Hi there. Welcome to the very first of
the visualizations that accompanies this series of lectures.
In this one, I want to give you a chance to have a closer look at the maps I
used in the lecture and also to introduce you to some others.
While teaching this course I've become fascinated by world maps that
predate our modern world view that modern image started
to take shape in the 15th century as European sailors mapped down
the west coast of Africa and then so-called discovered America.
And don't forget that one of the advantages of a visualization is
that you can always pause at an image you want to view in more detail.
Well, let's start with the all-too-familiar Mercator projection.
Now the next visualization is the bronze Maikop files with a full-map representation,
which we also looked at in the lecture itself.
And I want to show you this silk map which was discovered in
Hainan Province in China in 1973.
It dates from about 160 B.C.
It's interesting because of its accuracy and it was probably
drawn on a grade although you can't see that,
and also for its innovative use of symbols.
Now this is the map devised by Ptolemy,
a Greek geographer living in Egypt.
We don't have any surviving maps but we do have his grid measurements
and these were used in the 1400s in order to reconstruct his world view.
Note the belief at the time that the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea,
a belief that persisted for another thousand years or more.
Now this next map is one of my favorites.
It's a copy of a Roman map dating from about 300 or 400 A.D.
It's made up of twelve panels,
40 centimeters high and has a total length of almost seven metres.
It shows the entire Roman Empire.
The panel I've chosen shows the area where I
live and the gash near the bottom is the Mediterranean.
Now dating from almost the same period is a mosaic map of
the Middle East discovered in 1884 in a church in Jordan.
The map was intended for Christian pilgrims and I
particularly like its 3D portrayal of Jerusalem,
which I've enlarged for you.
Now then we come to the Kashghari map that you saw in
the lecture which we've re-oriented now to
the north and I've indicated some of the main locations for you.
Now we turn to an Arab map created by Mohamed Al-Idrisi in 1154.
It's orientated so South is at the top but if I invert it it'll be more familiar.
The Mediterranean is on a better scale than the version by
Ptolemy and there's much more detail in the Indian Ocean.
But if you look up the top there,
Britain does seem to have suffered.
Now here is a typical Christian medieval map.
This one dating from 1265 A.D.
It's oriented to the east.
At the center is Jerusalem,
the top half is occupied by Asia,
bottom left is Europe,
and the bottom right is Africa.
The map itself is filled with place names,
bits of biblical history including Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden if you look just inside the world circle at the top,
and the unfamiliar parts for example,
in Africa, are filled with mysterious fantasy creatures.
It's a medieval world but it's also our configured world.
It's filled with some detailed knowledge,
some associated pieces of information,
and with bits of imagination and fantasy to fill out the rest.
Well I hope you've enjoyed this trip to the past.
And if you have any examples of your own,
put some URLs and a little bit of context on the thread that
we'll create in the forum and let's see what sort of collection we can build up together.
Richard Thomas GriffithsProf. dr.
