The Beginnings of Cartography
The earliest known map is a matter of much debate. The definition of a "map" is not vague, and some artefacts originally thought to be maps could in reality be something else. A wall painting, for instance, 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.
Other known maps of the ancient world include the Minoan “House of the Admiral” wall painting from c. 1600 BCE. It depicts a seaside community in an oblique perspective. An engraved map of the holy Babylonian city of Nippur also provides great example of early mapmaking. The oldest surviving world maps are the Babylonian world maps from the 9th century BCE. One shows Babylon beside the River Euphrates, engulfed by a circular mass showing Assyria, Urartu and several other cities, in turn surrounded by a "bitter river" (Oceanus), with seven islands arranged around it.
The First Accurate Maps
The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps, beginning at latest with Anaximander in the 6th century BC. In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy produced his treatise on cartography, Geographia. This contained Ptolemy's world map, the world as it was known to explorers. Even in the 700s, Arab scholars were translating the works of the Greek geographers into Arabic.
In ancient China, geographical literature spans back to the 5th century BC. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dating back to the 4th century BC, and even include examples of star maps. 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 in India included mythic paintings, maps of places from Indian epic poetry – the Ramayana for instance. Indian cartographic traditions also covered the locations of the Pole star, and other constellations of use. These charts may have been in use by the beginning of the Common Era for purposes of navigation.
Medieval European Cartography
Mappa mundi is the general term used to describe Medieval European maps of the world. Approximately 1,100 mappae mundi have been recovered from the Middle Ages. Of these, about 900 illustrate manuscripts and the remainder exist alone.
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.
The Beginnings of Modern Mapmaking
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 versions based on explorers' observations and new surveying techniques. The advent of the telescope, magnetic compass, and sextant enabled increased accuracy. In 1492, Martin Behaim, a German cartographer, made the oldest extant globe of the Earth.
Johannes Werner refined and promoted the Wernermap 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.
Problems With Authentication
Due to the sheer physical difficulties inherent in cartography, mapmakers 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.
Sources:
"History of Cartography". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31.
Meece, Stephanie. “A bird’s eye view - of a leopard’s spots. The Çatalhöyük ‘map’ and the development of cartographic representation in prehistory". Anatolian Studies, 56:1-16, 2006.
Ovenden, Mark. Transit Maps of the World. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Page 22.
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