Political cartography has become one of the tools of state propaganda, which has begun to perform a number of different tasks.
Among them are distortion of reality, falsification, designation of territorial claims, stimulation of separatist sentiments and tendencies within a large entity, incitement of hatred and alienation between neighboring countries.
As Vesti. Ekonomika previously wrote, maps have always been used to promote different views on the structure of the world. Modern technologies have picked up the baton from the cards of the past centuries.
Below we will tell you about the 9 oldest maps in the world.
9. Map of Strabo
Strabo is an ancient historian and geographer of Roman Greece. Author of "History" and almost completely preserved "Geography" in 17 books, which serves as the best source for studying the geography of the ancient world.
Strabo did not confine himself to dry data on geography. His Geography also contains descriptions of various places known at the time.
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In addition to the full text, epitomes (abbreviations, extracts) known from the end of the 10th century have survived. and often employees to fill in the gaps. Thanks to these reductions, the lost part of Book VII, dedicated to Macedonia and Thrace, has been significantly replenished.
All 17 books of Strabo's "Geography" have survived almost entirely, in a large number of copies, badly damaged and no further than the end of the 10th century.
Strabo himself traveled extensively and took notes while traveling. In addition, he collected information from earlier works.
8. Map of Eratosthenes
The ancient Greek mathematician and geographer Eratosthenes, who lived in the 3rd century. BC e., first determined the size of the Earth, introduced the concepts of "parallels" and "meridians", which are still used today.
He built a grid of parallels and meridians and based it on a map of the inhabited earth.
The map of Eratosthenes was the first map of the world known by that time, drawn up taking into account the sphericity of the Earth. It was used until the end of the 1st century. n. e.
7. Map of Hecateus
Hecateus of Miletus is an ancient Greek historian and geographer, one of the closest predecessors and literary sources of Herodotus.
Hecateus of Miletus is considered one of the founders of ancient geography, it was he who created a detailed description of the so-called oecumene - all the countries known to the Greeks of that era.
His main work, which has come down to us in the form of more than 300 scattered fragments, originally consisted of two books called "Asia" and "Europe". The border between the continents, as the ancient Greek believed, ran along the Don River, then along the Sea of Azov.
6. Map of Anaximander
Anaximander is an ancient Greek philosopher, representative of the Milesian school of natural philosophy, student of Thales of Miletus and teacher of Anaximenes. Author of the first Greek scientific work written in prose.
He introduced the term "law", applying the concept of social practice to nature and science. Anaximander is credited with one of the first formulations of the law of conservation of matter.
Anaximander tried to compare the size of the Earth with other planets known at that time. It is believed that he compiled one of the first maps of the Earth, which did not reach us, but was partially restored according to the descriptions of ancient authors, including Hecateus.
Unlike previous maps, which depicted cities, roads and other objects, on his map Anaximander tried to display, among other things, uninhabited areas known at that time.
5. Babylonian world map
The Babylonian world map is a clay tablet from the late Babylonian period from Mesopotamia, which depicts a map of the world known to the Babylonians, which contains both real geographical objects and mythological elements.
The tablet is kept in the British Museum and is the only known surviving map of the world from the region. Based on the analysis of the spelling of toponyms, scientists date the map to the end of the 8th - early 7th centuries. BC e.
All real geographic features are located within two concentric circles. The circles represent the world's oceans and are literally labeled as "salt water" on the map.
It is known from other texts that the Babylonians designated both the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea with this phrase. The parallel lines within the circles are not inscribed, but apparently represent the Euphrates.
The outer triangles represent various mythological objects that are also mentioned in the texts on the tablet.
4. Turin papyrus map
The Turin Papyrus Map is the oldest surviving geographical (and geological) map in the world.
Draws a 15 km stretch of Wadi Hammamat showing villages, hills, gold mines and quarries, and the distances between them. Completed around 1160 BC e. for the participants of the expedition organized by Ramses IV to the quarry.
The map, which is on display in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, was discovered by Napoleonic envoy - the French consul general in Egypt Bernardino Drovetti - in Deir el Medina, a village of artisans near Thebes.
In its reconstructed form, it has dimensions of 280 x 41 cm. However, there is still debate about the correct layout of the disparate fragments of the map in the scientific community.
3. Map in the cave of Abauntz Lamisulo
In 2009, a map was discovered carved into hand-sized sandstone. A small stone with engravings of mountains, rivers and even animals was found in a cave called Abauntz Lamisulo in Navarre in northern Spain, in the center of the Basque Country.
It is believed that the map of the area where the stone was found was used by the Madeleine hunter-gatherers, who were only a few centuries removed from the ice age.
Landmarking in a rapidly changing landscape was very important to these semi-nomadic people. They may have used the map for navigation or to tell the story of a previous hunt.
2. Map in the Lasko cave
The French cave of Lascaux is a monument of unimaginably ancient rock art, which appeared 15-18 thousand years before our era.
It is unique both in the number of drawings and in their preservation. Today, visits to the original cave are still prohibited: scientists work here, regulating the temperature and humidity levels, as well as cleaning the walls from the fungus 2 times a month.
According to scientists, not all rock paintings in the cave can be considered primitive painting, some of them are more like a map.
1. Map on the mammoth tusk
A piece of mammoth tusk with a map on it was found in the vicinity of Pavlov (Czech Republic).
After many years of research, the ornament on the tusk was recognized as the oldest known card today.
Its age is estimated at 25-27 thousand years. The tusk depicts river bends, ridges, ravines of loose loess slopes, rocky peaks and a hunter's house.