The History of Maps
Featured Speaker: Professor Stanley Chodorow
Our generation has seen maps evolve from large pieces of paper and books that guided us across vast regions to directions that robot-voices intone from our phones. We should consider the history of drawn and printed maps before they become hidden data used by robotic directors of our travels.
The modern map may have been drawn to guide our wanderings, but early maps were not drawn with travel in mind. The earliest known map is from the paleolithic period, circa 10,000 BCE. We can only speculate about its purpose. Map-making became a common activity in pre-historic Mesopotamia and Egypt, circa 4,000 BCE, the regions where settled agriculture first developed. Those maps made it possible for bureaucrats to control the land under cultivation. Chinese maps, circa 500 BCE, also showed features relevant to agriculture. The ancient peoples of the subcontinent produced cosmologies, rather than maps of the physical world.
The question for the first two sessions of this class is about the purposes and techniques of the early mapmakers. Europeans did not begin to make maps to guide travel until the thirteenth century. The subsequent sessions of this class will look at the history of maps drawn to assert power and for travel. As maps became increasingly comprehensive and accurate, they became instruments of power as well as of exploration and trade. The history of maps gives us some insight into the evolution of commerce and international politics.
April 3: Prehistoric Maps
April 17: The Maps of Ancient Civilizations
May 1: Greek and Roman Maps
May 15: The Development of Maps to Guide Travel
May 29: The Evolution of Modern Maps
Presenter Biography
Stanley Chodorow is Professor Emeritus of History at UC San Diego. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1968. He served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Arts and Humanities from 1983 to 1994. He was Provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 1997. Chodorow received his B.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1968) from Cornell University. He also studied law as a postgraduate fellow at the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. He is a medieval historian specializing in the history of the western legal systems, constitutional ideas and institutions, and political thought.
Coordinator: Marsha Korobkin
4/3/2024 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Classroom 129, (in-person and online)
4/17/2024 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Classroom 129, (in-person and online)
5/1/2024 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Classroom 129, (in-person and online)
5/15/2024 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Classroom 129, (in-person and online)
5/29/2024 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Classroom 129, (in-person and online)
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