History of Maps

Maps and atlases are fascinating things. They show us the beauty and grandness of the world. They make us feel small and in awe, because deep down we hate feeling like the center of the everything, we have the desire to find things bigger than ourselves to care about. Maps show us expansion and grandness. They show a world filled with opportunity and adventure waiting. Maps are a symbol of the existence of others and other interesting stories you will find outside if you only dared to explore.

How does cartography works?

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting in a small video Dave, a famous cartographer sees mapmaking as a love of the world. He looks at landscapes differently, identifying the unique features in them, that most people would overlook. He sees mapmaking as an art. Mapmaking is a process that requires planning, surveying areas, compiling data and reproducing that data visually, and thinking of the relationship between features in the landscape. The GPS conditions us to follow instructions rather than use of our own minds. In the past, you had the help of a map to get to a place, but your mind was actively participating, being aware ad mindful of the world and the things around you, and engaging with the environment. To find a place you needed to be alert, on a mini-quest finding the clues to your destination. Taking a map in your hand to go to a place was a small adventure. At this point in time, cartographers are special, they see and notice the details in the world, how they relate to each other, and the story they tell you. Maybe you are not a cartographer but feel encouraged to start noticing the world.

The history of maps

1st map ever- Babylonian 700-500 BCE

The oldest map that has been discovered has Babylonian origins it was made around 700 - 500 BCE. However, instead of being made to help you find a place and/or show Babylon accurately, the map works more like a tangible symbol of the nation. Naturally, this map shows Babylon as the central part of the world and covers a very short amount of territory.

If you think about it it makes sense. Travel in ancient times was hard given the lack of technologies and maps, cultures were very centralized around themselves, ignoring the existence of others, therefore, even if you lived in a small country, you might have thought the world revolved around your country and/ or surrounding nations because that is all you knew.

Erasthosthenes 220 BCE

Eratosthenes proved that the earth was round and estimated the shape and size of the earth, which was a great advancement in this science because although not fully accurate, his estimation was close to the truth. Another one of his great contributions was the idea of using parallels and meridians that would help locate places on the Earth.

Some people believe that thinking of your minuscule existence is an action of pessimism but in reality, it is an action of optimism in admiring the existence of millions of valuable things around you. It also is optimistic because thinking about others and other things makes you less selfish and more open to accepting and learning. Maps show us that there is a grand and beautiful world, filled with different places made by people who have dreams and stories of their own. They hint at the fascinating creatures and plants dwelling beyond our comfort zones. Maps show us that cities hold buildings that give us a glimpse of the past, of history, of how the world has been transformed. Each building has a story, and the people who made the building had a story to tell. This is why people love maps, even if they don’t realize it yet.

Anaximander c. 610-546 BCE

Anaximander similarly created a map where he estimated what the world looked like. In this map, however, he shows the most basic aspects of his culture’s understanding of the world. This is evident by the absence of the Americas, and the water divisions between Europe, Asia, and Africa. It gives us a little peak into anthropology because these places had such big cultural and racial differences it must have been the case, in people’s minds, that the continents would be divided in such a way, even though in reality there is no geographic trait dividing Europe and Asia.

With time, however, maps continued to be updated and studied as people continued to travel, conquered new lands, and compiled more data. Surely, the development of language, organization, and libraries like Alexandria were all factors that aided the systematic study of geography.

Marinus of Tyre

The first to think of an illustration of the earth, even though it was a sphere, on a flat space accurately.

Ptolemy

How did they figure out latitude and longitude in the past?

The answer is astronomy.

Doesn’t it make you think of how ironic it is that sometimes, the answer to our questions is not always found in the most obvious places? Sometimes you have to look at the whole land space to find your answers. In ancient times even before the development of complex maps, sailors and people would guide themselves to places thanks to the stars. They noticed that stars united made shapes, or rather, constellations. They noticed they were present at different times of the year, more importantly, they noticed the earth rotated on its axis, which determined the times of the day. In other words, the ancients had maps of the sky called star charts, and they were useful for geography.

Now you may be wondering “What does that has to do with geography?”

First, to determine the latitude on Earth, they looked at Polaris, the northern star. If this star appeared close to the horizon, they knew they were closer to the equator and vice versa. To determine with more accuracy how far up or down they were people used different artifacts at different points in time, but the simplest was the kamal, which is basically a piece of wood with a string in the middle. To understand how it was used you can watch this video: To determine longitude, you have to think about time. The further separated a place is from another, the more time difference there is between them. Such is the case that at the same time it is night in some parts of the earth while it is morning in another. In the same way, constellations were visible in different parts of the sky at different moments of the night. Even though knowing this is very useful, at the time, the knowledge was hard to apply, and as expected, maps were very inaccurate, but it was a start.

Al Idrisi 1100-1166

Geography also prospered greatly in the Muslim world. Muhammed A-Idrisi lead the creation of 70 maps, which were upside down but still valid in terms of plotting and shape. These maps were very detailed. He even wrote a book called The Excursion of One Who is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World.

Al-Biruni

Similarly, Al-Biruni wasn’t short of contributions to science. He dedicated much of his work to the geography and study of India, apart from writing several books about different subjects.

The Middle ages

Maps show us the viewpoints of those that made them, and this was evident in the middle ages, where maps, being made by religious zeals, showed Christian imagery and illustrations. Some of these maps, for example, show Jerusalem at the center of the world.

Catalan Atlas

The Catalan Atlas was created in 1375. It is an impressive map showing detailed knowledge covering the world known at the time. The map is divided into six parts, some containing paragraphs explaining knowledge about regions of the world. It is also full of Christian imagery and beautiful illustrations that make it artistic and colorful.

Renaissance

During the Renaissance, maps were developed more seriously and accurately. Ptolemy’s data and many other collected data were used. Nevertheless, the inaccuracies did not stop explorations or the use of maps, because they were useful regardless, as long as they helped you see where you were going. Not only that, but the study of maps increased the understanding of foreign parts of the world and their cultures, which served more purposes than just orientation. Soon maps would be used for military and commercial purposes which included the conquering of new lands as in the case of finding the Americas (even though this was due to geographical misconceptions). The case is that knowing the geographic characteristics of your enemies or future commercial allies gave you an advantage in developing military and commercial strategies. Knowing shorter routes to places saved resources and could be very prosperous, etc. Finding the Americas was not the only role inaccurate geography played, but the seeming emptiness in maps of Africa and America, lured Europeans, the lack of knowledge of these lands, the people that lived in them, and their own greed, lured them into jumping to take territories before someone else did. When they discovered the inhabitants of those lands, they wouldn’t back out of their plan.

Beyond Renaissance

Maps became a symbol of knowledge, as they were displayed at homes to show someone was cultured and smart. They became more common after Johannes Gutenberg made the printing press and made them easier to distribute, thus, more common people started using maps and taking advantage of their knowledge. With the creation of city maps, they became a form of advertisement. For example, if you were a shop owner, appearing on a map of the city would make you known to many people, which would benefit your business. Maps of cities propelled tourism as they made it harder to get lost and easier to explore different parts of cities. Later, maps showing criminal and poverty levels were created. These were not initially made with bad intentions but led to redlining and other unethical practices that propelled racism and segregation.

As of today:

There are more than 8 Billion people in the world.

195 countries with different cultures and places to explore

7 continents

Millions of galaxies and planets

So why are waiting to notice and get curious about the mysteries around you?

Resources

Atlas Pro. “What Year Was This Globe Made?” YouTube, 1 June 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u3ujFhxEug.

DailyTop10s. “Top 10 ASTONISHING Old Maps.” YouTube, 13 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Map90PUpE.

Fein, Ariel. » the Catalan Atlas. smarthistory.org/catalan-atlas.

Flash Point History. “The Catalan Atlas - a Medieval Marvel.” YouTube, 24 Sept. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIIcsSMQp7Q.

Friedman, Uri. “12 Maps That Changed the World.” The Atlantic, 30 Dec. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/12/12-maps-that-changed-the-world/282666.

History of Mapping | Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping. www.icsm.gov.au/education/fundamentals-mapping/history-mapping.

KhAnubis. “How We Mapped the World Before Satellites.” YouTube, 27 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIoUTrSWvEE.

---. “How We Mapped the World Before Satellites.” YouTube, 27 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIoUTrSWvEE.

KnowledgeHusk. “A Brief History of Cartography and Maps.” YouTube, 23 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLdvInDrQ2c.

“Mapamondi.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/resource/g3200m.gct00215/?st=gallery.

MapPractical. “Lecture 7 - Advanced Cartography – Raster Shaded Relief.” YouTube, 29 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkarRMaLeRU.

Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Master Cartographer Shares His Craft | OPB.” YouTube, 30 July 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRxEu_Jmh8.

PublicResourceOrg. “MAPMAKING PROCESS, THE.” YouTube, 1 Nov. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lMu7GVVMZ4.

“READ: Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Article) | Khan Academy.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/solar-system-and-earth/knowing-solar-system-earth/a/eratosthenes-of-cyrene#:~:text=Eratosthenes%20may%20have%20been%20the,or%20by%20the%20number%201.

Saliba, George. “Al-Bīrūnī | Persian Scholar, Astronomer, Mathematician and Geographer.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Aug. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/al-Biruni.

ShūBa̱ck. “Origin of the World Map.” YouTube, 19 May 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJBBVQrRwqo.

Thompson, Clive. “From Ptolemy to GPS, the Brief History of Maps.” Smithsonian Magazine, 26 June 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/brief-history-maps-180963685.