Professor Smith Speaks to Western Civilization Students

On Tuesday September 29, Professor David Smith spoke to the Western Civilization Series. His talk was entitled "Cartography in Western Civilization."

Smith, who holds his doctorate from the University of Chicago, and who teaches Geography and Area Studies for HPJ, began his talk by giving an overview of his discipline, and moved quickly to a discussion of the first representations of map making, which included the Lascaux Caves and Catal Hoyuk, where humans first began to create graphic representations of the earth. The first map, that we know of, which includes the basic elements ( representations of the shape and size of objects, distances and directions) was the Turin Papyrus. This Egyptian map, which was discovered during Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of the county, depicted a wadi, or dry creek bed used as a road, and included depictions of mines, hills, intersecting paths, and other information useful to finding one's way.

The Babylonians were the first to create maps purporting to show the entire world, and the Greeks expanded on this habit. Especially active were Greek philosophers such as Anaximander, Hecataeus, and others who lived in Miletus, a city state in modern day Turkey. They began creating world maps that were somewhat accurate at placing Europe, Asia, and Africa in rough approximation of there actual locations. Other notable Greeks included Herodotus, who Smith touted as the father of geography (historians claim him also), because of the detailed descriptions of peoples that can be found in his History and for naming the Atlantic Sea (sic), and Erotashtenes, who was the creator of meridians (longitude) and parallels (latitude).

Smith finished by telling students that in the Middle Ages, the cartographic world split, with Europeans creating maps that reflected spiritual values, and the Islamic world continuing the work of the Greeks. Smith's lecture in streaming video can be found on the HPJ Signature Lectures page.