The Keynote Address Maps as the Heritage of A1ankind*
REVEREND FRANCIS J. HEYDEN, s.J. Astronomer, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D. C.
T IS unusual for an astronomer to give a an old envelope. As long as he indicates the I keynote address to people who are earth right number of turns in the road and shows bound in their avocation of mapping the you the number of stt'eams you are to cross, earth. Of course, you could not have done you can probably find the place I\'ithout too very much without stars, without the rota much difficulty. tion of the earth or without the timekeepers In the same way, some of the most primi who give us the longitudes we need for any tive maps have shown the the right number of distance to be measured on the surface of the turns in a river; they have shown the por earth. tages at waterfalls and even have used camp Having been in charge of a time service sites bet\\'een one day's travel, \I'hich was the similar to that at the Naval Observatory in custom among the Indians of this country, the Philippines for three years, I presume I rather than longitudes. Each campsite, am qualified for at least one dimension, and whether you were climbing a mountain for a that is longitude. day or walking rapidly across a plain, would I am going to talk to you, however, about be spaced equidistant apart. something entirely different from the meas Thus, the sources of scale in many very old urement of longitude. Everybody has a maps which have been found are quite arbi hobby on the side, and one that has intrigued trary. But we have some maps which do not me for several years has been old maps and have such an arbitrary scale, but actually had new maps. a mental picture of the entire area which he I like to look at them; I like to see how could reproduce from memory. much work has gone into the delineation of a An example of this is shown in the book by contour or of an elevation on a map. I have Raisz entitled "General Cartography." A wondered who does all this work? \iVho wan part of northern Canada covering an area of ders afield? \Vho has measured the eleva several hundred square miles was drawn by tions; who measured the coast lines, the lati an illiterate Eskimo. "'hen you compare it tudes and the longitudes? wi th a very carefull y prepared map, you are Because every time there is a detail that is amazed at the accuracy with which this indi put down accurately on an ancient map, there vidual remembered minute details and scale. must have been somebody there who set foot It is upon this type of person that I believe on the spot. Who has not looked at a very old many of the very ancient maps we have de map and wondered how much real labor and pended for their amazi ng accuracy. study went into it, not only on the part of the Most intriguing of all, of course, is the work man who brought in the original data but the of the compiler whom \I'e find here and there man who finally compiled it from all sorts of in the history of mapping. I shall talk about a data and made it what it is. couple of these people. Some very old maps appear very crude. Compilers are the men who have gathered They are no better than some of the directions the information that has come helter skelter you receive from a friend who invites you to from d ifferent travelers and voyagers. The his country home and d raws it on the back of compilers are able by the best means at their
* ASP-ACSM General Assembly, Main Ballroom, V,;edneselay, March 27, 1963 at 1:00 P.M. EDITOR'S NOTE: Father Heyden has been Director of the observatory at Georgetown University since 1948. This well-known scientist was Chief Astronomer of the Manila Observatory from 1931-1934, and a mem bel' of the eclipse expeditions to Brazil in 1947 and to China in 1948. He has designed equipmen t, trained personnel and selected the observation sites for a numberof U. S. Air Force-sponsored eclipse ex peditions to may parts of the worlel, including, most recently, Sudan and Iran. Father Heyden ~as written numerous articles on scientific subjects for a number of technical journals and is an authonty on the photo-electric method of observing solar eclipses. He is a consultant for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on applications of space relationships. Father Heyden was recently named by the Washington Academy of Sciences as "Science Teacher of the Vear." 573 574 PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING
command to coordinate all of this heterogene looking at them is, where did all the evidence ous information into a unified whole. That, of for drawing these maps come from? course, has been the principal task of all of One map, a very ancient one, shows a part you with the adyantages of modern tech of Alaska. Whoever added the annotations in niques. the course of time has made me wonder about Perhaps the earliest known map of this sort the exploration entailed in it. was that done by the Alexandrian scientist Mr. Mallery tells me that he heard about it and astronomer, Eratosthenes, who is cred through a Norwegian sea captain. On it you ited with having compiled a map of the then will find that there are two words which refer known world on which he shows the British to a "muddy glacier" and "lava beds." There Isles, a good part of Siberia, India, Ceylon, are scarcely any traces of these features now, the whole Mediterranean area, the Iberian but evidence of them has been found in the Peninsula and North Africa. preparation of the Geological Survey. One The unusual feature of this map by Eratos estimate of the age of the "muddy glacier" is thenes is the coordinate system similar to the abou t 1,500 years. mercator projection which was introduced Another ancient map of the North Atlantic centuries later. showing Greenland and Labrador was used by Eratosthenes, of course, did know some Father Erlend Thordsen and published later thing about coordinate systems. He was an by Zeno. Certainly, this particular map outstanding astronomer. He also had an ad existed before some of the most modern sur vantage in gathering the data for his map in veys and explorations of the country. It indi the library at Alexandria, of which he had cates that there have been voyagers there charge. It was a relatively new library at that with competent surveyors among them. time because it had been founded by Alexan Whether or not we shall ever be able to fully der the Great. With all of this material at his explore all of the information that these peo command, he produced his map of the world, ple brought back with them and have pre which was lost along with the original data in served is a question that we should try to the destruction of the library at the time of answer in the future. the rise of the Moslem empire. This same em I have often 1V0ndered about the way cer pire which did so much devastation in the be tain islands and other land masses have been ginning, was to produce a number of eminent put together on these ancient maps. I believe scientists and astronomers a few centuries that the compilers did not pay much atten later. tion to the transoceanic distances in those Only a description of Eratosthenes' map of days. When at sea, they simply sailed ami the world survived. The map itself was de sailed until they saw evidence of land. Most stroyed, but it has been reproduced only from of the ancien t maps seem to have been pre the description. pared for piloting rather than for navigation. Eratosthenes probably holds the title of There is another ancient map (Figure 1) having made the first map of the world. which indicates a projection viewed from the Ptolemy, who came three centuries after north and it shows the northern coast of Eratosthenes, was the next great compiler of Alaska with the Aleutian Islands going off to ancien t maps; and from then on, the art of the righ t. mapping became routine with explorers sav Another (Figure 11), presumably prepared ing their little drawings prepared mostly for by Zeno, shows Greenland. Most of the detail coastwise navigation. Not much effort was di is now under ice. The accuracy of these buried rected toward a map of the entire known features has intrigued Mr. Mallery and my world, until fairly recent times. It does appear self. Paul Emile Victor has found evidence of that there were maps which could be trusted these land areas which make Greenland ap ,\"i th some degree of accuracy. pear to be divided into two larger land masses I have studied a few such maps with a with a seaway between them. friend of mine whom I have known for many The names of places have been put on this years. He is about 80 years old now and has map, not necessarily by the same people who been having a wonderful time collecting an drew the map. None of these maps were pre cient maps. His name is Arlington H. Mal pared by one surveyor, probably not even by lery. Whenever he drops in for a visit, we talk one group of surveyors at one time. They about the many things he hopes he can find must represent a compilation of information some day from such maps. that has been brought back over many gen I do not know how much interpretation can erations of explorers. be gotten directly from them. All I ask while How much of this is based on tradition and KEYNOTE ADDRESS: MAPS AS THE HERITAGE OF MANKIND 575
FIG. I North Coast of Alaska with identifications by A. H. Mallery. memory; how much on actual record and cap of Greenland. Even though other expla scientific measurement cannot be fully ap nations are equally plausible, such as the sink preciated. However, much of the coastlines ing of land masses under the weight of the ice, has been drawn by people who made actual I would still be inclined to wonder why the measurements with whatever instrument they very old maps and modern seismic soundings had at the time. This seems definite from most agree so closely. There is a modern Geological of these ancient maps. Survey map of Alaska which indicates the According to some seismic explorations, traces of the lava beds and the glacier that there are separate land masses under the ice- were marked on the old map. The new map is
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Copyright 1956 by Arlington H. Mallery Published by Overlook Co., Box 603 7, Wash. 5, O. C.
FIG, II Greenland showing sub-glacial strait found by Paul Victor. KEYNOTE ADDRESS: MAPS AS THE HERIT.\GE OF MANKIND 577
a marvelous piece of work resulting from the section of this map with Mr. Walter of the efforts to use radioactive dating for the vari Hydrographic Office and Father Daniel Line ous rocks and other specimens that are found han of Weston College Seismic Station in in that area. Massachusetts on the Georgetown University This map contains valuable information Forum in 1956 under the title "New and Old that we hope will never meet the fate of the Discoveries in An tarctica." map of Eratosthenes. In the transcript of that broadcast I put a Another very interesting map (Figure III) picture of this map. We used to send out a that has caused a lot of discussion was pub transcript to anybody who wanted it for ten lished by the Turkish navigator, Piri Reis, in cents. vVhen we had to send out a couple the year 1513. He originally compiled a map thousand transcripts of this broadcast, I got a of the whole known world, but only portions little bit worried because it was costing more of his work are known today. The map of the money to produce and mail them than the ten east coast of South America sho\\'ing a mouth cent fee provided. I stopped taking orders for the Amazon River. vVhen the t\\·o river when the last printing had run out. mouths are superimposed, the entire east Now I have to send ten cents back to peo coastline matches the best available chart ple all over the world, even Russia and Japan from the U. S. Hydrographic Office with sur because they have read about this half-hour prising accuracy. This map extends all the broadcast and are interested in the Piri Reis way into North America and around through map. vVithout a doubt, it has become a very, Alaska. The islands of the \Vest Indies are very, famous map and there are many people mixed up with Iceland and Greenland not far interested in the unknown surveyors who away. The islands apparently are not placed provided the original data. according to latitude and longitude. But for I have never figured out what all the ships anybody sailing in on a particular compass mean on ancien t maps. Some people think heading and seeing "land fall" of an island, that there is a cipher in them, but I am not the particular area of the map would serve for competent to know whether they do more their piloting and navigation. than indicate the type of ship that was travel This map by Pit-i Reis is the first one that ling at that particular time in that area or M r. II allery sho\\-ed to me. He made all of the whether you would need a big ship in one area comparisons between old and new with the and a small ship in another. assistance of a friend in the Hydrographic There are some stories about the explorers Office. After matching the various parts of the who obtained the data for maps in the 16th coasts with the best known data of Hydra and 17th cen turies. There was a J esui t lay graphic Office charts, they obtained the result brother by the name of Goez who travelled shown in Figure ITI. with a caravan through Tibet and across into It is evident that whoever surveyed the China. V.'e are told that he made many astra coastline for this map had been there. This position observations with crude instruments was not done by a casual voyager making in an effort to try to get a map of that area. rough sketches wi th pencil and paper as he With him were a group of natives to whom he travelled. had loaned money from funds that had been Piri Reis' story was that he used informa entrusted to him to bring into China. He fell tion from the libraries of Alexandria and some sick and died before he arrived at his destina from a Spanish navigator who had been cap tion and his records of his observations were tured by Turkish pirates and who had been destroyed by his fellow travellers, to get rid of on a voyage with Christopher Columbus. records of the loans he had made to them. How valid is this map? Brother Goez would have made a contribu I have read one or two comments in books tion to the geodesy of that area which would that imply it is a forgery, but this much is have been most valuable to the Chinese and true: There would not be much purpose in perhaps to the map makers of today. making a forgery about two hundred years You may not be familiar with the work of ago. There is enough evideilce that the copies the early Jesuits who went to China with of the Piri Reis map in existence are at least Father Matthew Ricci. They found the that old. Furthermore, there is some informa Chinese very interested in making maps and tion in the part along the northern coast of found many ancient ones showing the great Antarctica which seems to have been known wall and other details remarkably well. The before the present ice shelf got as big and as Jesuits became the astronomers to the em thick as it is. peror and tried to determine the differ Mr. Mallery and I featured the Antarctic ence in longitude between Paris and Peking. L I":I;? · - --_.'-"'- f Atlantic Ocean. FIG.- III Piri Rels. map 0 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: MAPS AS THE HERITAGE OF MANKIND 579
This work done by Father Verbiest and had compiled it from all of the available in others until close to the middle of the 17th formation that had accumulated during the century was most valuable at the time, and century and a half following the settlemcnt of you can still find it published because of the the islands by the Spaniards. care with which the observations were made. He began this work as early as 1733 in order They used the eclipses of the satellites of to prepare this map, and in his report he Jupiter for this work. In fact, this procedure l\Tites that he put in all of the villages, points, has been suggested by Galileo. It is the first inlets, ports, shoals, reefs, courses, sailing di long-range longitude determination that I rections, rivers, forts and distances that were know of in the scientific mapping of the world. known. The final result was very close to There is a map showing China and the scale. north Pacific which is purported to have been In the margins around his map he gives a brought back from China by Marco Polo. It description of events most memorable for the was in his family for many generations. The history of the place. The map, therefore, Rossi family in California who presented it to shows completeness in the names of the towns the Library of Congress are descendan ts of and the in terior topography hardly equalled Marco Polo. Annotations on the map have in any other map of its kind. Even the sailing caused controversy over its validity. With courses for ships that would be leaving out a doubt, it is a very old map and despite Manila Bay for the San Bernadino Strait are the scribblings by others it is probably original. indicated. It would appear that the world was quite There are pictures on the other side of the well explored up until the time that such map which depict the life of the people and on maps were compiled. The navigators who the medallion with the map is a history of the brought back the information are to be con islands as you would have found them at the gratulated. time of Lopez DeLegaspi, the conquistador Now this is another one of my maps. I who built the City of Manila. The cartog think I will skip this one and go on to the next rapher points out that the islands are rich in one that I have. gold, wax, sugar, honey, tobacco, oranges, a There is a map of the Philippine Islands, variety of cotton, cocoa, shells, rice, salt and where I spent three years as an astronomer, corn. Every possible fruit and export have published by the Coast and Geodetic Survey been listed here. under Dr. Bach in 1932. It represented a com For these reasons Velarde's map of the plete survey by several hundred people. At Philippines has been considered one of the one time there were five or six survey ships most exact and complete maps of its kind. working in that particular area. \;\Then it was superceded by a more accurate \Vhen it appeared, the author of the new projection, it II'as reprinted by the Coastal Coast and Geodetic Survey map approached Geodetic Survey to preserve it as a document the Director of Manila Observatory. He for future reference. wanted to compare it with an 18th century I t is su fficien t that you as mappers a!ll'ays map that had been in use from about the be try to treat a map as a source of tradition, to ginning of that century up until the middle of record not only just the position of things but the 19th century. The old Philippine map had what they are at thc time of the survey. Re been prepared by Father Pedro Murillo visions should be put on new maps without de Velarde, a Spanish Jesuit. He had used a stroying the old, so that as continents lift, as portolano type projection (Figure IV),* and mountains are leveled, as volcanoes grow, there II·ill a!ll'ays be a heritage for the people * It is regretted that the folded maps were such that satisfactory reproduction was not possib!e. that they may know what \I'e had on this EDITOIl. earth, what lye ~all' and what II'e measured.