UNIT 3: HOW ARE SOCIETIES ORGANISED?MAPS AND MAP-MAKING

WHAT ARE MAPS?

WHEN DO YOU USE MAPS?

WHEN WERE MAPS INVENTED?

WHAT DO MAPS SHOW?

WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF MAPS?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

Is this a map?

What do these maps show?

“The Catalan Atlas was the definitive map of its time… but perhaps the atlas’ most important contribution was what it left out. On other maps, unknown northern and southern regions were included as places of myth, of monsters, anthropology and sea serpents. But the truth-seeking, fact-finding Catalan Atlas instead left unknown parts of the earth blank. This blankness was labeled simply and frighteningly Terra Incognita, challenging every mariner who unfurled the chart. Maps of history have always been less honest…

…Terra Cognita and Terra Incognita inhabit exactly the same coordinates of time and space. The closest we come to knowing the location of what’s unknown is when it melts though the map like a watermark, a stain, as transparent as a drop of rain. On the map of history, perhaps the water stain is memory…”

TED Talk: Aris Venetikidis: Making sense of Maps