssey. It is worth mentioning that each of
these writings involves strong geographic symbolism. They can be seen as
descriptive pictures of life and warfare in the Bronze Age and the illustrated plans of real
journeys. Thus, each one develops a philosophical view of the world, which
makes it possible to show this information in the form of a map.
The depiction of the earth conceived by Homer,
which was accepted by the early Greeks, represents a circular
flat disk surrounded by a constantly moving stream
of Ocean (Brown, 22), an idea which would be suggested by the
appearance of the horizon as it is seen from a mountaintop or from a seacoast.
Homer's knowledge of the Earth was very limited. He and his Greek
contemporaries knew very little of the earth beyond Egypt
as far south as the Libyan desert, the south-west coast of Asia Minor, and the northern boundary of the
Greek homeland. Furthermore, the coast of the Black Sea
was only known through myths and legends that circulated during his time. In
his poems there is no mention of Europe and Asia
as geographical concepts (Thompson, 21), and no mention of the Phoenicians
either (Thompson, 40). This seems strange if we recall that the origin of the
name Oceanus, a term used by Homer in his poems,
belonged to the Phoenicians (Thomson, 27). That is why the big part of Homer's
world that is portrayed on this interpretive map represents lands that border
on the Aegean Sea. It is worth noting that even through
Greeks believed that they were in the middle of the earth, they also thought
that the edges of the world's disk were inhabited by savage, monstrous barbarians and strange animals and monsters;
Homer's Odyssey mentions a great many of them.
Additional statements about ancient geography may be found in Hesiod's poems, probably written during the eighth century
BCE (Kirsh, 1). Through the lyrics of Works and Days and Theogony he shows to his contemporaries some
definite geographical knowledge. He introduces the names of such rivers as Nile,
Ister (Danube), the shores of the Bosporus, and the Euxine (Black Sea), the coast of
Gaul,
the island of Sicily, and a few other regions and rivers
(Keane, 6–7). His advanced geographical knowledge not only had predated Greek
colonial expansions, but also was used in the earliest Greek world maps,
produced by Greek mapmakers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus.
2. Early Greek maps
In classical antiquity, maps were drawn by Anaximander,
Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, Eratosthenes,
and Ptolemy
using both observations by explorers and a mathematical approach.
Early steps in the development of intellectual thought in ancient
Greece belonged to Ionians from their well-known city of Miletus in Asia Minor.
Miletus was placed favourably to absorb aspects
of Babylonian
knowledge and to profit from the expanding commerce of the Mediterranean.
The earliest ancient Greek who is said to have constructed a map of the world
is Anaximander of Miletus (c. 611–546 BCE), pupil of Thales. He believed
that the earth was a cylindrical form, like a stone pillar and suspended in
space.[12]
The inhabited part of his world was circular, disk-shaped, and presumably
located on the upper surface of the cylinder (Brown, 24).
Apparently, Anaximander was the first ancient Greek to draw a map of the
known world. It is for this reason that he is considered by many to be the
first mapmaker (Dilke, 23). A scarcity of archaeological and written evidence
prevents us from giving any assessment of his map. What we may presume is that
he portrayed land and sea in a map form. Unfortunately, any definite
geographical knowledge that he included in his map is lost as well. Although
the map has not survived, Hecataeus of Miletus (550–475 BCE) produced
another map fifty years later that he claimed was an improved version of the
map of his illustrious predecessor.
The world according to Hekatæus, 500 BCE
Hecatæus's map describes the earth as a circular plate with an encircling
Ocean and Greece
in the centre of the world. This was a very popular contemporary Greek
worldview, derived originally from the Homeric poems. Also, similar to many
other early maps in antiquity his map has no scale. As units of measurements,
this map used "days of sailing" on the sea and "days of
marching" on dry land (Goode, 2). The purpose of this map was to accompany
Hecatæus's geographical work that was called Periodos
Ges, or Journey Round the World (Dilke, 24). Periodos
Ges was divided into two books, "Europe" and "Asia",
with the latter including Libya,
the name of which was an ancient term for all of the known Africa.
The work follows the assumption of the author
that the world was divided into two continents, Asia and Europe.
He depicts the line between the Pillars of Hercules through the Bosporus, and
the Don River as a boundary between the two.
Hecatæus is the first known writer who thought that the Caspian flows into the
circumference ocean—an idea that persisted long into the Hellenic period. He
was particularly informative on the Black Sea,
adding many geographic places that already were known to Greeks through the
colonization process. To the north of the Danube,
according to Hecatæus, were the Rhipæan (gusty) Mountains, beyond which lived
the Hyperboreans—peoples of the far north. Hecatæus depicted the origin of the Nile River
at the southern circumference ocean. His view of the Nile
seems to have been that it came from the southern circumference ocean. This
assumption helped Hecatæus solve the mystery of the annual flooding of the Nile. He believed that the waves of the ocean were a
primary cause of this occurrence (Tozer, 63). It is worth mentioning that a
similar map based upon one designed by Hecataeus was intended to aid political
decision-making. According to Herodotus, it was engraved
upon a bronze tablet and was carried to Sparta
by Aristagoras during the revolt of the Ionian cities against Persian rule from 499 to 494 BCE.
The world according to Anaximenes, c. 500 BCE
Anaximenes of Miletus
(6th century BCE), who studied under Anaximander, rejected the views of his
teacher regarding the shape of the earth and instead, he visualized the earth
as a rectangular form supported by compressed air. What is interesting here is
that his incorrect idea about the shape of the world somehow persisted in the
form of how the contemporary maps are presented today. Most current maps are
limited to this rectangular shape (i.e. border of the map (neatline), computer
screen, or document page).
Pythagoras of Samos
(c. 560–480 BCE) speculated about the notion of a spherical earth with a
central fire at its core. He is also credited with the introduction of a model
that divides a spherical earth into five zones. One hot, two temperate, and two
cold—northern and southern. It seems likely that he illustrated his division in
the form of a map, however, no evidence of this has survived to the present.
Scylax, a sailor, made a
record of his Mediterranean voyages
in c. 515 BCE. This is the earliest known set of Greek periploi, or sailing instructions, which became
the basis for many future mapmakers, especially in the medieval period.[13]
The way in which the geographical knowledge of the Greeks
advanced from the previous assumptions of the Earth's shape was through
Herodotus and his conceptual view of the world. This map also did not survive
and many have speculated that it was never produced. A possible reconstruction
of his map is displayed below.
The world according to Herodotus,
440 BCE
Herodotus traveled very extensively, collecting information and documenting
his findings in his books on Europe, Asia, and Libya. He also combined his
knowledge with what he learned from the people he met. Herodotus wrote his Histories
in the mid-400s BCE. Although his work was dedicated to the story of long
struggle of the Greeks with the Persian Empire,
Herodotus also included everything he knew about the geography, history, and
peoples of the world. Thus, his work provides a detailed picture of the known
world of the fifth century BCE.
Herodotus rejected the prevailing view of most fifth century maps that the
earth is a circular plate surrounded by Ocean. In his work he describes the
earth as an irregular shape with oceans surrounding only Asia and Africa. He introduces names such as the Atlantic Sea
and the Erythrean Sea. He also divided the world into three
continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. He
depicted the boundary of Europe as the line from the Pillars of Hercules
through the Bosporus and the area between Caspian Sea and Indus River.
He regarded the Nile as the boundary between Asia and Africa.
He speculated that the extent of Europe was much greater than was assumed at
the time and left Europe's shape to be
determined by future research.
In the case of Africa, he believed that, except for the small stretch of
land in the vicinity of Suez,
the continent was in fact surrounded by water. However, he definitely disagreed
with his predecessors and contemporaries about its presumed circular shape. He
based his theory on the story of Pharaoh Necho II, the
ruler of Egypt between 609
and 594 BCE, who had sent Phoenicians to circumnavigate Africa.
Apparently, it took them three years, but they certainly did prove his idea. He
speculated that the Nile River started as far west as the Ister River in Europe and cut Africa through the middle. He was the first writer to
assume that the Caspian Sea was separated from other seas and he recognised
northern Scythia as one of the coldest
inhabited lands in the world.
Similar to his predecessors, Herodotus also made mistakes. He accepted a
clear distinction between the civilized Greeks in the centre of the earth and
the barbarians on the world's edges. In his Histories
we can see very clearly that he believed that the world became stranger and
stranger when one traveled away from Greece, until one reached the ends
of the earth, where humans behaved as savages.
3. Spherical Earth and Meridians
Whereas a number of previous Greek philosophers presumed the earth to be
spherical, Aristotle
(384–322 BCE) is the one to be credited with proving the Earth's sphericity.
Those arguments may be summarized as follows:
- The lunar eclipse is always circular
- Ships seem to sink as they move away from view and pass the horizon
- Some stars can be seen only from certain parts of the Earth.
A vital contribution to mapping the reality of the world came with a
scientific estimate of the circumference of the earth. This event has been
described as the first scientific attempt to give geographical studies a
mathematical basis. The man credited for this achievement was Eratosthenes
(275–195 BCE). As described by George
Sarton, historian of science, “there was among them [Eratosthenes's
contemporaries] a man of genius but as he was working in a new field they were
too stupid to recognize him” (Noble, 27). His work, including On the Measurement of the Earth
and Geographica,
has only survived in the writings of later philosophers such as Cleomedes and
Strabo. He was a
devoted geographer who set out to reform and perfect the map of the world.
Eratosthenes argued that accurate mapping, even if in two dimensions only,
depends upon the establishment of accurate linear measurements. He was able to
calculate the circumference of the Earth within 0.5 percent accuracy by
calculating the heights of shadows on different parts of the Egypt at a
given time. The first in Alexandria, the other further up the Nile, where reports of
a well into which the sun shone only at midsummer, long existed. Proximity to
the equator being the dynamics creating the effect. He had the distance between
the two shadows calculated and then their height. From this he determined the
difference in angle between the two points and calculated how large a circle
would be made by adding in the rest of the degrees to 360. His great
achievement in the field of cartography was the use of a new technique of
charting with meridians, his imaginary north–south lines,
and parallels,
his imaginary west–east lines.[14]
These axis lines were placed over the map of the earth with their origin in the
city of Rhodes
and divided the world into sectors. Then, Eratosthenes used these earth
partitions to reference places on the map. He also was the first person to
divide Earth correctly into five climatic regions: a torrid zone across the
middle, two frigid zones at extreme north and south, and two temperate bands in
between. He was also the first person to use the word "geography".
Claudius Ptolemy
(90–168 CE) thought that, with the aid of astronomy and mathematics, the earth
could be mapped very accurately. Ptolemy revolutionized the depiction of the
spherical earth on a map by using perspective projection, and suggested
precise methods for fixing the position of geographic features on its surface
using a coordinate system with parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.[5][15]
Ptolemy's eight-volume atlas Geographia
is a prototype of modern mapping and GIS. It included an index of place-names, with the latitude and
longitude of each place to guide the search, scale, conventional signs with
legends, and the practice of orienting maps so that north is at the top and
east to the right of the map—a universal custom today. Yet with all his
important innovations, however, Ptolemy was not infallible. His most important
error was a miscalculation of the circumference of the earth. He believed that Eurasia covered
180° of the globe, which convinced Christopher Columbus to sail across the
Atlantic to look for a simpler and faster way to travel to India. Had Columbus known that the
true figure was much greater, it is conceivable that he would never have set
out on his momentous voyage.
4. Roman Empire
In 2007, the Tabula Peutingeriana,
a 12th century replica of a 5th century map, was placed on the UNESCO Memory of
the World Register and displayed to the public for the first time. Although
well preserved and believed to be an accurate copy of an authentic original,
the scroll media it is on is so delicate now it must be protected at all times
from exposure to daylight.[16]
5. China
a. Earliest extant maps from the Qin State
The earliest known maps to have survived in China date to
the 4th century BCE.[17]
In 1986, seven ancient Chinese maps were found in an archeological excavation
of a Qin State tomb in what is now Fangmatian,
Dangchuan Xian, in the vicinity of Tianshui
City, Gansu province.[17]
Before this find, the earliest extant maps that were known came from the Mawangdui excavation in 1973, which found three
maps on silk dated to the 2nd century BCE in the early Han Dynasty.[17][18]
The 4th century BCE maps from the State of Qin were drawn with black ink on wooden
blocks.[19]
These blocks fortunately survived in soaking conditions due to underground
water that had seeped into the tomb; the quality of the wood had much to do
with their survival.[19]
After two years of slow-drying techniques, the maps were fully restored.[19]
The territory shown in the seven Qin maps overlap each
other.[20]
The maps display tributary river systems of the Jialing River in Sichuan province, in a total measured area of
107 by 68 km.[20]
The maps featured rectangular symbols encasing character names for the
locations of administrative counties.[20]
Rivers and roads are displayed with similar line symbols; this makes
interpreting the map somewhat difficult, although the labels of rivers placed
in order of stream flow are helpful to modern day cartographers.[21]
These maps also feature locations where different types of timber can be
gathered, while two of the maps state the distances in mileage to the timber sites.[18]
In light of this, these maps are perhaps the oldest economic maps
in the world since they predate Strabo's economic maps.[18]
b. Earliest geographical writing
In China, the
earliest known geographical Chinese writing dates back to the 5th century BCE,
during the beginning of the Warring
States (481–221 BCE).[22]
This was the 'Yu Gong' ('Tribute of Yu') chapter of the book Shu Jing (Classic of History). The book describes the
traditional nine provinces, their kinds of soil, their characteristic products
and economic goods, their tributary goods, their trades and vocations, their
state revenues and agricultural systems, and the various rivers and lakes
listed and placed accordingly.[22]
The nine provinces in the time of this geographical work was very small in
terrain size compared to what modern China occupies today. In fact, its
description pertained to areas of the Yellow
River, the lower valleys of the Yangtze, with the
plain between them and the Shandong Peninsula, and to the west the most
northern parts of the Wei River and the Han River were known (along with the southern
parts of modern day Shanxi
province).[22]
c. Earliest known reference to a map, or 'tu'
The oldest reference to a map in China comes from the 3rd century
BCE.[23]
This was the event of 227 BCE where Crown Prince Dan of Yan had his assassin Jing Ke visit
the court of the ruler of the State of Qin, who would become Qin Shi
Huang (r. 221–210 BCE). Jing Ke was to present the ruler of Qin with a
district map painted on a silk scroll, rolled up and held in a case where he
hid his assassin's dagger.[23]
Handing to him the map of the designated territory was the first diplomatic act
of submitting that district to Qin rule.[23]
Instead he attempted to kill Qin, an assassination plot that failed. From then
on maps are frequently mentioned in Chinese sources.[24]
Han Dynasty and period of division
An early Western Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) silk
map found in tomb 3 of Mawangdui, depicting the
Kingdom of Changsha and Kingdom of Nanyue in southern China (note: the south direction is
oriented at the top, north at the bottom).
The three Han Dynasty maps found at Mawangdui differ from the earlier Qin State
maps. While the Qin maps place the cardinal direction
of north at the top of the map, the Han maps are orientated with the southern
direction at the top.[18]
The Han maps are also more complex, since they cover a much larger area, employ
a large number of well-designed map symbols, and include additional information
on local military sites and the local population.[18]
The Han maps also note measured distances between certain places, but a formal graduated scale and rectangular grid system for
maps would not be used—or at least described in full—until the 3rd century (see
Pei Xiu below).[25]
Among the three maps found at Mawangdui was a small map representing the tomb
area where it was found, a larger topographical map showing the Han's borders
along the subordinate Kingdom of Changsha and the
Nanyue kingdom (of northern Vietnam and parts of modern Guangdong and Guangxi), and a map which marks the positions of
Han military garrisons that were employed in an attack against Nanyue in 181
BCE.[26]
An early text that mentioned maps was the Rites of Zhou.[23]
Although attributed to the era of the Zhou Dynasty, its first recorded appearance was
in the libraries of Prince Liu De (c. 130 BCE), and was compiled and
commented on by Liu Xin in the 1st century CE. It outlined the
use of maps that were made for governmental provinces and districts,
principalities, frontier boundaries, and even pinpointed locations of ores and
minerals for mining facilities.[23]
Upon the investiture of three of his sons as feudal princes in 117 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han had maps of the entire empire
submitted to him.[27]
From the 1st century CE onwards, official Chinese historical texts
contained a geographical section (Diliji), which was often an enormous
compilation of changes in place-names and local administrative divisions
controlled by the ruling dynasty, descriptions of mountain ranges, river
systems, taxable products, etc.[28]
From the time of the 5th century BCE Shu Jing forward, Chinese
geographical writing provided more concrete information and less legendary
element. This example can be seen in the 4th chapter of the Huainanzi (Book of the Master of Huainan),
compiled under the editorship of Prince Liu An in 139 BCE during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–202 CE). The chapter gave
general descriptions of topography in a systematic
fashion, given visual aids by the use of maps (di tu) due to the efforts of Liu
An and his associate Zuo Wu.[29]
In Chang Chu's
Hua Yang Guo Chi (Historical Geography of Szechuan)
of 347 CE, not only rivers, trade routes, and various tribes were described,
but it also wrote of a 'Ba Jun Tu Jing' ('Map of Szechuan'), which had been
made much earlier in 150 CE.[30]
Local mapmaking such as the one of Szechuan
mentioned above, became a widespread tradition of Chinese geographical works by
the 6th century, as noted in the bibliography of the Sui Shu.[31]
It is during this time of the Southern and
Northern Dynasties that the Liang Dynasty (502–557 CE) cartographers also
began carving maps into stone steles (alongside the maps already drawn and
painted on paper and silk).[32]
Pei Xiu, the 'Ptolemy of China'
In the year 267, a Pei Xiu (224–271) was
appointed as the Minister of Works by Emperor Wu of Jin, the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty.
Pei is best
known for his work in cartography. Although map making and use of the grid
existed in China before him,[33]
he was the first to mention a plotted geometrical grid and graduated scale
displayed on the surface of maps to gain greater accuracy in the estimated
distance between different locations.[34]
Pei outlined
six principles that should be observed when creating maps, two of which
included the rectangular grid and the graduated scale for measuring distance.[35]
Historians compare him to the Greek Ptolemy for his contributions in
cartography.[36]
However, Howard Nelson states that, although the accounts of earlier
cartographic works by the inventor and official Zhang Heng (78–139) are somewhat vague and
sketchy, there is ample written evidence that Pei Xiu derived the use of the
rectangular grid reference from the maps of Zhang Heng.[37]
Robert Temple also asserts that Zhang created a mathematical reference grid for
maps before Pei Xiu.[38]
Later Chinese ideas about the quality of maps made during the Han Dynasty
and before stem from the assessment given by Pei Xiu, which was not a positive
one.[39]
Pei Xiu noted that the extant Han maps at his disposal were of little use since
they featured too many inaccuracies and exaggerations in measured distance
between locations.[39]
However, the Qin State maps and Mawangdui maps of the Han
era were far superior in quality than those examined by Pei Xiu.[39]
It was not until the 20th century that Pei Xiu's 3rd century assessment of
earlier maps' dismal quality would be overturned and disproven. The Qin and Han
maps did have a degree of accuracy in scale and pinpointed location, but the major
improvement in Pei Xiu's work and that of his contemporaries was expressing
topographical elevation on maps.[40]
Sui and Tang dynasties
In the year 605, during the Sui Dynasty (581–618), the Commercial
Commissioner Pei Ju (547–627) created a famous geometrically
gridded map.[32]
In 610 CE Emperor Yang of Sui
ordered government officials from throughout the empire to document in gazetteers the customs, products, and
geographical features of their local areas and provinces, providing descriptive
writing and drawing them all onto separate maps, which would be sent to the imperial secretariat in the
capital city.[31][41]
The Tang
Dynasty (618–907) also had its fair share of cartographers, including the
works of Xu
Jingzong in 658 CE, Wang Mingyuan in 661 CE, and Wang
Zhongsi in 747 CE.[32]
Arguably the greatest geographer and cartographer of the Tang period was Jia Dan
(730–805), whom Emperor Dezong of Tang entrusted in 785 to
complete a map of China with her recently former inland colonies of Central
Asia, the massive and detailed work completed in 801 CE, called the Hai Nei
Hua Yi Tu (Map of both Chinese and Barbarian Peoples within the (Four)
Seas).[32]
The map was 30 ft long and 33 ft (10 m) high in dimension, mapped out
on a grid scale of 1-inch (25 mm) equaling 100 li (unit)
(the Chinese equivalent of the mile/kilometer).[32]
Jia Dan is also known for having described the Persian
Gulf region with great detail, along with lighthouses that were erected at
the mouth of the Persian Gulf by the medieval Iranians in the Abbasid period
(refer to article on Tang Dynasty for more).
Song Dynasty
During
the Song
Dynasty (960–1279 CE) Emperor Taizu of Song ordered Lu Duosun in 971 CE to update and
're-write all the Tu Jing in the world', which would seem to be a daunting task
for one individual, who was sent out throughout the provinces to collect texts
and as much data as possible.[31]
With the aid of Song Zhun, the massive work was
completed in 1010 CE, with some 1566 chapters.[31]
The later Song Shi historical text stated (Wade-Giles
spelling):
Yuan Hsieh (d. +1220) was Director-General
of governmental grain stores. In pursuance of his schemes for the relief of
famines he issued orders that each pao (village) should prepare a map which
would show the fields and mountains, the rivers and the roads in fullest
detail. The maps of all the pao were joined together to make a map of the tu
(larger district), and these in turn were joined with others to make a map of
the hsiang and the hsien (still larger districts). If there was any trouble
about the collection of taxes or the distribution of grain, or if the question
of chasing robbers and bandits arose, the provincial officials could readily
carry out their duties by the aid of the maps.[31]
The Yu Ji Tu, or Map of the Tracks of Yu Gong,
carved into stone in 1137, located in the Stele Forest of Xian. This 3 ft
(0.91 m) squared map features a graduated scale of 100 li for
each rectangular grid. China's
coastline and river systems are clearly defined and precisely pinpointed on the
map. Yu Gong is in reference to the Chinese deity
described in the geographical chapter
of the Classic of History,
dated 5th century BCE.
Like the earlier Liang Dynasty stone-stele maps (mentioned above), there
were large and intricately carved stone stele maps of the Song period. For
example, the 3 ft (0.91 m) squared stone stele map of an anonymous
artist in 1137 CE, following the grid scale of 100 li squared for each grid
square.[42]
What is truly remarkable about this map is the incredibly precise detail of
coastal outlines and river systems in China
(refer to Needham's
Volume 3, Plate LXXXI for an image). The map shows 500 settlements and a dozen
rivers in China, and extends
as far as Korea and India. On the
reverse, a copy of a more ancient map uses grid coordinates in a scale of 1:1,500,000
and shows the coastline of China
with great accuracy.[43]
The famous 11th century scientist and polymath statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) was also a geographer and
cartographer.[44]
His largest atlas included twenty three maps of China and
foreign regions that were drawn at a uniform scale of 1:900,000.[45]
Shen also created a three dimensional
raised-relief map
using sawdust, wood, beeswax, and wheat paste, while representing the
topography and specific locations of a frontier region to the imperial court.[45]
Shen Kuo's contemporary, Su Song (1020–1101), was a
cartographer who created detailed maps in order to resolve a territorial border
dispute between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty.[46]
Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties
The Da
Ming hunyi tu map, dating from about 1390, is in multicolour. The
horizontal scale is 1:820,000 and the vertical scale is 1:1,060,000.[43]
In 1579, Luo
Hongxian published the Guang Yutu
atlas, including more than 40 maps, a grid system, and a systematic way of
representing major landmarks such as mountains, rivers, roads and borders. The
Guang Yutu incorporates the discoveries of naval explorer Zheng He's 15th century voyages along the coasts
of China, Southeast
Asia, India and Africa.[43]
From the 16th and 17th centuries, several examples survive of maps focused
on cultural information. Gridlines are not used on either Yu Shi's
Gujin
xingsheng zhi tu (1555) or Zhang Huang's
Tushu bian
(1613); instead, illustrations and annotations show mythical places, exotic
foreign peoples, administrative changes and the deeds of historic and legendary
heroes.[43]
Also in the 17th century, an edition of a possible Tang Dynasty map shows clear
topographical contour lines.[47]
Although topographic features were part of maps in China
for centuries, a Fujian county official Ye Chunji (1532–1595) was the first to base
county maps using on-site topographical surveying and observations.[48]
The Korean made Kangnido based on two Chinese maps, which
describes the Old World.India
The pundit (explorer) cartographer Nain Singh Rawat (19th century CE) received a Royal Geographical
Society gold medal in 1876.
Main
article: Cartography of India
Early forms of cartography in India included legendary
paintings; maps of locations described in Indian epic poetry, for example the Ramayana.[49]
These works contained descriptions of legendary places, and often even described
the nature of the mythological inhabitants of a particular location.[49]
The Indians made maps related to both their holy scriptures, the Puranas, and for astronomy.[49]
Indian cartographic traditions also covered the locations of the Pole star, and other constellations of use.[50]
These charts may have been in use by the beginning of the Common Era for purposes of navigation.[50]
Detailed maps of considerable length describing the locations of
settlements, sea shores, rivers, and mountains were also made.[49]
The 8th century scholar Bhavabhuti conceived
paintings which indicated geographical regions.[51]
European scholar Francesco I reproduced a number of ancient Indian maps in
his magnum opus La Cartografia Antica dell India.[51]
Out these maps, two have been reproduced using a manuscript of Lokaprakasa,
originally compiled by the polymath Ksemendra (Kashmir, 11th century CE), as a source.[51]
The other manuscript, used as a source by Francesco I, is titled Samgrahani.[51]
The early volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica also described
cartographic charts made by the Dravidian people of India.[50]
Maps from the Ain-e-Akbari, a Mughal document detailing India's history
and traditions, contain references to locations indicated in earlier Indian
cartographic traditions.[51]
Another map describing the kingdom of Nepal, four feet in length and about
two and a half feet in breadth, was presented to Warren Hastings.[49]
In this map the mountains were elevated above the surface, and several
geographical elements were indicated in different colors.
Islamic cartography
Main
article: Geography in medieval Islam
In the Middle Ages, Muslim scholars continued and advanced on the mapmaking
traditions of earlier cultures. Most used Ptolemy's methods; but they also took
advantage of what explorers and merchants learned in their travels across the
Muslim world, from Spain to India to Africa, and beyond in trade relationships
with China, and Russia.[13]
An important influence in the development of cartography was the patronage of the Abbasid caliph, al-Ma'mun, who reigned
from 813 to 833. He commissioned several geographers to remeasure the distance
on earth that corresponds to one degree of celestial meridian. Thus his
patronage resulted in the refinement of the definition of the mile
used by Arabs (mīl in Arabic) in comparison to the stadion used
by Greeks. These efforts also enabled Muslims to calculate the circumference of
the earth. Al-Mamun also commanded the production of a large map of the world,
which has not survived,[52]
though it is known that its map projection type was based on Marinus of Tyre rather than Ptolemy.[53]
The first terrestrial globe of the Old World was also constructed in the Muslim world during the Middle Ages,[54]
by Muslim astronomers
and geographers working under Caliph al-Ma'mun in the 9th century.[55]
His most famous geographer was Muhammad ibn
Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (see Book on the appearance of the Earth below).
Also in the 9th century, the Persian
mathematician and geographer, Habash al-Hasib
al-Marwazi, employed the use spherical trigonometry
and map projection methods in order to convert polar coordinates
to a different coordinate system centred on a specific point on the sphere, in
this the Qibla, the direction to Mecca.[56]
Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī
(973–1048) later developed ideas which are seen as an anticipation of the polar
coordinate system.[57]
Around 1025 CE, he was the first to describe a polar equi-azimuthal
equidistant projection of the celestial sphere.[58]
In the early tenth century, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī,
originally from Balkh, founded the "Balkhī school" of
terrestrial mapping in Baghdad. The geographers of
this school also wrote extensively of the peoples, products, and customs of
areas in the Muslim world, with little interest in the non-Muslim realms.[52]
The "Balkhī school", which included geographers such as Estakhri, al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Hawqal, produced world atlases,
each one featuring a world map and twenty
regional maps.[59]
Suhrāb, a late tenth century Muslim geographer, accompanied a book of
geographical coordinates with
instructions for making a rectangular world map, with equirectangular
projection or cylindrical cylindrical equidistant projection.[52]
The earliest surviving rectangular coordinate map is dated to the 13th century
and is attributed to Hamdallah al-Mustaqfi al-Qazwini, who based it on the work of Suhrāb. The
orthogonal parallel lines were separated by one
degree intervals, and the map was limited to Southwest Asia and Central Asia. The earliest surviving world maps
based on a rectangular coordinate grid are attributed to al-Mustawfi in the
14th or 15th century (who used invervals of ten degrees for the lines), and to Hafiz-i-Abru (d. 1430).[60]
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368?) wrote
"Rihlah" (Travels) based on three decades of journeys, covering more
than 120,000 km through northern Africa, southern Europe, and much of Asia.
Technological changes
A pre-Mercator nautical chart of 1571, from
Portuguese cartographer Fernão
Vaz Dourado
(c. 1520-c.1580). It belongs
to the so-called plane chart model, where observed latitudes and
magnetic directions are plotted directly into the plane, with a constant scale,
as if the Earth were plane (Portuguese National Archives of Torre do Tombo, Lisbon).
In
cartography, technology has continually changed in order to meet the demands of
new generations of mapmakers and map users. The first maps were manually
constructed with brushes and parchment; therefore, varied in quality and were
limited in distribution. The advent of magnetic devices, such as the compass and much
later, magnetic storage devices, allowed for the creation
of far more accurate maps and the ability to store and manipulate them
digitally.
Advances
in mechanical devices such as the printing
press, quadrant and vernier,
allowed for the mass production of maps and the ability to make accurate
reproductions from more accurate data. Optical technology, such as the telescope, sextant and other
devices that use telescopes, allowed for accurate surveying of land and the
ability of mapmakers and navigators to find their latitude by
measuring angles to the North Star at night or the sun at noon.
Advances
in photochemical technology, such as the lithographic
and photochemical
processes, have allowed for the creation of maps that have fine details, do
not distort in shape and resist moisture and wear. This also eliminated the
need for engraving, which further shortened the time it takes to make and
reproduce maps.
Advances
in electronic technology in the 20th century ushered in another revolution in
cartography. Ready availability of computers and peripherals such as monitors,
plotters, printers, scanners (remote and document) and analytic stereo
plotters, along with computer programs for visualization, image processing,
spatial analysis, and database management, have democratized and greatly
expanded the making of maps. The ability to superimpose spatially located
variables onto existing maps created new uses for maps and new industries to
explore and exploit these potentials. See also: digital raster graphic.
These
days most commercial-quality maps are made using software that falls into one of three main
types: CAD, GIS and specialized illustration software. Spatial information can be stored
in a database,
from which it can be extracted on demand. These tools lead to increasingly
dynamic, interactive maps
that can be manipulated digitally.
Map types
General vs thematic cartography
Small section of
an orienteering map.
Topographic map
of Easter
Island.
In understanding basic maps, the
field of cartography can be divided into two general categories: general
cartography and thematic cartography. General cartography involves those maps
that are constructed for a general audience and thus contain a variety of
features. General maps exhibit many reference and location systems and often
are produced in a series. For example, the 1:24,000 scale topographic maps of
the United States Geological Survey
(USGS) are a standard as compared to the 1:50,000 scale Canadian maps. The
government of the UK
produces the classic 1:63,360 (1 inch to 1 mile) "Ordnance
Survey" maps of the entire UK and with a range of correlated
larger- and smaller-scale maps of great detail.Thematic cartography involves maps of specific geographic themes, oriented toward specific audiences. A couple of examples might be a dot map showing corn production in Indiana or a shaded area map of Ohio counties, divided into numerical choropleth classes. As the volume of geographic data has exploded over the last century, thematic cartography has become increasingly useful and necessary to interpret spatial, cultural and social data.
An orienteering map combines both general and thematic cartography, designed for a very specific user community. The most prominent thematic element is shading, that indicates degrees of difficulty of travel due to vegetation. The vegetation itself is not identified, merely classified by the difficulty ("fight") that it presents.
Topographic vs topological
A topographic map is primarily concerned with the topographic description of a place, including (especially in the 20th century) the use of contour lines showing elevation. Terrain or relief can be shown in a variety of ways (see Cartographic relief depiction).A topological map is a very general type of map, the kind you might sketch on a napkin. It often disregards scale and detail in the interest of clarity of communicating specific route or relational information. Beck's London Underground map is an iconic example. Though the most widely used map of "The Tube," it preserves little of reality. It varies scale constantly and abruptly, it straightens curved tracks, and it contorts directions haphazardly. The only traits the map preserves are the order of the stations and crossings along the tracks and whether a station or crossing is north or south of the River Thames. Yet those are all a typical passenger wishes to know, so the map fulfills its purpose.[14]
Map design
Illustrated map.
Arthur H. Robinson, an American cartographer
influential in thematic cartography, stated that a map not properly designed
"will be a cartographic failure." He also claimed, when considering
all aspects of cartography, that "map design is perhaps the most
complex."[15] Robinson codified the mapmaker's
understanding that a map must be designed foremost with consideration to the
audience and its needs.From the very beginning of mapmaking, maps "have been made for some particular purpose or set of purposes".[16] The intent of the map should be illustrated in a manner in which the percipient acknowledges its purpose in a timely fashion. The term percipient refers to the person receiving information and was coined by Robinson.[17] The principle of figure-ground refers to this notion of engaging the user by presenting a clear presentation, leaving no confusion concerning the purpose of the map. This will enhance the user’s experience and keep his attention. If the user is unable to identify what is being demonstrated in a reasonable fashion, the map may be regarded as useless.
Making a meaningful map is the ultimate goal. Alan MacEachren explains that a well designed map "is convincing because it implies authenticity" (1994, pp. 9). An interesting map will no doubt engage a reader. Information richness or a map that is multivariate shows relationships within the map. Showing several variables allows comparison, which adds to the meaningfulness of the map. This also generates hypothesis and stimulates ideas and perhaps further research. In order to convey the message of the map, the creator must design it in a manner which will aid the reader in the overall understanding of its purpose. The title of a map may provide the "needed link" necessary for communicating that message, but the overall design of the map fosters the manner in which the reader interprets it (Monmonier, 1993, pp. 93).
In the 21st century it is possible to find a map of virtually anything from the inner workings of the human body to the virtual worlds of cyberspace. Therefore there are now a huge variety of different styles and types of map - for example, one area which has evolved a specific and recognisable variation are those used by public transport organisations to guide passengers, namely urban rail and metro maps, many of which are loosely based on 45 degree angles as originally perfected by Harry Beck and George Dow
Naming conventions
Most maps use text to label places and for such things as a map title, legend and other information. Maps are often made in specific languages, though names of places often differ between languages. So a map made in English may use the name Germany for that country, while a German map would use Deutschland and a French map Allemagne. A word that describes a place, using a non-native terminology or language is referred to as an exonym.In some cases the proper name is not clear. For example, the nation of Burma officially changed its name to Myanmar, but many nations do not recognize the ruling junta and continue to use Burma. Sometimes an official name change is resisted in other languages and the older name may remain in common use. Examples include the use of Saigon for Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok for Krung Thep and Ivory Coast for Côte d'Ivoire.
Difficulties arise, when transliteration or transcription between writing systems is required. National names tend to have well established names in other languages and writing systems, such as Russia for Росси́я, but for many placenames a system of transliteration or transcription is required. In transliteration, the symbols of one language are represented by symbols in another. For example, the Cyrillic letter Р is traditionally written as R in the Latin alphabet. Systems exist for transliteration of Arabic, but the results may vary. For example, the Yemeni city of Mocha is written variously in English as Mocha, Al Mukha, al-Mukhā, Mocca and Moka. Transliteration systems are based on relating written symbols to one another, while transcription is the attempt to spell in one language the phonetic sounds of another. Chinese writing is transformed into the Latin alphabet through the Pinyin phonetic transcription systems. Other systems were used in the past, such as Wade-Giles, resulting in the city being spelled Beijing on newer English maps and Peking on older ones.
Further difficulties arise when countries, especially former colonies, do not have a strong national geographic naming standard. In such cases, cartographers may have to choose between various phonetic spellings of local names versus older imposed, sometimes resented, colonial names. Some countries have multiple official languages, resulting in multiple official placenames. For example, the capital of Belgium is both Brussels and Bruxelles. In Canada, English and French are official languages and places have names in both languages. British Columbia is also officially named la Colombie-Britannique. English maps rarely show the French names outside of Quebec, which itself is spelled Québec in French.[18]
The study of placenames is called toponymy, while that of the origin and historical usage of placenames as words is etymology.
Map symbology
The quality of a map’s design affects its reader’s ability to extract information and to learn from the map. Cartographic symbology has been developed in an effort to portray the world accurately and effectively convey information to the map reader. A legend explains the pictorial language of the map, known as its symbology. The title indicates the region the map portrays; the map image portrays the region and so on. Although every map element serves some purpose, convention only dictates inclusion of some elements, while others are considered optional. A menu of map elements includes the neatline (border), compass rose or north arrow, overview map, scale bar, projection and information about the map sources, accuracy and publication.When examining a landscape, scale can be intuited from trees, houses and cars. Not so with a map. Even such a simple thing as a north arrow is crucial. It may seem obvious that the top of a map should point north, but this might not be the case.
Color, likewise, is equally important. How the cartographer displays the data in different hues can greatly affect the understanding or feel of the map. Different intensities of hue portray different objectives the cartographer is attempting to get across to the audience. Today, personal computers can display up to 16 million distinct colors at a time, even though the human eye can distinguish only a minimum number of these (Jeer, 1997). This fact allows for a multitude of color options for even for the most demanding maps. Moreover, computers can easily hatch patterns in colors to give even more options. This is very beneficial, when symbolizing data in categories such as quintile and equal interval classifications.
Quantitative symbols give a visual measure of the relative size/importance/number that a symbol represents and to symbolize this data on a map, there are two major classes of symbols used for portraying quantitative properties. Proportional symbols change their visual weight according to a quantitative property. These are appropriate for extensive statistics. Choropleth maps portray data collection areas, such as counties or census tracts, with color. Using color this way, the darkness and intensity (or value) of the color is evaluated by the eye as a measure of intensity or concentration (Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2005).
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