
Ancient Perspectives
Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome
Richard J. A. Talbert(Editor)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 14. November 2012
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-226-78937-8 (ISBN)
Description
"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.
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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Adult education
Dimensions
Height: 26 mm
Width: 19 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
709 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-78937-8 (9780226789378)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Richard J. A. Talbert
Ancient Perspectives
Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome
E-Book
12/2022
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
€19.25
Available for download
Person
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.