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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Common Sense M A X-P LANC K - INST I T U T FÜR W I SSENSCH AFTSGESC H I C H T E Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 2012 PREPRINT 426 Klaus Geus, Martin Thiering (eds.) Common Sense Geography and Mental Modelling COMMON SENSE GEOGRAPHY AND MENTAL MODELLING CHAPTER 1: COMMON SENSE GEOGRAPHY AND MENTAL MODELLING: OPENING 2 THE STAGE. Klaus Geus & Martin Thiering CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL MENTAL MODELS IN COMMON SENSE GEOGRAPHY. 11 Martin Thiering CHAPTER 3: THINKING SPACE: INSULARITY AS MENTAL MODEL. Gian Franco 45 Chiai CHAPTER 4: XENOPHON’S ANABASIS AND THE COMMON GREEK MENTAL 57 MODELLING OF SPACES. Anca Dan CHAPTER 5: GEOGRAPHY OF HEAVENS IN THE BYZANTINE COMMONWEALTH: 74 THE “ENOCHIC CHRONOTOPE”. Florentina Badalanova Geller CHAPTER 6: BEROSSOS ON KOS FROM THE VIEW OF COMMON SENSE GEOGRAPHY. 101 Mark J. Geller CHAPTER 7: A ‘DAY’S JOURNEY IN HERODOTUS’ HISTORIES. 110 Klaus Geus CHAPTER 8: WHAT DISTINGUISHES SCIENTIFIC GEOGRAPHY FROM COMMON 119 SENSE GEOGRAPHY? Kurt Guckelsberger CHAPTER 9: SPATIAL ORIENTATION IN THE DIDACTIC POEM OF DIONYSIUS 131 PERIEGETES. Ekaterina Ilyushechkina CHAPTER 10: THE CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANCIENT SCIENTIFIC 139 »FACT«: PARADOXORAPHY IN THE PERIPATOS. Colin Guthrie King CHAPTER 11: LOOKING FOR BIRD’S EYE VIEW IN ANCIENT GREEK SOURCE. 145 Thomas Poiss ABOUT THE AUTHORS 156 CHAPTER 1 COMMON SENSE GEOGRAPHY AND MENTAL MODELLING: 1 OPENING THE STAGE Klaus Geus & Martin Thiering Freie Universität Berlin / Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Schon der Augenschein überzeugt uns offenbar, dass die Erde eine Kugel ist. Dennoch darf man den Augen- schein nicht als Beweismittel verwenden, denn nicht alles erscheint uns so, wie es in Wahrheit ist. Daher müssen wir von dem, was uns ganz offenbar ist, auf das schließen, was uns nur zu sein scheint. (Kleomedes, 1, 8) Summary Common sense geography refers to the aspect of historical geography concerned with implicit or tacit knowledge in ancient cultures. Common sense geography denotes a 'lower' geography, to be distinguished from 'professional' or 'higher' geography: that is, the phenomenon of the spread and application of geographical knowledge outside of expert circles and disciplinary contexts. Common sense geography refers finally to a 'naive' perception and description of space and the use of 'intuitive' arguments in geographical contexts. These three areas taken together have been almost fully ignored in Classical studies. The polyvalence of this concept of common sense geography captures these three aspects of our study. 1. Introduction This volume offers a new approach to spatial orientation as implicit knowledge processes from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The title Common Sense Geography and Mental Modelling presents this approach in nuce. We are surveying and connecting ancient texts with state of the art models of mental representation. Hence, we aim to (re)construct mental models in ancient orientation in connection with cognitive psychological and cognitive linguistic methods. First, let us deconstruct the title of the volume. Common sense geography refers to the aspect of historical geography concerned with implicit or tacit knowledge in ancient cultures. As such, this collection of papers implements the cognitive psychologist theory of mental models fro reading ancient descriptions of spatial orientation and navigation as presented by different writers and empirical sources, e.g. artefacts, maps, itineraries. We argue that common sense geography denotes a ‘lower’ geography, to be distinguished from ‘professional’ or 'higher' 1 Acknowledgments: First and foremost we thank Elton Barker (Open University) for proof reading and his invaluable comments on earlier drafts. Thanks goes also to the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science for giving us the opportunity to publish our work-in-progress, especially Jochen Schneider, Jörg Fischer and Angelika Irmscher, and Department I (Jürgen Renn) for making this volume happen. Jürgen Renn again for gi- ving us the opportunity to present some preliminary ideas during a MPIWG workshop. And last but not least Wolfgang Crom for hosting us at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin (Kartenabteilung) many times and feeding us with cookies while listening patiently to all our quibbles. 2 geography: that is, the phenomenon of the spread and application of geographical knowledge outside of expert circles and disciplinary contexts. Common sense geography refers finally to a 'naive' perception and description of space and the use of 'intuitive' arguments in geographical contexts. These three areas taken together have been almost fully ignored in Classical studies, as in other disciplines. 2. Common Sense Geography In general, Ancient Geography can be described as a discipline that explores the general geographical ('physical') conditions people were living under as well as the concepts and mental maps Greeks and Romans had in their minds. Historical geographers of the Mediterranean do basic research for all branches of classics and ancient history. They work primarily with historical, philological and archaeological methods, but also – in an increasing degree – with digital methods and techniques like geographical information systems (GIS). In the scope of our research project we deal with those notions about space(s) to which Greeks and Romans ascribed, the ways they obtained geographical knowledge, how they made use of this knowledge in terms of political, religious, cultural, scientific thinking, and last but not least how geography as a discipline evolved throughout antiquity. Geography arose as part of cosmological reasoning. It emerged as a distinct scientific discipline not before Hellenistic times, when – and this needs more discussion – more data became available, the dependency of earthly on these celestial phenomena was called into question, and an environmental awareness and concern developed. This question of spatial hierarchy is one raised, e.g., in both common almanacs or parapegmata and scientific treatises. Our goal here is to analyse the cultural assumptions, traditional habits and behaviours, patterns and aims of action and elementary measurement procedures in spaces. The possible scholarly gains promise to be important. Among others, we will learn more about implicit presuppositions of knowledge, review and reappraise customary termini, and offer a way to new perspective on interpreting historical events and processes. 2.1 Common Sense Geography Up to now, the questions of to what extent and how geographical knowledge was spread among and stratified throughout the ancient communities has been vastly neglected, as have been such questions as who taught geography, and where and how geography was instructed 3 in Greek and Roman times. The main reason for this lacuna in the scholarship must lie in the state of our source material. We are pretty well informed about professional geographers like Eratosthenes or Ptolemy – and consequently there are several studies of their work – but to those more practical questions regarding the dissemination of knowledge, our sources provide access only in an oblique way. One type of source which has not been used so far, is, for example, the measurements of distances transmitted in several different ancient texts, and not only those chiefly geographical. Work remains to be done too on the Roman military diploma, the portable sun-dials, the paradoxographical literature and even on the didactic poems in order for their contribution to thinking about common geography to be valued properly. Here we would stress the distinction between commonsensical experience and scientific understanding. The following aspects need to be studied: reception and translation of ideas; forms of discourses between community members; knowledge of laymen in comparison and contrast with that of experts; application of geographical knowledge; 'diagnostics' and 'therapy', i.e. the observation and monitoring of spaces and the intervention into them. 2.2 Common Sense Geography Common sense geography was first a topic of discussion in the final decades of the last century when software writers tried to design virtual spaces. These first man-made worlds produced an awkward and phony feeling. The reason for this was these virtual scenarios were designed according to objective parameters which differ from human sensation and experience. These results agree to a large extent with studies of development psychologists like Piaget & Inhelder and Tomasello who investigate the spatial perception of children and show its difference from that of adults. This topic of intuitive perception of space is far from fully explored and understood. We may cite the following as examples of particular human perceptions: the so-called 'hodological' orientation according to routes and streets; the alignment of administrative and religious buildings according to cardinal or compass points and sacral axis; or the negligence of the third dimension, the height, in our everyday experience of space; or the impact of insularity, the real or felt isolation of peoples and individuals who inhabit islands; and so on. Our investigations into the subject thus far suggest that the historical aspect has been missing from recent research on spatial perception and spatial representation. Again, we cite a few instances: ancient distances are measured often in 'days', i.e. in a time, not a distance unit stricto sensu; or, the puzzling finding that maps or geographical diagrams did not play
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