Ancient World Mapping Center

ATLAS OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLD

For information on this project and on how to order the publications now available, please visit its Web Page at http://www.unc.edu/depts/cl_atlas. In what has been the most stressful of its 12 hectic years to date, the project has now finally achieved completion. Relief at attaining this elusive goal has been tempered, however, by feelings of loss as several staff members moved on to new challenges. After handling all second proof corrections as ably as ever, map editor Dr. Joann McDaniel left during the summer for an appointment at the Inter-Collegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, Italy. Susan Jenny also left then, having served as project manager since the establishment of the office in February 1992. It would be hard to overstate what an immense benefit her dedication and efficiency have been throughout. Brian Lund left for Washington, DC, at the end of January, after making an exceptionally valuable contribution to the Map-by-Map Directory which accompanies the Atlas. With the fulfillment of the major individual donor’s million-dollar pledge, it was confirmed that the volume will be entitled Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World in accordance with his wishes. Front matter for it was delivered to Princeton University Press in December. Early in February the cartographers (MapQuest, Mountville, PA) completed delivery of final film and discs for the printing (in May) of all 180 folio map pages by Eurografica, Vincenza, Italy. In February, too, the project office was able to deliver to Princeton the gazetteer which forms the final component of the atlas volume. Even this simple listing of all the names appearing on the maps runs to 43 pages in five-column format. Its compilation was primarily the work of Tom Elliott. From February onwards he likewise played a major (and outstandingly creative) role in preparing the Directory both as a CD-ROM and as a file for printing. It was delivered at the end of April, and in print will comprise two volumes totaling 1,400 pages. All purchases of the atlas automatically receive the CD-ROM Directory with it.

Director Richard Talbert exhibited maps from the atlas at the 18th International Conference on the History of Cartography in Athens, Greece, during July, and offered both a paper and an exhibit at the 11th International Conference of Classical Studies in Kavala, Greece, in August. He exhibited the entire 102 maps for the atlas at the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association and Archaeological Institute of America in Dallas, TX, during December, and likewise at the Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Knoxville, TN, in April. He gave a keynote retrospective address on the project at the University of New Brunswick’s (Fredericton, Canada) 7th Annual Ancient History Colloquium in March, and lectured on various aspects of his mapmaking to the UNC Scholarly Communication Working Group (November), the University of Florence, Italy (March), and the Washington Map Society at the Library of Congress (April). An article by him in Mercator’s World (November/December 1999) discusses the project’s goals and development.

Concern that the work of the project should not simply cease with the publication of the atlas has been met by plans for establishment of a permanent center to extend, update, and disseminate what has been achieved so far. The College of Arts and Sciences has made a generous commitment to provide the basic funding for this unique new Ancient World Mapping for three years, and to house it in the Davis Library from Fall 2000. The Partner’s Fund and the American Philological Association are also contributed initial funding.

Richard Talbert