Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and
Speaker 1: moments in time. Let's consider the map a representation of
Speaker 1: the world and miniature so that one can position themselves
Speaker 1: in time and space and consider where they're going and
Speaker 1: where they've been. They bring meaning out of what can
Speaker 1: otherwise seem confusing and make the vast fathomable. So how
Speaker 1: long have we been making maps? Well? According to you
Speaker 1: see Santa Barbara geographer Keith C. Clark in a two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen paper for the Cartographical Journal, we often consider
Speaker 1: maps and writing to go hand in hand, meaning that
Speaker 1: we might reasonably date matt making back five thousand years.
Speaker 1: But Clark goes much further, argue that maps may have
Speaker 1: predated writing by at least ten thousand years and could
Speaker 1: have evolved with humanity itself, tied to the spatial thinking
Speaker 1: and reasoning that aided us in the great human expansion.
Speaker 1: While many maps have obviously been lost to time, various
Speaker 1: ancient maps are sometimes presented as the possible oldest surviving maps.
Speaker 1: A carved mammoth tusk found in what is now the
Speaker 1: Czech Republic, dated to twenty five thousand b c e.
Speaker 1: Presents a possible map, complete with mountains, rivers, and what
Speaker 1: seemed to be routes for human travelers. Various examples spring
Speaker 1: from Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well, ancient cultures that certainly
Speaker 1: exhibited planning and cartological expertise and a knowledge of their
Speaker 1: place in a wider world. But interestingly enough, some of
Speaker 1: the earliest examples of maps are not maps of the
Speaker 1: Earth's surface, but of the stars, such as the dots
Speaker 1: representing stars and the prehistoric Lascale cave paintings. According to
Speaker 1: a two thousand eighteen University of Edinburgh study published in
Speaker 1: the Athens Journal of History, such artifacts suggests that our
Speaker 1: ancestors were able to keep time via the position of
Speaker 1: the stars as far back as forty thousand years ago. Still,
Speaker 1: other ancient examples of maps confirmed to neither Earth nor sky,
Speaker 1: but to altogether imagined realms. Consider the casket texts from
Speaker 1: ancient Egypt. Is Geraldine Pinch discusses in her book Egyptian Mythology.
Speaker 1: These date from the Middle Kingdom, which lasted from twenty
Speaker 1: fifty to seventeen ten BC. These texts consisted of incantations
Speaker 1: recorded on casket's tomb walls and funerary artifacts. These spells
Speaker 1: were believed to be vital to the deceased on their
Speaker 1: perilous journey into the Egyptian after life, a realm of
Speaker 1: continued threats and conflict, and some texts even feature maps.
Speaker 1: The Book of Two Ways from the Middle Kingdom Necropolis
Speaker 1: of Dear Albertia presents a map of the underworld, outlining
Speaker 1: two safe paths for the deceased soul to take, one
Speaker 1: by land and one by water, along with the spells
Speaker 1: one would need to overcome the monstrous guardians that dwell there.
Speaker 1: Pinch points out that we might consider such maps the
Speaker 1: result of quote government funded research into the hereafter unquote,
Speaker 1: but we also might think of them as visual guides
Speaker 1: for shamatic spirit journeys. We might well think back to
Speaker 1: the role of terrestrial maps and consider their cosmological function
Speaker 1: in the Book of Two Ways, a means of bringing
Speaker 1: order to chaos, assuring us not only where we are,
Speaker 1: but we're we're headed. Maps of otherworldly realms would factor
Speaker 1: into various religions to follow as well as literary works
Speaker 1: ranging from Dante's Divine Comedy to the fantasy geographies of JR. Tolkien.
Speaker 1: Just gazing at these maps, we are transported to the
Speaker 1: world's They chart two into additional editions of the artifact
Speaker 1: each week, hosted by either Joe or myself. As always,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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