Well, it looks like this....#ancientmaps

Happy  Sunday to you!

If you've had a day off, I hope it's gone well. If you've been working, then equally I hope the day has been fine for you. 

I've spent a lot of the day researching extremely old maps and cartography. Why? Well, that would be because General Agricola in my current manuscript is amassing details for his itinerary which isn't a map but does record details of the landscape that he's invading in northern Britannia. I find it so hard to imagine him marching across land without having some sort of a map to guide him. Maybe he did have something very general and it's been lost over the centuries since A.D. 84. 

Whatever the truth I believe he must have had something to work from as he invaded Britannia. When growing up it was noted that he was perhaps 'too fond' of philosophy so I think he was quite an astute scholar and would definitely have been in  contact with anyone who had cartographic knowledge of Britannia. 

One 'map' he may have seen, or have used, is the one originally begun by Marcus Agrippa for Augustus Caesar. What we see below is a representation of it since the original was lost long ago. It was reconstructed in the Middle Ages from the data written down by Agrippa. 

Here is that same map rotated 90 Deg. It's not exactly how we see this part of the globe today but it's not that bad for Britannia! I's basic but it's all pointing in the right direction unlike that of Ptolemy's created around 120 years later. 

 

What is below is also a reconstruction,created according to the observations of Ptolemy of around A.D. 150 

However, the quirkiest map I've come across today is the one named 'Fool's Cap Map. The map maker remains unknown but from data around the map it's thought ot have been completed somewher between 1570-1590. 

Here's the same map in colourised version. Which do you like best? 

I'm off now to write a bit more of Agricola's attempts to make his own maps.

Slainthe!