Maps are dead. Long live maps
James C. Fass
Apex Geospatial Data Services, LLC
400 N. Loop 1604 East, Suite 300
San Antonio, TX 78232
Email: jfass@apexinc.com
Abstract
The evolution of maps and the relationship between the map maker and the map user have taken
a radical turn since computer technology was introduced to this ancient and intuitive craft.
Recent advances in the design of geospatial databases are the logical extension of a fast-moving
data-centric trend that can be plotted back to the 1970™s, and, arguably, from the very beginnings
of civilization. Yet, although the data-centric target is readily understood and embraced by the
data conversion industry, there is a substantial lag in the understanding of data-centric methods
to fill today™s targets. Understanding map content in terms of the relational data model it has
become requires conversion project managers to think differently about how to plan, manage and
control the conversion effort, which continues to be the most expensive component of any GIS.
Of Maps and Meaning
A Brief History of Maps
Map making is an intuitive, apparently universal human activity, which predates in some cases,
the use of written language itself. Arguably, the earliest maps known to exist can be found on
Babylonian clay tablets that may be anywhere from four to six thousand years old. On such
tablets, we find a system of somewhat normalized symbols representing a pattern of buildings
and/or plats of land in relative position to a river or shoreline. There is no sign of text or
annotation. The meaning of the maps is carried solely by the intuitive interpretation of the
repeated symbols and their (presumably not-to-scale) spatial relationships.
Skipping ahead about a millennium to 1300 BC, we can find the earliest known cadastral maps,
drawn on papyrus in ancient Egypt. A famous example is known as the ihTurin PapyrusllŠnot
because it was made in Italy, but because the artifact is currently housed in a museum there. The
Turin Papyrus is notable for its range of cartographic symbology, some of which is surprisingly
similar to topographic symbols still in use today. There are, for example, standard shapes for
wells, monuments and non-landmark buildings, as well as area patterns to indicate different road
surface conditions. The Turin Papyrus also gives us some very early examples of map
annotation. These include descriptive text for hypsographic features and road destinations.
Compared with the Babylonian clay tablets, the Turin Papyrus has significantly richer
information content due to its expanded vocabulary of symbols and the use of selective
annotation.
If we take a brief stop about 1500 years later, still in Egypt, we find some significant advances in
map-making with the work of Ptolemy in the second century AD. Maps from the Ptolemic tradition are notable for their attempt to put things into geographic context using a global system
of latitude and longitude. In addition to the increased sophistication of cartographic symbology
and annotation, we have added meaning in the form of absolute spatial coordinates.
Figure 1 - Mapping Innovation Timeline (1)
For the next 1800 years or so, there are many technological refinements in the standardization of
map symbols, the accuracy of feature coordinates and the quality of supporting annotation, but
the fundamental nature of how maps convey their meaning is unaffected until computers come
on the scene. Then, from the 1970™s onward, we see a series of developments no less significant
than those surveyed for the past four thousand years, but condensed into a period of only about
thirty years.
