What is cartography

ESRI’s online dictionary defines

cartography as …

“the art and science of expressing

graphically, usually through maps, the
natural and social features of the earth “
 HISTORY of
CARTOGRAPHY

Cartographic Design for GIS

AB Motau
THE OLDEST
EXISTING MAP
 THE OLDEST MAP
• Oldest existing map (6200 BCE)*
– Wall painting at Catal Huyuk (Turkey)
– Depict the town plan, with erupting
volcano
 DISCLAIMER
• Ancient cartographic history is spotty
– Few ancient maps remain
• Many have been lost to time
• Many have been destroyed
– Clay is easily broken
– Paper and wood decompose and catch
fire
– Bronze maps were often melted down
 DISCLAIMER
• Many ancient maps have been
“reconstructed”
• Reconstructions are suspect
– Many were reconstructed based upon
manuscripts, which often included vague,
or poetic language
– Many were copied graphically by medieval
monks, who knew little of what they were
copying
BABYLONIAN
MAPS
 BABYLONIAN MAPS
• Ancient Babylonians had a relatively
advanced culture
– Developed written language in the 4th
millennium BCE
– Had a well-defined measurement system
– Used the Pythagorean Theorem almost
1,000 years before Pythagoras
 BABYLONIAN MAPS
• The Gasur Map (2300 BCE)
– Mountains, water course, place names
– First known example of a topographic map
labeled with cardinal directions
 BABYLONIAN MAPS
• Statue of Prince Gudea (2100 BCE)
– Perhaps the first
map with a bar scale
 BABYLONIAN MAPS
• Babylonian “World Map” (600 BCE)
– Reference to the 4 winds or 4 directions
– Map is an attempt to explain ideas in the
accompanying text
EGYPTIAN
MAPS
 EGYPTIAN MAPS
• Egyptians were advanced for their time
– Developed written language in the 4th
millennium BCE
– Advanced the fields of mathematics,
agriculture, quarrying, medicine, art, and
architecture
 EGYPTIAN MAPS
• Maps on coffin lids
– Lids from 2000 BCE illustrate both water
and land routes to the “Underworld”
• Idealized plots of land and gardens
– Example from 1400 BCE
 EGYPTIAN MAPS
• Survey maps were perhaps the most
common Egyptian maps
– Annual flooding of the Nile necessitated
accurate maps to re-establish boundaries
– Maps were used for taxation purposes
 EGYPTIAN MAPS
• Turin Papyrus (Map of the Gold Mines)
– Topographic map (1300 BCE)
– Located between the Nile & Red Sea
– Had two legends
GREEK
MAPS
 GREEK MAPS
• Greek culture and scholarship spans
thousands of years
– Greek literature has an unbroken history
of nearly 3,000 years
• Reflect a gradual transition from
theoretical to practical cartography
– From idealized concepts of the shape of
the known world and “climata,” to map
projections and coordinate geometry
• Reconstructions aplenty
 GREEK MAPS
• Achilles Shield (800 BCE)
– From Homer’s Illiad
– Not a geographical
representation, but
a general view of
the world and
man’s place in it
 GREEK MAPS
• Achilles Shield (800 BCE)
– Encircling ocean (again)
– Was ridiculed by later writers, but acted as
a framework for subsequent world maps
 GREEK MAPS
• Anaximander’s World Map (6th BCE)
– Considered to be the first world map
drawn to scale
 GREEK MAPS
• Dicaearchus’ World Map (3rd BCE)
– First meridian and parallel (diaphragma)
– Encircling ocean gone (for now)

Alexander’s
An explosion of exploits produced
geographic volumes of
information information
occurred during
Hellenistic times
The Great Library
at Alexandria was
a premier
storehouse
 GREEK MAPS
• Orb of Crates (150 BCE)
– Based on Homer’s Ulysses
– Originally a 10 foot wide globe

Influence shifted from Greek cartography

Alexandria to Rome was incorporated into
during the Greco- the Roman world, and
Roman period distributed beyond
 GREEK MAPS
• Ptolemy’s World Map (150 CE)
– The World Map for over 1,000 years

• Based on a projection
• Derived from lon/lat tables
• No more encircling ocean
• Caspian Sea enclosed
• Most complete geography
• Enclosed Indian Ocean
 GREEK MAPS
• Ptolemy’s Projections (150 CE)
– A major cartographic breakthrough

Conic Projection Pseudoconic Projection

Resulted in far less areal and angular Reduced distortion even further, but was
distortion than orthogonal grids used more difficult to construct. Ptolemy
previously. With slight modifications, this recommended this second projection to
projection is still in use today. all but the lazy.
 GREEK MAPS
• Ptolemy’s Regional Maps (150 CE)
– Larger scale maps of smaller regions

This version
produced during the
renaissance using
woodcut techniques
 GREEK MAPS
• Ptolemy’s World Map remained as
“truth” until the renaissance
– It was scientifically-based
– Ptolemy’s reputation as an astronomer
was beyond reproach
– The Roman empire peaked around the
time of Ptolemy; an intellectual vacuum
ensued
ROMAN
MAPS
 ROMAN MAPS
• Peutinger Road Map (335 CE)
– 22 ft long, 1 ft wide
– For use with a written itinerary
 ROMAN MAPS
• Peutinger Road Map (335 CE)
– Entire Roman road network is laid out as
parallel routes
– Extends into Asia and North Africa

Pictographic Symbols!
CHINESE
MAPS
 CHINESE MAPS
• Stone map of China (1140 CE)
– Engraved stone maps were transferred to
paper by ink rubbing
– Used to educate
school children
and emperors
– Highly accurate
representations
of rivers and
locations
 CHINESE MAPS
• Stone map of China (1140 CE)
– Graticule squares represent 100 li (33 mi)
– Represents a cartographic sophistication
unknown in the West at the time
 CHINESE MAPS
• Silk map of China (1470 CE)
– Used to demonstrate the new Confucian
dynasty’s “cosmic legitimacy”
– Spans Korea to Europe (!?)
 CHINESE MAPS
• Paper map of China (1800s)
– Used for
bureaucratic
control of the
empire,
beginning in
the 7th CE
– Yellow River
(Hwang Ho)
– Great Wall
 MAPS of the
MIDDLE AGES
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• al-Idrisi’s World Map (1154)
– Based on
Ptolemaic
principles, but
incorporating
Islamic
characteristics
– South at top
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• al-Gharaib’s World Map (1481)
– Reflects
religious views
of 10th century
Islam
– Centered on
Mecca
– South at top
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• “T-O” Mappaemundi
– Religious maps devised and promoted by
the early Christian Church
– “O” is the known world with encircling
ocean, and “T” divides the continents
– East is at top
– “T” represents the cross
– The first map printed in
Europe (1472)
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• The Psalter Map (1260)
– A less obvious T-O
map
– Jerusalem at center;
biblical stories
abound
– Christ at top, holding
a T-O globe
– Red sea in red
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• Portolan Chart (1500)
– Sea chart that began
the tradition of
“orienting” maps
with north at top
– Radiating lines
correspond to
compass directions,
but were identified
by wind directions
 MAPS of the MIDDLE AGES
• Portolan Chart (1547)
– Prized, but prone to error (didn’t take into
consideration the spherical earth)

“Luxury Edition”
charts were sold to
the wealthy

Scenes on land
were partly based
in truth, and partly
in myth