First Attempt?


The begining of Cartography?
The cartographic artifact found in 1963 by James Mellaart in Ankara, Turkey during an excavation of Catal Hyük in Anatolia can be considered among the oldest maps. This unearthed map-form is a wall painting that is approximately nine feet long and has an in situ radiocarbon date of 6,200 + 97 B.C. The map depicts a town plan, matching Catal Hyük itself, showing the congested "beehive" design of the settlement and displaying a total of some 80 buildings. The accompanying illustration of this map shows the painting from the north and east walls of the shrine. In the foreground is a town arising in graded terraces closely packed with rectangular houses. Behind the town an erupting volcano is illustrated, its sides covered with incandescent volcanic bombs rolling down the slopes of the mountain. Others are thrown from the erupting cone above which hovers a cloud of smoke and ashes. The twin cones of the volcano suggest that an eruption of Hasan Dag, rising to a height of 10,672 feet, and standing at the eastern end of the Konya Plain and visible from Catal Hyük, is recorded here. These local volcanic mountains were important to the inhabitants of Catal Hyük as a source of obsidian used in the making of tools, weapons, jewelry, mirrors and other objects. Further, from graphic embellishments around the mountain, Mellaart has speculated that the depiction of the volcano in an active state is accurate since vulcanism in this area continued for some 4,000 years later.



Clearly, the Catal Hyük "map" is still not the beginning of cartographic history. Investigation into the earliest beginnings of cartography will continue with a fair probability of further successes. This optimism is warranted by the fact the the materials used during these periods to record such geographical spatial concepts were more durable elements such as stone, clay, metal, earthenware, etc., unlike later cartographic artifacts made of more fragile materials such as paper and wood.

Source: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS