The Science of Cartography - Research Paper Example

Cartography; The geographical history of Map making The science of cartography holds a rich history that when explored gives insight to events led to the development of modern maps. The trade dates back to ancient civilisations where scholars and explorers passionately expressed their view of the world, as they perceived it. Their deductions were based on study journeys that were commissioned by their authorities in the effort to establish what lies beyond their borders. Such activities have since then provided critical contributions to modern cartography following advance in technology. This paper seeks to explore the science of map making with respect to its rich history culminating to modern maps. A map is a diagrammatic representation of a part of the world using from a bird’s point of view to provide guidance to the user on designated landmarks and geographical locations. In this respect, maps indicate the location of important elements in a specified part of the world such as political boundaries, natural resources, roads, topography, as well as economic activities. The science, study, and the art of making maps are descriptive of cartography, which involves examining the information conveyed, and its effective application. The importance of maps cannot be understated as they serve to provide guidance and direction to an area of interest. In this regard, exploration of new areas is easily facilitated by studying maps relevant for direction to various regions. This ensures safety of individuals involved, as they are aware of their surrounding keeping away from potential harm such as cliffs, raging waters, and hot deserts, which facilitates effective tourism. Similarly, geographical illustrations indicate flight patterns that ensure safety in air travel. Notable also is the role of maps in illustrating weather patterns, which is critical for individuals in the vicinity. To this effect, warning can be delivered effectively to residents in the event of eminent weather catastrophes. Maps also serve to safeguard infrastructure through effective planning and engineering. For instance, utility companies such as gas and electricity own maps indicating their infrastructure network, which is critical in the management of cities. This ensures that developers are aware of the network and thus work around it to preserve its integrity and avoid economic repercussions. The most remarkable role of maps, to both ancient civilisations and modern society, is demarcation of borders at national and international levels. This is critical to enhance peace and foster cohesion amongst different cultures in the world. Maps provide a unique opportunity to establish territorial boundaries that fundamental in defining jurisdiction with regard to legal systems and economic activities. International boundaries are often vocal in determining trade among nations, which serves to influence prices of various products such as oil in the world. In addition, maps are of economic importance owing to illustrated trade routes and cargo tracking, which provides essential information to various business parties. In essence, maps are important tools that facilitate understanding and navigation of the world around us. Depending on the application, various kinds of maps exist to illustrate different aspects of the world’s phenomenon. Physical maps indicate identifying physical features of the land with respect to terrain, topography (elevation), rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. These find effective application among explorers in their navigation and among policy makers as they plan development projects. Similarly, movement maps are highly specialised to indicate transport networks such as road maps in order to guide users on how to get a round. Distribution maps highlight the presence or absence of a desired interest in an area; for instance, the maps can be used to illustrate demographics or the availability of natural resources in a region. Political maps highlight national and international territories having divided regions into districts, states, and countries. Such maps also indicate details of a region in terms of legal jurisdiction and local government authority. Political maps are often used alongside physical maps to provide a rich contrast in terms of economic potential. In order to adopt effectively the information provided by a map, one needs to understand terms used to mark important features in the area of interest. Over the years, studies have defined latitudes, longitudes, equator, tropic of Cancer, and tropic Capricorn as significant elements in the map of the world; other aspects include the prime meridian, International Date Line, hemisphere, legend (key), the Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle. These represent the scientific language of maps, which seeks to describe in details the direction and distance of various places and features. To produce a map, one is required to observe details and illustrate inscription and names of places that are legible and easily comprehended. History of map making Past civilisations are credited for their role in shaping descriptive illustration of their surroundings, which fuelled advancements in the area. The earliest of the maps were found in Babylon, modern day Iraq, which made of clay dating back to 2500 BC. Studying the ancient civilisation has only revealed a handful of Babylonian maps despite the richness of the civilisation. The illustration, which depicted the universe through a Babylonian perception, demonstrated the Babylon to the north of the map. The clay tablet also contained inscribed text believed to be the legend used to interpret the map’s direction. In the map, the kingdom of Babylon was schematically illustrated in detail with the Euphrates flowing from Armenian mountains to the centre of the city while other maps revealed clearly marked mountain ridges, rivers, and cities. In spite of the findings, hardly any significant evidence is presented on the state of map making in ancient Babylon. Similar geographical illustration were made neighbouring Egyptians whose extensive work in the area sought to document property boundaries. This contributes to the enormous influence on the world’s ancient civilisation, which provides enough cartographic evidence as opposed to Babylon. Egyptians were fully furnished with geographical knowledge of their boundaries (Bagrow 31). Ancient Egyptian maps are indicated as geometric and incorporated well-established surveying techniques. This follows the frequent floods in Nile valleys that often washed away boundary stones, and the boundaries had to be marked afresh. The maps were essential during military campaigns that sought to expand territories and assert dominion on the newly conquered regions. Similarly, the maps indicated trade paths with neighbouring cities and kingdoms. The map-making process involved geographical expeditions that explored neighbouring countries. Studies indicate that such expeditions were made as far as present day Somalia by sea. Evidence in support of such missions is found inscribed in temple walls, but fail to provide maps. Although Egyptians are credited for inventing geometry, few geographical maps survived over the years but for building plans of palaces and temples. A document noteworthy is the Turin Papyrus Map that provides schematics of gold mines east of the Nile River. The map indicates the gold-bearing basin, a few houses, and a road network that connected the region with the mainland. The Greeks had advance of their own in cartography with attempts being made to illustrate large regions in a map, and this resulted in schematic drawing that lacked geographical details. At the time, geography was regarded as a branch of philosophy until the works of Ptolemy were recognised to define cartography. While most people believed that the earth was a flat mass in a large body of water, the Greeks postulated the earth spherical. Aristotle provided evidence on the spherical theory citing the lunar eclipse, sinking of the ship and the sighting of some stars from some locations and not others. He argued that if the earth were flat, it would not produce shadows seen with the rising or setting sun. During this age, science was incorporated to the map-making process where logic and trigonometry were applied to solve prevailing queries. These early queries include the shape of the earth as well as its size; however, Eratosthenes who calculated the circumference of the earth after having studied the angle at which the solstice sun hit the city made major contributions (Bonnett 31). His calculations determined have been indicated as the closest approximation to the actual figure at the time, aided by an Astrolabe, which was invested by the Greek to measure the altitude of stars and the sun. The Greek scholar is also credited for having drawn the first world maps after devising a grid-based system to locate place on the earth. Claudius Ptolemy was the most important in the geographical studies at the height of the Roman Empire, as an astronomer and mathematician, he revolutionised the depiction of the postulated spherical world on a map by use of specific procedures to indicate geographical features (“Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” 7). This was achieved by the use of a coordinate system consisting of latitudes and longitudes, which was similar to Eratosthenes grid system. Ptolemy gathered principles used in his research to create a manuscript titled Geographia, which was a geographical guide to making maps. In his work, Ptolemy restricted himself to giving basic instructions, suggesting projections, and listing coordinates of key points in the maps. It is from this manuscript that other scholars built their work to produce maps based on the location of interest. It is for this reason Ptolemy work is regarded as a prototype to modern mapping as it included common feature of modern maps. This follows the adoption of his concepts to successive generations as well as the transfer of skills among the ancient civilisations. Notably, the existence of schematic maps transmitted through the middle ages provides evidence of incorporation of Ptolemy’s concepts. The Roman Empire possessed enough expertise to provide map diagrams of the kingdom such as the map of Sicily made for the temple of Matuta. Studies indicate the existence roman maps based on road surveys under the instructions of Emperor Augustus to provide route-maps for military campaigns. These were particular essential as they facilitate transport of resources during war and enhance tactical options for the Romans. After the seizure of Greece, little regard was shown for intellectual advancements since roman cartographers maintained their basic cosmographical concept. As such, romans held the belief that the earth was a flat disc surrounded by sea as they had little interest in theoretical considerations of laying down geographical data. They were heavily dependent on measuring the distance between places, which more practical in mapping military and trade routes. Pomponius remains an important cartographer in the Roman Empire having divided the earth into five regions indicating that the Caspian Sea as an inlet to the northern ocean. In addition, he suggested that only two of the illustrated five regions were hospitable with others experiencing extreme temperatures. The middle ages are characterised by decline of science and the rise of the church to influence the society in an effort to curtail paganism and the secular culture, and this followed the collapse of the Roman Empire and the plunge into the dark ages of Christendom. Knowledge and intellectual assessment of events largely lied in the hands of the religious scribes who relied heavily on the Bible as opposed to geographical facts. In spite condemning the intellectual and artistic legacy of Greece and Rome to oblivion, the mediaeval church adopted cartographic practices with the exception to the astrological superstition associated with the planet. As such, the traditional Roman cartographic circular map was adopted by the church having met all the requirements and lacking objections from the Bible. With time, Jerusalem occupied the centre of most maps generated at the time since it was the heart of the Christian faith. In addition, the maps were often decorated and painted with blissful colours of animals and people at the edges. Another common feature was the figure of Christ crucified as the background of the map (Bagrow 50); whereby the head indicated east and the feet west while the hands indicated north and south. In this period, two important categories of maps were made namely road maps and portolan maps. The portolan maps were heavily influenced by Catalan cartographers to include elements from mediaeval circular maps and narratives from Asia. The maps included sailing guides that facilitated navigation across the raging seas during exploration expeditions (1-World Globes); whiles charts were hand-drawn on animal skins and lacked legends. All the while, earlier work by Ptolemy drew attention across Europe resulting in exploration for new territories owing to diminishing resources and increase in population. These expeditions are attributed to colonisation that resulted across the newly discovered regions. Christopher Columbus embarked on his historic voyage guided by Ptolemy’s largely inaccurate maps to chart a western trade route from Spain to Asia. Although he never found Asia, he landed in America and used his records to create maps that would change the course of the world (Harrell et al 7). This coincided with the renaissance period, which is described as the process in which, artists and scholars attempted to rediscover as well as revive works of arts and literature under the influence of classical models in the 14th-16th centuries. During this period, a cultural movement was experience and spread to the rest of Europe, where Italy is considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance which saw the outlook and institutions of the middle ages merge. It is during this period that radical change would be experienced at all levels of the society, giving rise to the European civilisation, which later transformed the modern western civilisation. Owing the effects of this rediscovery, maps were widely printed and distributed widely. Sebastian Munster is credited for his contribution in cartography for publishing a map of the world that was regarded as a standard. This follows the Columbus voyage that charted a new outlook of the world and discovery of other regions. Another explorer of enormous significance is Ferdinand Magellan whose goal was chart a trade route to Asia. Sailing was the prevalent mode of transport at the time and aim was to establish a way through the American continents using the Columbus routes. Having travelled to the tip of modern day South America, Magellan reached Asia docking in present day Philippines before he was killed by natives. His efforts remain significant, as he is the first man to circumnavigate the world (Thrower 75). Gerardus Mercator, a Belgian cartographer, developed a cylindrical projection in the 16th century to chart a global map following countless explorations. His work was published based on the projection whose application is still widely used for navigation and educational purposes. The birth of modern cartography revolves around the refinement of surveying techniques to incorporate measurands between various points of interest. In light of this, surveyors measured angles and distances in order to learn about the shape, size, position, and orientation of an area of interest. The new approach to cartography saw the production of an accurate map of the world in 1791, but over the years, maps have become more complex with enhanced accuracy following advances in technology and understanding of the world. This has resulted in the expansion of the field of mathematics and geography with relation creation of a modern atlas. Various instruments were useful at different ages seeking to understand and plot the world accurately. An astrolabe was invented by the Greeks to measure the altitude and predict the position of stars, planets, and the sun, and consisted of a flat metal ring marked in degrees with a rotating bar at the centre. Astrolabes were used through to the 16th century after the invention of cross-staff, which had the similar application but provide ease during handling. The instrument consisted of a long pole graduated with length units and adjustable crosspieces fitted along its length. The altitude was determined by observing through the main pole and adjusting the crosspieces to align to the object of interest before reading the indicated scale. However, the cross staff held the capacity to blind the users as it involved staring at the sun, and the other useful instrument was the sextant, which was established in 1757 to measure the angle between two visible objects. The sextant is still a popular instrument among veteran sailors in modern society. Invented in China in the second century, compasses emerged as the most useful instrument in history of map production. The instrument comprises of a magnetic rod that usually points north to illustrate the earth’s magnetic fields and thus, the direction. This provides aid to explorers and they find their bearing on the direction indicated by the compass. Presently, cartography has reached a new height compared to ancient civilisations and their attempts to explore the world. Advancement in surveying technology has led to the development of various types of maps are descriptive of the demand. Such advancements drive the development of computer technology and contribute to the thirst of information revolution and its impact on cartography. Computer technologies have replaced traditional mapping procedures that involved hours of research on a region. In addition, technology facilitates digital, automated, and computer assisted cartography that emerged in the 1960s to become anachronistic. As such, technology ensures unlimited potential in terms of the level of accuracy and amount of detail presented in modern maps. Among the technologies involved are sonar, satellites, and high-end interpretative devices. Sonar equipment sends sound waves to detect objects and estimate their distance based on the time taken for the sound to return. This technology is effectively applied defining accurate waterways across the ocean. Although established first launched in 1957, satellites have served as important tools in the cartography owing various technological breakthroughs. Such breakthroughs have seen the incorporation of various instruments such as radar, camera, thermometers, and sonar, which are used to gather information. There are numerous satellites circling the world while accumulating data as required by their operators (Taylor 24). This increases the types of maps available, which range from satellite imagery of the world to locations of various natural resources. Maps exist to answer systematically to queries on a given region. To answer these questions, maps must have a description of its scale, legend, title and edition, direction as well as clear designation of various physical features. Works Cited Taylor, D. Policy Issues in Modern Cartography, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1998. Print. 1-World Globes. The History of Maps. n.d. Web. 17 May 2013. Bagrow, Leo. History of Cartography, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1964. Print. Bonnett, Alastair. What is Geography? London: Sage, 2008. Print. Harrell, David Gaustad, Edwin, Boles, John and Griffith, Sally. Unto A Good Land: A History Of The American People To 1900, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005. Print. “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists”. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc, 1998. Vol. 54, No. 6 Thrower, Norman. Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society, Third Edition, University of Chicago Press, 2008. Print. Read More