Ancient Anatolian Grids

The frame that set the Council of the European Union about the Digital Libraries has allowed to create important cartographic databases that are accessible on-line and give a response to the real demand among citizens and within the research community. We have developped an open GIS that surpasses the usual operativity of the traditional multiformat databases as it enlarges through the queries the way to get a more personalised information. This new methodology has been created with the aim of being implemented all around the European Union, and will allow the searches and analysis of the historical evolution of the territories and landscapes based upon the study of old cartographic documents.

New research activities are being promoted by the Archaeological Park of Agrigento with contributions from several Italian universities as well as from other countries. The archaeological investigation of the so-called upper Agorà, directed by Bari's Politecnico and University of Catania, consists of rebuilding the architecture that once characterised the ancient urban landscape of this area. E. Brienza and M. Liuzzo, from Enna's Kore University, have focused their collaborative efforts on a new analysis of evidence linked to the ancient street patterns. Through this collaboration, a new image of Agrigento's planning scheme has been produced that is quite different from the previously suggested one by Griffo and Schmidt in 1958.

Since prehistoric times, the allure for the inhabited world has always been of interest to mankind. This clearly states that from the earliest times, maps have played a significant role in human history. In present times both these maps and their makers serve as powerful medium to revive forgotten personalities and historical events. The history of map making shows that during ancient times, mapmaking was basically a form of decorative art but the most decorative maps have been produced during the middle age times. Mappe mundi and portolan charts were the two traditions found in the European world. But Muslim scholars were still following Ptolemy " s method and also incorporating writings of travelers and explorers. Through this paper we are making an attempt to have a retrospective view on maps of medieval times and how they laid foundations for scientific modern cartography.

Technology and Culture, 2009

were informants, guides, linguists, translators, geographers, go-betweens, providers of water and food' (p. 125). While based on obvious deep scholarship, the book retains a flowing conversational style that is accessible to all, thereby rendering its notions even more powerful and potentially far-reaching. It is, in short, a delight to read. Yet one flaw in its overall design derives from the hinted foundation of these writings as a series of talks delivered to various audiences, leading to some redundancies in phrasing and a bit too much reiteration of the book's main themes. And rhetoric does not routinely beget practice, for despite the reprimand of our modern culture for not assigning proper credit where credit is due, given the book's revelations of widespread use of Native American guidance, one wishes for more disclosure of the personalities of these key agents, to breathe life into their departed spirits rather than simply naming them one after another: a litany of providers of local intelligence from the perspective of Euro-American exploration and control. The publication is richly illustrated and attractively produced in London by Reaktion Books, Ltd., and in addition to line drawings there is a wealth of expedition maps and detailed portions of maps that help tell the tale. While faults are few, instances of somewhat careless editing have resulted in the rare though annoying spelling error or inconsistency, such as Nullarbor and Nullabor (sic) on consecutive pages, or the middle name of indefatigable painter Titian Peale correctly showing up in one place as Ramsay, and in another as Ramsey (sic). But these minor issues need not detract from a worthy effort, one which should interest scholar and general reader alike. 'Cartographic Encounters' succeeds in what it has set out to accomplish, and not only positions discovery and exploration within critical historiography but awakens as well our sense of justice and long-overdue attribution.

A Companion to Mediterranean History, ed. by Peregrine Horden and Sharon Kinoshira, 2014

Chapter twelve Maps illustrating the Mediterranean Sea that have been preserved today from antiquity and the medieval period were not intended to be used as a modern map might be. For the most part, they were theological maps, or historical narratives, or entertainments, or plans for dreams of ambitious rulers. In other words, these early maps provided visuality to larger schemes of power and position. It was not until the rise of portolans that maps reflected maritime travel narratives, and, even then, most extant portolans are vivid and highly decorative statements of power and dominion and not guides for sailors. As such, they, like all maps from the earliest examples to Google Earth, have a great deal to tell us about the way the world-or in this case the Mediterranean-was conceived in political as well as practical terms. Although the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy (d. c. 168 Ce) composed a detailed and technical book on world maps, with instructions for various methods of projection, the only actual maps associated with his treatise are in fact late Byzantine or Renaissance reconstructions. For that reason, we are unable to say what a secondcentury Ptolemaic map would have looked like. 1 For many Latin map makers, the Mediterranean was simply a line demarcating Europe from the other two continents. This is evident, for example, in the so-called TO maps, where the known world is shown surrounded by a circular sea (the 'O' of the maps) and divided into three continents by the T, whose 'leg' is the Mediterranean Sea separating Africa and Europe. The horizontal bar of the T represents two rivers: the River Nile and the River Don (see Figure 12.1). These abstract maps reflect a cartographic tradition probably going back to ancient Rome, preserved today as illustrations in ninth-century and later copies of the histories of Sallust (86-34 bCe) and a poem on the civil war between Pompey and Caesar composed by Lucan (39-65 Ce)