A Brief History of ‘mapping notes… · • Ptolemy’s books and maps ... 880-106 MappingENVIRONMENTS Ptolemy's Map • He developed the concept of latitude and grids, the gazetteer

880-106 MappingENVIRONMENTS

A Brief History of ‘mapping’

Cliff OglebyDepartment of Geomatics

(all images here are Copyright their creators and/or their publishers)


Overview of Today

• Today we will look at why people started to make maps

• The perceptions and processes involved

• And some famous historical maps• To provide a foundation for the rest of

semester


Introduction

• Today will give an overview of the development of the graphical representation of place and space– Including some cartography– Some geodesy– Imperialism, imagination


Mapping Today

• Is based on:– A knowledge of the shape of the Earth

built up over millennia– A body of mathematical knowledge

including computations on a sphere– Technologies that enable the

measurement of long distances– An ontology for representation


In the beginning

• Why did humans decide to make a sketch to show a sense of place?– Of ‘here’ and ‘there’?


In the beginning…

• We remembered features of our world, imagined them, named them. We had a mental ‘map’ of the places that were important.

• And then perhaps in order to describe, navigate, explain or illustrate, we made ‘maps’




6200 BCE – Catal Huyuk


600 BCE Babylon


Death and Taxes


The Shape of the World

• Firstly, it looked flat for as far as we could see, interrupted by mountains, rivers and seas

• And the heavens appeared to move over us– The geocentric model


The Shape of the World

• Homer’s view was that it was a disc floating in an ocean

• Pythagoras postulated that it was spherical, Aristotle proved it.

• The circumference was determined by Eratosthenes by measuring shadows


Ancient Greek Developments

• The idea that the earth is spherical• The development of geometry for measuring

the land• The collection of worldly knowledge• Ptolemy’s books and maps• The Great Library at Alexandria

• But alas all this was lost…


Eratosthenes’ Map


Ptolemy's Map

• He developed the concept of latitude and grids, the gazetteer and map projections

• The map and texts were lost to the ‘west’ until Persian scholars brought it to Europe via Byzantium


Ptolemy's Map 150±

CE




A Biblical World View (600CE)

Cosmas Indicopleustes


Dante’s Hell


1154, Al Idrisi


1389 China

• China also developed sophisticated mapping techniques, and these continued though the European Dark Ages


The Compass



Galileo Galilei

• Galileo promoted the Coppernican heliocentric model of the heavens– By scientific observation

• Pope Urban VII imprisoned him for this heresy in 1633

• On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II– expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was

handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.


The Age of Discovery

• Europe woke up and had a renaissance• Early 15thC to 17thC• An influx of new ideas, along with the

development of navigation, exploration, industrialisation – Leading to an Age of Imperialism





There be Dragons



Geographical Coordinates


The Determination of Time and Longitude

• Whilst latitude was reasonably easy to measure (elevation of the sun above the horizon) longitude was a problem

• Longitude is the distance around the globe, which is directly correlated with time

• If we can measure time, we can measure λ


Harrison’s Chronometers



GPS Time

• Time is the basis for GPS navigation and positioning

• Time is kept using Caesium 133 atomic clocks


Empire

• To name is to own, to map shows the range of your authority

• Most major maritime nations that colonised renamed places

• Britain in India performed the Great Trigonometrical Survey





Mathematics

• Calculations on the Spheroid• Map Projections• Geometry, astronomical positioning• Lens equations, perspective• Logarithms enable rapid calculations


Reprographics

• The development of printing and durable inks

• Use of base materials like linen, silk and paper

• Lithography


Photogrammetry

• Measurement from photographs• Technique developed for architecture

but after invention of flight was adapted for aerial photography

• The basis of almost all 20thC mapping, particularly following WWII



Satellite Imaging Systems

• The advent of civilian space borne imaging systems

• The increasing resolution of these systems

• The ability to detect other wavelengths

• The ability to scale and position imagery



Active Systems• Airborne laser scanning


Modern Maps



http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/im/RD-T.html

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/im/RD-T.html









Extra-terrestrial Mapping


GIS

• An information system capable of analysing and displaying spatial data (sort of)


What you learnt today

• Why mapping is part of both cultural and scientific endeavour

• The evolution of mapping into a ‘science’


Documents

A Brief History of ‘mapping notes… · • Ptolemy’s books and maps ... 880-106 MappingENVIRONMENTS Ptolemy's Map • He developed the concept of latitude and grids, the gazetteer