Ancient Perspectives: Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome

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Richard J. A. Talbert (University of North Carolina, USA)

Ancient Perspectives

Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome

Richard J. A. Talbert (University of North Carolina, USA)

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English

Chicago University Press
14 November 2012

History; Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Historical maps & atlases; Cartography, map-making & projections

Series: The Kenneth Nebenzahl Jr. Lectures in the History of Cartography

Ancient Perspectives encompasses a vast arc of space and time—Western Asia to North Africa and Europe from the third millennium BCE to the fifth century CE—to explore mapmaking and worldviews in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In each society, maps served as critical economic, political, and personal tools, but there was little consistency in how and why they were made. Much like today, maps in antiquity meant very different things to different people.

Ancient Perspectives presents an ambitious, fresh overview of cartography and its uses. The seven chapters range from broad-based analyses of mapping in Mesopotamia and Egypt to a close focus on Ptolemy’s ideas for drawing a world map based on the theories of his Greek predecessors at Alexandria. The remarkable accuracy of Mesopotamian city-plans is revealed, as is the creation of maps by Romans to support the proud claim that their emperor’s rule was global in its reach. By probing the instruments and techniques of both Greek and Roman surveyors, one chapter seeks to uncover how their extraordinary planning of roads, aqueducts, and tunnels was achieved. Even though none of these civilizations devised the means to measure time or distance with precision, they still conceptualized their surroundings, natural and man-made, near and far, and felt the urge to record them by inventive means that this absorbing volume reinterprets and compares.

Edited by: Richard J. A. Talbert (University of North Carolina USA)
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 26mm, Width: 19mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 709g
ISBN: 9780226789378
ISBN 10: 0226789373
Series: The Kenneth Nebenzahl Jr. Lectures in the History of Cartography
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 14 November 2012
Audience: General/trade , Adult education , ELT Advanced , Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Richard J. A. Talbert is the William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History and Classics and the founder of the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World and Rome's World: The Peutinger Map Reconsidered.

Reviews for Ancient Perspectives: Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome

This richly illustrated volume provides a sweeping yet engaging overview of cartography produced in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, with examples spanning from the third millennium BCE to the fifth century CE. . . . The book will find a wide, interdisciplinary audience. Highly recommended. For specialists and nonspecialists alike. --K. M. Morin, Bucknell University Choice