Did they have...

**djsway** · 01-06-2005, 01:42

maps back in those days? I mean how can the tell what a country looked like without planes and satellites?

**Byzantine Prince** · 01-06-2005, 02:04

Lol, yes they could make maps even at the time of the ancient greeks. There are actually some very controversial ancient greek maps depicting as far away as Antarctica. But there are other far more accepted ones that depict greece lybia and the middle east. The Romans had a far more exnsive map of Europe. They were all somewhat innacurate though since they were conducted in such obscre ways.

**Uesugi Kenshin** · 01-06-2005, 04:19

Maps were not necessarily very accurate but if you wanted your troops toi go somewhere you would have roads, landmarks or guides to follow so even though maps were often very inaccurate navigation was possible.

**derF** · 01-06-2005, 15:14

Im not sure exacly how they managed to draw maps, but there were maps.

I think they may have been made using boats sailing along coasts. (just a guess).

**Ziu** · 01-06-2005, 16:02

Here is a link to a page showing a twelfth century copy of a roman road map.

**Akka** · 01-06-2005, 16:06

Originally Posted by derF

Im not sure exacly how they managed to draw maps, but there were maps.

A method that was used in the XVIIth century (and perhaps was already used before) and that gave extremely precise maps, was simply to send teams to mesure physically the distance of three points that are distant of some kilometers, then put them on the map with triangulation. Rinse and repeat. It's how Louis XIV had a very good and precise map of France made (he wanted to see his own kingdom).

**drone** · 01-06-2005, 17:24

They did a show on the US History Channel about ancient inventions. They showed a cart that geared the cart's wheels to a rotating dial on the top. The dial would spin slowly, and at a known interval, drop a marble placed around the dial. By reloading the marbles, then counting the marbles at the destination, the distance was known. Basically an ancient odometer. Can't remember if this was greek or roman, but it could be used to measure roads quite accurately.

**Sin Qua Non** · 01-07-2005, 01:12

http://www.romancoins.info/Tabula-Peutingeriana.html

I stumbled across this ages ago. Thought it very interesting.

**Kraxis** · 01-07-2005, 01:25

Originally Posted by drone

They did a show on the US History Channel about ancient inventions. They showed a cart that geared the cart's wheels to a rotating dial on the top. The dial would spin slowly, and at a known interval, drop a marble placed around the dial. By reloading the marbles, then counting the marbles at the destination, the distance was known. Basically an ancient odometer. Can't remember if this was greek or roman, but it could be used to measure roads quite accurately.

Interestingly it wasn't really used for official roaddistancing (if such a word exists), it was merely a taximeter.
But then again the first steamengine was only a spinning device (also invented around that time).

**Khorak** · 01-07-2005, 01:32

Originally Posted by Kraxis

But then again the first steamengine was only a spinning device (also invented around that time).

Doubtful they would have done much of anything with steam engines anyway. Slavery was a vastly mroe simple and cheaper option instead of primitive steam engines.

**drone** · 01-07-2005, 03:50

Kraxis, do you know what it was called and who invented it? I can remember seeing the show, but my memory for names/dates/places is pretty bad. Too many blows to the head, I think...

**Kraxis** · 01-07-2005, 04:04

I think his name was Charon or something along those lines, a greek from Egypt.

**derF** · 01-07-2005, 12:13

Those linked maps are hilariously innaccurate.

**Krusader** · 01-07-2005, 12:21

Since someone mentioned medieval maps:

I learned that Venetian explorers & merchants used to sail along the coasts of Mediterranean, the Black Sea and European atlantic coast, and measure and draw the different coastlines. This was during the late medieval period.

I think I saw a copy of a Venetian map from the 16th century in a history book, and it was very accurate, and had plenty of similiarites to any modern day map, at least at the coastlines.