Ancient Greek scientist who made a more detailed map of the world. History of the geographical map. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

It is impossible to establish when the person made the first card. It is only known that many millennia before our era, people already knew the surrounding area well and knew how to depict it on sand or tree bark. These cartographic images served to indicate the routes of migrations, hunting places, etc.

Many hundreds of years have passed. People, in addition to hunting and fishing, began to engage in cattle breeding and agriculture. This new, higher level of culture was reflected in the drawings-plans. They become more detailed, more expressive, more accurately convey the character of the area.

A very valuable ancient drawing has survived to this day. hunting ground North Caucasus. This engraving was made on silver around 3000 BC. BC, that is, this cultural monument of the inhabitants of the ancient Caucasus was found by scientists during excavations of one of the mounds on the banks of the river. Kuban near Maykop.

In the ancient world, composing geographic maps has reached great development. The Greeks established the sphericity of the Earth and its dimensions, introduced cartographic projections, meridians and parallels into science.

One of the most famous scientists of the ancient world, the geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the city of Alexandria (at the mouth of the Nile River) in the II century, compiled detailed map A land that no one has ever created before.

This map depicts three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Libya (as Africa was then called), as well as the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and other seas. The map already has a degree grid. Ptolemy introduced this grid to more accurately depict the spherical shape of the Earth on the map. The rivers, lakes, peninsulas of Europe and North Africa known at that time are shown quite accurately on the map of Ptolemy.

If we compare the map of Ptolemy with the modern one, then it is easy to see that the areas located far from the Mediterranean Sea region, that is, known to Ptolemy only from rumors, received fantastic outlines.

It is especially striking that Asia is not depicted in its entirety. Ptolemy did not know where it ended in the north and east. He also did not know about the existence of the Arctic and Pacific oceans. Africa continues on the map to the South Pole and passes into some kind of land that connects in the east with Asia. Ptolemy did not know that Africa ends in the south and is washed by the ocean. He also did not know about the existence of independent continents - America, Antarctica and Australia. Ptolemy portrayed the Indian Ocean as an enclosed sea, into which it is impossible to go by ships from Europe. And yet, in the ancient world and in subsequent centuries, up to the 15th century, no one compiled the best card peace than Ptolemy.

The Romans widely used maps for administrative and military purposes, they were compiled road maps.

During the Middle Ages, the achievements of ancient science were forgotten for a long time. The Church entered into a fierce struggle with scientific ideas about the structure and origin of the world.

In schools, they taught tales about the creation of the world by God in six days, about the flood, about heaven and hell. The idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth was considered "heretical" by the churchmen and was strictly persecuted. The concept of the Earth has taken on an absolutely fantastic form. In the VI century. Byzantine merchant - monk Kozma Indikoplov depicted the Earth in the form of a rectangle.

The main type of maps is becoming rough, far from reality and devoid of a scientific basis "monastery maps". They bear witness to the decline of cartography in medieval Europe... During this period, many small closed states arose in Europe. With a subsistence economy, these feudal states did not need connections with the outside world.

By the end of the Middle Ages, trade and navigation began to develop in the cities of Europe, art and science flourished.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. in Europe, a compass and nautical charts, the so-called portolans, appear.

On these maps, the coastline was depicted in detail and very accurately, and the inner parts of the continents remained empty or filled with pictures from the life of the peoples inhabiting them.

The era of great geographical discoveries created the conditions for the rise of cartographic science: navigators needed a good, truthful geographical map. In the XVI century. more correct maps appeared, built in new cartographic projections.
Geographic maps include a lot of scientific material. If you compare different maps of the same area, study them, you can get a very detailed idea of ​​this area.

Therefore, geographic maps are a huge source of knowledge. But the map can become a real source of knowledge only when you have a certain amount of geographic knowledge.

Anyone with knowledge of geography and knowing how to read a map can accurately understand the terrain depicted on it, rivers, mountain lakes, high or low hills, cities and villages, railways.

The map is more important than the text, as it often speaks much brighter, Semenov-Tien-Shansky

First cards

Geographic maps have a long history.

Once upon a time, travelers on a long journey did not have maps or navigation devices - nothing that would allow them to determine their location. I had to rely on my memory, the Sun, the Moon and the stars. People made sketches of places they managed to visit - this is how the first maps appeared.

Since ancient times, maps have been one of the most important documents for any state. The rulers of many countries organized expeditions to explore unknown lands and the main goal of all travelers was, first of all, drawing up detailed geographical maps with the most important landmarks plotted on them: rivers, mountains, villages and cities.

The modern name "CARD" comes from the Latin "charte" meaning "letter". Translated, "chartes" means "a sheet or scroll of papyrus for writing."

It is difficult to determine when the first cartographic images appeared. Among the archaeological finds on all continents, one can see primitive drawings of the area made on stones, bone plates, birch bark, a tree, the age of which scientists determine at about 15 thousand years.

The simplest cartographic drawings were already known in the conditions primitive society, even before the birth of writing (appendix). This is evidenced by primitive cartographic images of peoples who, at the time of their discovery or study, were at low levels of social development and did not have a written language (Eskimos of North America, Nanai of the Lower Amur, Chukchi and Oduls of northeastern Asia, Micronesians of Oceania, etc.) ).

These drawings, made on wood, bark, etc. and often distinguished by great likelihood, they served to satisfy the needs arising from the conditions of the general labor of people: to indicate the paths of migrations, hunting places, etc.

Preserved cartographic images, carved on the rocks in the era of primitive society. Particularly remarkable are the Bronze Age rock paintings in the Camonica Valley (Northern Italy), and among them is a plan showing cultivated fields, paths, streams and irrigation canals. This plan is one of the oldest cadastral plans.

Before their appearance, oral stories were the main source of information about the location of a particular object. But as people began to travel more and more distant distances frequently, it became necessary to store information for a long time.

The earliest surviving cartographic images include, for example, a city plan on the wall of Chatal-Huyuk (Turkey), dating from about 6200 BC. BC, map-like image on a silver vase from Maikop (about 3000 BC), cartographic images on clay tablets from Mesopotamia (about 2300 BC), numerous petroglyph maps of the Valcamonica in Italy (1900 -1200 BC), the Egyptian map of gold mines (1400 BC), etc. From Babylon through the Greeks, the Western world inherited the sixties numeral system, based on the number 60, in which geographic coordinates are expressed today.

Early cartographers themselves were collecting descriptions of various parts of the world known by that time, interviewing sailors, soldiers and adventurers and displaying the obtained data on a single map, and filling the missing places with their imagination or honestly leaving blank white spots.

The first cards contained great amount inaccuracies: at first, no one even thought about the severity of measurements, scales, topographic signs... But even such cards were highly valued. With their help, it was possible to repeat the path traversed by the discoverer, and avoid the troubles that many travelers lay in wait for.

Since the VI century. BC e., the main contribution to the technology of creating maps in Ancient world brought in by the Greeks, Romans and Chinese.

Unfortunately, Greek maps of that time have not survived, and the contribution of the Greeks to the development of cartography can be estimated only from textual sources - the works of Homer, Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo and other ancient Greeks - and subsequent cartographic reconstructions.

The Greek contribution to cartography was the use of geometry to create maps, in the development of map projections and in the dimension of the Earth.

It is believed that the ancient Greek scientist Anaximander is considered the Creator of the first geographical map. In the VI century. BC. he drew the first map of the then known world, depicting the Earth in the form of a flat circle surrounded by water.

The ancient Greeks were well aware of the spherical shape of the Earth, since they observed its rounded shadow during periods of lunar eclipses, saw ships emerge from the horizon and disappear behind it.

The Greek astronomer Eratosthenes (circa 276-194 BC) as early as the 3rd century BC. NS. calculated the dimensions quite accurately the globe... Eratosthenes wrote Geography, first using the terms geography, latitude and longitude. The book consisted of three parts. The first part was the history of geography; the second describes the shape and size of the Earth, the boundaries of land and oceans, the Earth's climates; in the third, the division of land into parts of the world and sphraged are carried out - the prototypes of nature zones, as well as a description of individual countries. He also compiled a geographical map of the inhabited part of the Earth.

As noted above, Eratosthenes proved the sphericity of the Earth and measured the radius of the globe, and Hipparchus (about 190-125 BC) invented and used a system of meridians and parallels for cartographic projections.

In the Roman Empire, cartography was put at the service of practice. Roadmaps were created for military, commercial and administrative needs. The most famous of them is the so-called Peitinger's table (copy of a map of the 4th century), which is a scroll of 11 glued sheets of parchment 6 m 75 cm long and 34 cm wide.It shows the road network of the Roman Empire from the British Isles to the mouth of the Ganges, which is about 104,000 km, with rivers, mountains, settlements.

The culmination of the cartographic works of the Roman period was the eight-volume essay "Guide to Geography" by Claudius Ptolemy (90-168), where he generalized and systematized the knowledge of ancient scientists about the Earth and the Universe; indicating the coordinates of many geographic points in latitude and longitude; which sets out the basic principles of creating maps and provides the geographical coordinates of 8000 points. And, which during the I4 centuries enjoyed such great popularity among scientists, travelers, merchants that it was reprinted 42 times.

Ptolemy's "Geography" contained, as already mentioned, all the information about the Earth available at that time. The maps attached to it were very accurate. They have a degree grid.

Ptolemy made a detailed map of the Earth, the likes of which no one had ever created before. It depicted three parts of the world: Europe, Asia and Libya (as Africa was then called), the Atlantic (Western) Ocean, the Mediterranean (African) and Indian Seas.

The rivers, lakes and peninsulas of Europe and North Africa known at that time were quite accurately depicted, which cannot be said about the lesser-known regions of Asia, recreated by dream on the basis of fragmentary, often contradictory geographical information and data.

8000 (eight thousand) points from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean were plotted according to coordinates; the position of some of them was determined astronomically, and most were plotted along the routes.

The map is stretched out towards the east. Half of the map is allocated to famous countries. In its southern part, a huge continent is depicted, called the Unknown Land.

Cartography in China developed independently of European traditions. The oldest surviving documents from the country's official surveying and mapping dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1027-221 BC). And the most ancient Chinese maps that have survived are considered to be maps on bamboo plates, silk and paper, found in the Fanmatan graves of the Qin (221-207 BC) and Western Han (206 BC - 25 g) graves. AD) dynasties, as well as in the Mawandu graves of the Western Han Dynasty.

These maps are comparable in image quality and detail to topographic maps... In terms of accuracy, they significantly exceeded even later European maps.

The main Chinese contribution to the creation of maps consisted in the invention no later than the 2nd century. BC NS. paper, on which maps began, and a rectangular grid of coordinates, which was first used by the great Chinese astronomer and mathematician Zhang Heng (78-139 AD). In the future, Chinese cartographers invariably used a rectangular grid of coordinates.

A century later, the Chinese cartographer Pei Xiu (224-271) developed mapping principles based on the use of a rectangular grid of coordinates, as well as principles for measuring distances based on the laws of geometry.

Invention by the Chinese in the VIII century. typography allowed them to be the first in world history to start printing maps. The first surviving printed Chinese map dates from 1155.

A person is always driven by curiosity. Thousands of years ago, discoverers, going further and further into unknown lands, created the first semblances of geographical maps, trying to put the relief they saw on papyrus sheets or clay tablets.

Probably the oldest found is a map from the Egyptian Museum in Turin, made on papyrus by order of Pharaoh Ramses IV in 1160 BC. NS. This map was used by an expedition that, by order of the pharaoh, was looking for a stone for construction. The map familiar to our eyes appeared in ancient greece half a thousand years before our era. Anaximander of Miletus is considered the first cartographer who created a map of the world known by that time.

The originals of his maps have not survived, but 50 years later they were restored and improved by another scientist from Miletus - Hecateus. Scientists have recreated this map according to the descriptions of Hecateus. It is easy to recognize the Mediterranean and Black Sea and nearby lands. But is it possible to determine distances from it? This requires a scale that was not yet on ancient maps. For the unit of measurement of length, Hecateus used "days of sailing" on the sea and "days of transitions" on dry land, which, of course, did not add accuracy to the maps.

Ancient geographical maps also had other significant drawbacks. They distorted the image, because a spherical surface cannot be deployed on a plane without distortion. Try to gently peel off the orange peel and press it against the table surface; you won't be able to do this without tearing. In addition, they did not have a degree grid of parallels and meridians, without which it is impossible to accurately determine the location of the object. Meridians first appeared on the map of Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. e., however, they were carried through different distances. It is not for nothing that the "Father of Geography" Eratosthenes was called a mathematician among geographers. The scientist not only measured the size of the Earth, but also used it to represent it on a map. cylindrical projection... In this projection, there is less distortion, because the image is transferred from the ball to the cylinder. Modern maps create in different projections - cylindrical, conical, azimuthal and others.

The most perfect maps of the ancient era are considered to be the geographical maps of Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century AD. NS. in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Claudius Ptolemy went down in the history of science thanks to two large works: the "Guide to Astronomy" in 13 books and the "Guide to Geography", which consisted of 8 books. 27 maps were added to the "Guide to Geography", among them - a detailed map of the world. No one created the best, either before Ptolemy, or 12 centuries after him! This map already had a degree grid. To create it, Ptolemy determined the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) of almost four hundred objects. The scientist determined the latitude (distance from the equator in degrees) by the height of the Sun at noon with the help of a gnomon, longitude (degree distance from the initial meridian) - by the difference in the time of observations of the lunar eclipse from different points.

In medieval Europe, the works of ancient scholars were forgotten, but they survived in the Arab world. There, Ptolemy's maps were published in the 15th century and republished almost 50 more times! Perhaps it was these cards that helped Columbus on his famous voyage. Ptolemy's authority grew so much that even collections of maps were called "Ptolemies" for a long time. Only in the 16th century, after the publication of the "Atlas of the World" by Gerardus Mercator, on the cover of which Atlas was drawn holding the Earth, the collections of maps were called "atlases".

V Ancient China also created geographic maps. Interestingly, the first written mention of a geographic map is not related to geography. In the III century BC. NS. the Chinese throne was occupied by the Qin dynasty. The rival in the struggle for power, Crown Prince Dan, sent a hired assassin to the ruler of the dynasty with a map of his lands drawn on silk cloth. The mercenary hid a dagger in a bundle of silk. The story tells that the assassination attempt failed.

In the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, images of America and Australia, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans appeared on the maps of the world. Errors in charts have often turned into a tragedy for navigators. Having explored the shores of Alaska, Vitus Bering's large Kamchatka expedition in the 18th century did not manage to return to Kamchatka by the beginning of the autumn storms. Dreamer Bering spent three weeks of precious time in search of the map-marked, but non-existent Land of Gama. His sailing ship "Saint Peter", broken, with sailors dying from scurvy, moored to the deserted island, where the famous Commander rested forever. "My blood boils in me every time," wrote one of Bering's assistants, "when I remember the shameless deception caused by a mistake on the map."

Today cartography is completely digitalized. To create the most detailed maps, they use not only ground geodetic instruments - theodolite, level, but also air laser scanning, satellite navigation, digital aerial photography.

Illustration: depositphotos.com | Kuzmafoto

If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE

NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

"KHARKOV POLYTECHNICAL INSTITUTE"

DEPARTMENT "INFORMATION SYSTEMS"

abstract

on the topic: "The history of the creation of geographical maps"

on the course "Cartography"

Completed:

1st year student Afonina Ekaterina Viktorovna group VK-345 _______ Date of completion ____________________________

Checked by: ____________________________

Valday - 3

INTRODUCTION

Cartography is the science of mapping and understanding natural and socio-economic geosystems through maps as models. Cartography also exists as a field of technology and technology for the creation and use of cartographic products and as a branch of production that produces cartographic products (maps, atlases, globes, etc.). The development of computerization has expanded the understanding of cartography; its interests also include technologies for creating electronic maps, databases and banks of digital cartographic information.

Cartography originated in ancient times; there are even references to maps in the Bible. The first guides to cartography were compiled by ancient Greek. the scientist K. Ptolemy. Ancient cartographers created geographical maps that took into account the sphericity of the Earth and provided with a degree grid. The heyday of cartography falls on the era of the Renaissance and the great geographical discoveries. The authors of the famous world maps and the first atlases were the Dutch cartographers G. Mercator and A. Ortelius. In Russia, the development of cartography is associated with the names of S. U. Remezov, V. N. Tatishchev, F. F. Schubert, A. I. Mende, I. A. Strelbitsky, A. A. Ilyin, A. A. Tillo. In the 19th century. active differentiation of earth sciences contributed to the formation of thematic cartography. A significant contribution to domestic science was made by the works of F.N. Krasovsky, V.V. Kavraisky, N.A. Urmaev, G.A.Ginzburg on mathematical cartography, K.A. Aslanikashvili, A.A. Lyutoy on mapping, cartographic semiotics and general theory cartography, and Yu. M. Shokalskiy on marine cartography, NN Baranskiy and AI Preobrazhenskiy on economic-geographical mapping, MI Nikishov on agricultural. mapping, I.P. Zarutskaya on thematic cartography, A.M.Berlyant on the theory and cartographic method of research, L.A. Goldenberg, A.V. Postnikov on the history of cartography, etc.

Part of the Roman road map (4th century). A scroll map showing the roads of the Roman Empire from Britain to India

There are several concepts that interpret the subject and method of cartography in different ways. The model-cognitive concept considers it as the science of cognizing reality through cartographic modeling, and the map itself as a model of reality. According to the communicative concept, cartography is considered the science of transmitting spatial information, and the map is a channel of information, a means of communication. The concept of cartosemiotics considers cartography as the science of the language of the map, and the map itself as a special text composed using conventional symbols (written in the language of the map). In the 1980s. An integral geoinformation concept began to form, according to which cartography is considered as a science of information and cartographic modeling and knowledge of geosystems, closely linking it with geoinformatics, earth sciences and society.

Map of Transylvania from "Atlas" by G. Mercator - Y. Hondius (1607)

Modern cartography is an extensive system of scientific disciplines and technical branches. The general theory of cartography examines the subject and method of cartography, questions of the methodology of creating and using maps. Main theoretical developments are carried out within the framework of cartography - a general study of the map. The history of cartography studies the history of ideas, concepts, methods of science, the development of cartographic production, as well as old cartographic works. Mathematical cartography is a discipline within which cartographic projections are developed; Such a branch of cartography as the design and compilation of maps studies and develops methods and technologies for the cameral production and editing of maps of general geographic, nature, socio-economic, ecological, etc. Cartographic semiotics is a discipline dealing with systems of cartographic signs, the rules for their use. The design of maps (cartographic design) studies the theory and methods of artistic design of cartographic works, their line and color design, including by means of computer graphics. Map publishing is a technical branch dealing with the preparation of maps and atlases for publication, their reproduction and printing design. The use of maps develops the theory and methods of using cartographic products (maps, atlases, globes, etc.) in practical, scientific, cultural, educational activities. Cartographic source studies develops methods for assessing and systematizing cartographic sources, and cartographic toponymy studies geographical names, their semantic meaning from the point of view of correct transmission on maps. The objectives of this discipline include the normalization and standardization of names and terms shown on maps.

Fragment of a hypsometric map of European Russia, compiled by A.A. Tillo in 1889.

In cartography, many thematic branches have developed, such as general geographic, geological, soil, ethnographic mapping, etc. According to the method, they belong to cartography, and in the subject - to specific sciences (geology, soil science, ethnography). With the emergence of new branches of knowledge, new sections of thematic cartography appear - for example, geoecological, geopolitical, and electoral cartography have appeared relatively recently. In terms of purpose and practical orientation, such industries as educational, scientific, tourism, navigation (sea, aeronautical), engineering mapping, etc. are clearly distinguished.

There are two directions (scientific schools) in domestic cartography: geographical and engineering cartography. The geographic direction is primarily concerned with the mapping and study of geosystems and their components. At the same time, priority is given to interaction with geosciences and socio-economic disciplines. The School of Engineering Cartography focuses on technical aspects and links to the geodetic sciences. Both schools closely cooperate in the cartographic and geodetic study of the country, in the creation of large works - maps and atlases.

Cartography has two-way contacts with many philosophical, natural and technical sciences, mathematics, geodesy and in particular with remote sensing. She takes advantage of their achievements, ideas and technologies, while providing them with the field to develop their theory and methodology. Since ancient times, there have been strong contacts between cartography and art. Drawing and engraving maps has always been akin to art, and the graphics and color on maps have been influenced by different artistic styles. The design decisions of modern cards are also influenced by trends in artistic design and machine graphics.

The most fruitful modern cartography interacts with geoinformatics and computer modeling. On the basis of the integration of the two sciences, a promising direction has been formed - geoinformation mapping. At the junction with telecommunications, Internet mapping has developed, that is, the creation and placement of maps, atlases in the worldwide electronic network.

The most significant advances in cartography are considered to be comprehensive scientific reference atlases. The Great Soviet Atlas of the World in 2 volumes is world famous. (1937-1940), Marine atlas in 3 vols. (1950-1953), Physical and geographical atlas of the world (1964), Atlas of the peoples of the world (1964), Atlas of Antarctica (1966), Atlas of the oceans in 5 volumes. (1977–95), Atlas of the World (1st ed. 1954, 2nd - 1967, 3rd - 1999), Atlas of the World's Snow and Ice Resources (1997), Atlas "Nature and Resources of the Earth" in 2 vols. (1999). All rub. the country is covered with topographic maps at a scale of 1: 25,000 and 1: 100,000 - these are the largest single blocks of maps of this scale in the world. Important achievements in the field of thematic mapping are series of maps of the nature of the USSR at scales of 1: 1,000,000 and 1: 2,500,000, maps for higher education (1st series - 1950–59, 2nd series started in 1974. ), Ecological-geographical map of the Russian Federation on a scale of 1: 4,000,000 (1996), etc.

HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

The ancient Greek scientist Anaximander is considered the creator of the first geographical map. In the VI century. BC. he drew the first map of the then known world, depicting the Earth in the form of a flat circle surrounded by water.

In the III century. BC. the ancient Greek scientist Eratosthenes wrote the book "Geography", for the first time using the terms "geography", "latitude" and "longitude". The book consisted of three parts. The first part was the history of geography; the second describes the shape and size of the Earth, the boundaries of land and oceans, the Earth's climates; in the third, the division of land into parts of the world and sphraged are carried out - the prototypes of nature zones, as well as a description of individual countries. He also compiled a geographical map of the inhabited part of the Earth.

In the II century. AD the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy generalized and systematized the knowledge of ancient scientists about the Earth and the Universe in his eight-volume essay "Guide to Geography", which during the I4 centuries enjoyed such great popularity among scientists, travelers, merchants that it was reprinted 42 times.

Ptolemy's "geography" contained, as already mentioned, all the information about the Earth available at that time. The maps attached to it were very accurate. They have a degree grid. Ptolemy made a detailed map of the Earth, the likes of which no one had ever created before. It depicted three parts of the world: Europe, Asia and Libya (as Africa was then called), the Atlantic (Western) Ocean, the Mediterranean (African) and Indian Seas. The rivers, lakes and peninsulas of Europe and North Africa known at that time were quite accurately depicted, which cannot be said about the lesser-known regions of Asia, recreated by dream on the basis of fragmentary, often contradictory geographical information and data. 8000 (eight thousand) points of the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean were plotted by coordinates; the position of some of them was determined astronomically, and most were plotted along the routes. The map is stretched out towards the east. Half of the map is allocated to famous countries. In its southern part, a huge continent is depicted, called the Unknown Land.

The first map of Russia called "The Big Drawing" was compiled, as scientists assume, in the second half of the 16th century. However, neither the "Big Drawing", and its subsequent supplemented and modified copies have reached us. Only the supplement to the map has survived - "The Book of the Large Drawing". It contained interesting information about the nature and economic activity of the population, about the main roads and main rivers as routes of communication, about "cities" and various defensive structures on the borders of the Russian state.

The first globe was created by the German scientist Martin Beheim. His model of the Earth was published in I492, the year when Christopher Columbus went to the shores of fabulous India by the western route. The globe depicted Europe, Asia, Africa, which occupy about half of the entire surface of the Earth, and there are no North and South America, Antarctica, Australia. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are represented as a single water basin, and in place of the Indian Ocean there are the East Indian Ocean and the Stormy South Sea, separated by a vast archielago of islands. The outlines of the oceans and continents are far from real, since the basis for the creation of the globe was based on information based on the ideas of ancient geographers and data from Arab and other travelers who visited the countries of the East, India and China.

Heading:

It is impossible to determine when they appeared. Among the archaeological finds on all continents, one can see primitive drawings on stones, on bone plates, on birch bark, on a tree - these are maps of the immediate surroundings. The maps of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians have come down to us. In the past and present centuries, travelers have constantly turned to the cartographic art of the indigenous population. Their maps were invaluable to those who discovered and mapped unexplored lands.

The French traveler Henri Duveyrier in 1859 visited the central Sahara, in the areas where the Tuaregs lived. He was unable to explore the Ahaggar Highlands, and he plotted it on his map according to the data provided to him by Sheikh Otkhan, who fashioned the entire relief of the Highlands from wet sand. Other sources speak of the same relief maps of the Tuareg.

The southern neighbors of the Tuareg, the Fulbe, also mastered the art of cartography. The ruler of Sokoto, Sultan Belo, painted on the sand for the English major Hugh Clapperton the Quorra River along its entire course, with all the bends, bends, tributaries, and allowed his map to be redrawn on paper. The French traveler Victor Largeau wrote in 1876 that a Fulbian blacksmith drew a schematic map for him on the sand from Tripoli to Timbuktu (the difference in latitude between these points is as much as 16 degrees).

Professor K. Whale at the beginning of this century, crossing from the village of Lindi to Massassi, received from the negro Pesa Mbili a primitive map of his path. Lindy was depicted in the lower right corner, Massassi in the upper left. Individual huts and even the house of the traveler himself with its internal location were marked on the map. Edward Robert Flegel showed the leader Abdulrahman a map of a part of Africa - the land of the Fulbe people and neighboring tribes. The chief, together with one of his advisers, corrected this map by making a blueprint in the sand.

When in 1840-1843 the English geographer C. T. Bik studied the sources of the Nile, he received from the Muslim Omar-ibn-Neji, a resident of these places, a simple, small map of the Sobat River basin, a tributary of the White Nile.

Russian scientist Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf (1815-1894) argued that most Siberian Tungus can quickly draw a map of their surroundings on the sand or snow.

Pyotr Alekseevich Kropotkin, a Russian revolutionary and geographer, in the 70s of the XIX century, traveling across Transbaikalia, was guided by a map that was cut out for him on a birch bark by one tungus.

For the remarkable Russian geographer, ethnographer and anthropologist Dmitry Nikolaevich Anuchin, when he traveled across Siberia in 1906, a local resident Shigal drew a map of the area of ​​the Yenisei River and its tributary, which is below the village of Lebedev.

He depicted the direction of the flow of the Yenisei with the help of a silhouette of a duck flying in a spring flight, and the south with a drawing of the sun as its symbol. At first Shigal drew the sun not exactly in the south, but then he corrected his mistake. He marked the forest with two fir. Anuchin recognized the map as very good.

The evidence of V. Yokhelson has survived, who at the end of the 9th century carried out a geographical and ethnographic study of the Kolyma region. He received two small maps made on birch bark. The maps depicted the Kolyma with its tributaries Korkodon and Rassokha, and next to them - villages and hunting grounds.

When L. Shtrenberg traveled across Sakhalin, one Nivkh was his guide, who made a map of the southern part of Sakhalin for him. He drew the path of the vessel "Baikal" from the village of Korsakovskaya to Aleksandrovsk and those protrusions of the mainland, past which they sailed.

Australian aborigines especially amazed travelers with their maps. There were tribes who lived, perhaps, at the lowest stage of social development, almost at the level of the Stone Age, and many of these people were able to draw on a stone or on a piece of tree bark a surprisingly accurate plan of the surroundings.

In South Australia, there are drawings made on truncheons. These drawings have the meaning of possessive and tribal symbols, but, in fact, depict the area in which the tribe lives. So, for example, in the drawing here, the native depicted the Broken River and the swamp in New South Wells. This is a map of the territory that his tribe occupies - between the swamp and the river.

Completely different and to the highest degree original maps created by the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands and Polynesia - cards from sticks The natives used them in navigation between the islands of the archipelago. The first news of these maps was brought to Europe by the German consul F. Gernsheim. There are now about 50 such cards in European collections. They are made of thin sticks located in different directions to each other - straight, at an angle, and shells or pebbles are attached to them. All this is connected by threads of palm fibers. The sticks show the direction of sea currents and the most convenient routes in navigation. Pebbles or shells represent islands.

Augustine Cramer, traveling in the South Pacific in 1897-1899, saw a map of the Marshall Islands drawn in a notebook from one of the native leaders - in shape and outlines it resembled stick maps.

One of the first news about the maps of the Polynesians was brought by James Cook (1728-1779). His guide in the voyage of 1776 was the Polynesian leader Tupaya. Naturally quick-witted, Tupaya knew Polynesia very well. According to his information, a map was drawn up of the area located between 130 ° -170 ° west longitude and 7 ° -27 ° south latitude. The map depicted an area of ​​9,200 km2 and 80 islands were marked on it. The map has not survived to our time, but there are two copies of it.

Travelers left very interesting information about the cartographic abilities of the Eskimos - both from the north of Canada and Alaska, and from Greenland. The English explorer of the Arctic, William Edward Parry, studied the Hudson Bay area in 1821-1823. The Eskimo Iliglyuk made a sketch for him, with which in July 1822 Parry discovered the strait between Melville Peninsula and Baffin Island. The Eskimos helped Frederick William Beeche on his journey through the Bering Strait to Kotzebue Bay: they drew a map for him on the ground, marking mountains and islands with stones, and fishing villages with sticks stuck in the ground.

In 1848-1859, English captain Francis Leopold McClintock took part in the expedition to rescue polar explorer John Franklin. Valuable information was given to McClintock by the Eskimos: they drew maps of the coast of Elio Bay and other places of the coast, even indicated the position of the skeletons of both of Franklin's ships that were lost. McClintock especially appreciated the maps drawn for him by the Eskimos A-Wah-Lah and Ov-Wang-Noot.

Beginning in 1883, F. Boa conducted research in the Hudson Bay area. Many Eskimos and Eskimos made various outline maps for him. The most interesting of these is the one that depicts the Bechler Islands in Hudson Bay. The islands are drawn with amazing accuracy, the image almost completely coincides with the then map of the British navy.

Many travelers noted that the Eskimos, who for the first time in their lives took a pencil in their hands, could very accurately and in detail depict the outlines of their coast. The extraordinary abilities of the Eskimos for orientation were also described by the American geographer Boise. In 1898, the Eskimo Nuktan, a resident of North Greenland, drew him a map of Smith Bay, marking areas with and without eternal glaciers on it. Later data showed that this is a very accurate drawing.

Danish ethnologist Kai Birketsmith talks about maps of a very special kind. These are relief maps that the East Greenlandic Eskimos carved out of wood. One of these maps is kept in the National Museum of Copenhagen. The map consists of two parts that are not connected with each other: the left part shows the east coast of Greenland, on the right, narrower, a chain of islands located in front of the coast.

Canadian polar explorer Villalmoor Stefanson noted this interesting feature in the cards of the Eskimos: they depict everything that they consider important to themselves, for example, the berths for boats. And the mountains along the coast are not important to them, they do not depict them.

← From the history of the discovery and development of the Commander Islands		Birthday mailbox →

The incredible facts about the Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is one of the most visited attractions in the world and was once named big mistake Paris. On April 8, 2007, the American Erica Labrie married the Eiffel Tower, and on sunny days, the Parisian landmark is deformed by 18 centimeters ... In our article we have collected several amazing facts about the Iron Lady. ...

Bastille day
Every year on July 14, the French celebrate one of the most significant national holidays - Bastille Day. This tradition has existed since 1880, however, for the inhabitants of the state, the holiday has long lost its revolutionary significance. In all cities and villages of France, fun parties are held on this day, restaurants and nightclubs barely accommodate everyone, and the citizens themselves show a willingness to have fun until the morning. Den ...

Geography of the Russian bath
Oddly enough, but baths in Russia, with the exception of its northwestern regions, began to appear relatively recently. And before that, in the Ryazan and Vladimir-Suzdal regions, and even in the Moscow region, washing in the oven was widely practiced, which, by the way, was widespread in Moscow itself as early as the last century. In general, the localization of various bathing traditions in Russia largely coincided with the zones of settlement ...

English astronomer William Herschel
The famous English astronomer William Herschel (Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel) went down in history as the discoverer of the planet Uranus. But by profession he was a musician. Herschel was born in 1738 in Hanover (Germany). He was probably taught music by his older brother, who was the organist in the church. The family moved to London, and Herschel became a musician in the royal guard. At the age of seventeen, the young man first introduced herself in ...

Caesar's gold coins
The state of the ancient Romans started minting gold coins rather late. During the time of the Republic, gold coins were issued randomly and only a few were issued. Their massive emissions began during the reign of Caesar. In addition to the CAESAR inscription, the numbers LII are minted on these coins. It is assumed that this could indicate the age of Caesar. Since the year of birth of Caesar is controversial, then it is precisely the date of the release of these mon ...