Concharto is not Historical Cartography
May 7, 2008 – 6:33 amI periodically get comments like this one from a Wikipedian whom I respect, “… how would one accommodate changes in geography and man-made features as you go back in time?”
The frivolous answer is “we don’t do that.” Accommodating changes in geography, including cityscapes, roads and terrain, is the domain of Historical Cartography, an art form that requires a great deal of skill, talent and access to archival maps. I know people who are expert practitioners in historical cartography - Concharto can’t do what they do.
But this is not a problem because Concharto is about placing past events relative to each other and to today’s geography. For instance, the Battle of Thermopylae was fought along a track that was right over the water. Today, that area is several miles from Greek coastline. Concharto just shows its location on today’s map.
But this doesn’t mean we Concharto editors can’t use historical cartography. A great example is the timeline of the New York Draft Riots of the American Civil War.
Many of the events mentioned in the textual references call out places like “The Colored Orphanage on 5th Avenue.” That property hasn’t existed for years, but you can find its location using a map from David Rumsey Historical Maps (above). That city block looks like this today:
One Response to “Concharto is not Historical Cartography”
Anthropomorphic maps were generated by configuring the body of a god or goddess over the area to be mapped. The name of each part of that body became the name of the area under that part. This produced a scale 1:1 map-without-paper on which each place name automatically indicated its approximate location and direction with respect to every other place on the same map whose name was produced in this way.
You are cordially invited to join the BPMaps discussion group on this topic, a very quiet list that averages about 2 messages per month. The URL is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/
The Challenge: To produce computer software that will find additional body-part maps elsewhere in the world. Available inputs:
(1) geographic databases with ancient place names (e.g., the Perseus project).
(2) body-part names on Swadesh lists. Unfortunately, the navel is not
included.
Aphrodite as an Anthropomorphic Map
The goddess we call Aphrodite
Is not just an old Grecian deity.
The Phoenicians did make
Her a map. It’s not fake.
Her body is cartograffiti.
The Punic war destroyed her face,
The Romans left nary a trace.
But her hair is still there,
In Sahara, that’s where.
And her chin’s a Tunisian place.
Mt. Atlas is her first verTebra.
Her backbone is now Gulf of Sidra.
Her heart is in Libya,
Her left leg, Somalia.
Her breast is in Chad wearing no bra.
The Greeks called her liver Egypt, an’
Her kidney was Biblical Goshen.
She’s bent at her waist,
Now Misr-ably placed.
The Red Sea was her menstruation.
As a kid I did think the Red Sea
Was an English map typo: lost E,
From Reed Sea in Hebrew.
But that could not be true,
Mare Rubrum ’twas Latin, B.C.
Aphrodite with Hermes did sin,
We know this is true ’cause within
Her “snatch” we call Sinai
His “zaiyin” does still lie.
It’s known as the desert of Zin.
Best regards,
Israel “izzy” Cohen
By Israel "izzy" Cohen on May 7, 2008