Ancient World Mapping Center

5-1-2021 to 4-30-2022

ANCIENT WORLD MAPPING CENTER (http://awmc.unc.edu)

Boosted not least by restored access to the Center itself in August after 16 months of remote working, this has been a year of achievement and optimism.  Two most challenging major projects are now all but completed, and the availability of two widely used resources offered by the Center should be restored soon.  In addition, favorable prospects for securing the Center’s future have emerged at last.

Commissioned cartography included one map for Jamie Kreiner’s Battles of the Brain (Liveright), another by Paul Cartledge for the Cambridge World History of Genocide, vol. 1, and five for Pliny the Elder’s World: Natural History Books 2-6, a translation by Brian Turner (former Center Director) and Richard Talbert, forthcoming imminently from Cambridge University Press.  However, by far the largest, most complex commission was 28 maps for a further Cambridge publication, Geographers of the Ancient Greek World edited by Graham Shipley (University of Leicester, U.K.).  This is a massive collaborative translation and commentary for which the Center contributed modest emergency funds last year to ensure timely completion of the text.  The specifications for its varied cartography proved very demanding, with numerous issues of layout and design to be resolved, but the outcome has been highly approved.  Of the 28, only the map (with inset) for Dionysios of Byzantion, Anaplous Bosporou, now awaits completion.    Licences which the Center issued for reproduction of its own previously published maps included one for Jessica Peritz’s article “The Castrato Remains – or, Galvanizing the Corpse of Musical Style” in the Journal of Musicology, and another for a forthcoming exhibition in the Luxembourg Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art about restoration of the Roman mosaic found at Vichten. 

The other most challenging major project now all but completed is the revised Routledge Atlas of Classical History, co-edited by Richard Talbert, Lindsay Holman and Benet Salway (University College London, U.K.).  All 142 full-color maps ranging in size from quarter-page to doublespread and including battle- and city-plans – the work of 30 expert contributors worldwide alongside the co-editors – are now ready.  Only some (overdue) accompanying texts and recommended readings are awaited [these fortunately arrived early in May; by its end the atlas was not just in the publisher’s hands, but also cleared for immediate production].  All four of the Center’s assistants gained the opportunity to revise or draft these maps, Hannah Shealy continuing from last year, now joined by Safiatou Bamba, Bryanna Ledbetter and Rachel Sarvey.  Bryanna also continued her preparation of gazetteers for completed maps.  At the same time Hannah skillfully drafted many of the maps for Geographers of the Ancient Greek World.

With classroom needs further in mind, the Center has initiated a new online Maps for Texts project to equip readers of Livy’s Roman history from the Second Punic War onwards with a 1:750,000 map, building on the recent edition and translation by John Yardley for the Loeb Classical Library; Rachel Sarvey has taken the lead so far.  The Center has also welcomed a request from the American Classical League for collaboration in making map materials available to the teachers nationwide that it represents, and in developing more.

Work has resumed to prepare for release – in the Center’s Maps for Texts series – Miguel Vargas’ map (1:750,000) that plots the spread of Catholic and Donatist bishoprics across North Africa by the early fifth century CE.

The Center has organized Richard Talbert’s extensive collection of maps of Asia Minor/Turkey made during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries (Ottoman, British, German, Greek, Italian, Russian especially) to form the basis of an exhibition (primarily virtual) Late Ottoman Turkey in Princeton’s Forgotten Maps, 1883-1923 to be hosted in fall 2022 by Princeton University Library (which holds much of this scattered material, but far from all).  The pathbreaking synergy of this joint initiative promises to have lasting value.  The principal cartographers featured, Heinrich Kiepert and his son Richard, were very preoccupied with classical antiquity, and their long-lasting impact has escaped notice outside Turkey.  The Center’s preparations have notably benefited from Safiatou Bamba’s rare ability to read and translate Ottoman Turkish.

There is now good reason to expect that the frustrating dysfunction of two of the Center’s major digital resources relied upon worldwide is about to be overcome.  Generous efforts by a team at the University of Iowa to provide a fresh basis of support (at least temporarily) for Map Tiles are now at the testing stage; results seem most promising.  A web developer in Belgium has likewise devised a replacement support base for Map A on the Peutinger Map site; its test version too appears to operate soundly.  Restoration of both these resources will be a huge relief.

Because a viable plan has still to be settled for the Center’s future after June 30, 2022 – when Richard Talbert was due to step down – he has agreed to remain in post as part-time research professor for an additional year, encouraged by most supportive discussions with the History Department chair, Senior Associate Dean, and Dean of the College.  All three have committed to urging the new Deans (from June 30, 2022) to authorize an immediate search for a faculty member in History who will both teach ancient history and take charge of the Center.  The Department has ranked this position its top preference for searches in 2022-2023.

Meantime Lindsay Holman – who graduated PhD in August – has been appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA, and so is stepping down as Center Director after a remarkable five-year term in this increasingly demanding position.  It is impossible to express adequate thanks for the outstanding service she has so ably rendered throughout as cartographer, organizer, colleague and mentor.  Her departure is a blow, but it should be no surprise that her talents and record attract attention elsewhere.  Also to be thanked warmly are this year’s assistants Bryanna, Hannah, Safiatou and Rachel, the first three of whom are graduating.  For 2022-2023 – envisaged as primarily a year to prepare for transition – Richard Talbert remains in charge, to be assisted by Rachel Sarvey.

Lindsay Holman

Richard Talbert

5-1-19 to 4-30-20

ANCIENT WORLD MAPPING CENTER (http://awmc.unc.edu)

This year remained an impressively active one throughout for the Center, above all because mapmaking could still continue remotely during the campus lockdown from mid-March onwards.   Preparation of the revised edition of the textbook Atlas of Classical History saw accelerated progress, and there was expansion of the scope of the working partnership with Rome’s Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali.

A variety of maps were made on commission as usual, not only for monographs and articles, but also for the Ishtar Gate exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. Commissions included a map of Judaea for Anthony Keddie’s Republican Jesus: How the Right Has Rewritten the Gospels forthcoming from University of California Press, and one of India and Bactria for Alexander Meeus and Kai Trampedach’s volume on Alexander the Great in the Steiner series Studies in Ancient Monarchies.  The number of requests for acquiring and reproducing the Center’s maps showed a marked rise this year.  In particular, the seven Wall Maps – which continue to be offered in digital format without charge for non-commercial purposes – have been in high demand from instructors and students at both school and college levels worldwide, most notably in Australia, Denmark, Italy, United Kingdom and US.

Miguel Vargas joined the Center to implement a project envisaged last year for the Maps for Texts series and now well advanced by him: a map, with directory, that plots the spread of Catholic and Donatist bishoprics across North Africa as documented in the record of the Carthage ‘conference’ in 411 CE.  To date, maps by others for this purpose (notably by Serge Lancel) have all been kept unsatisfyingly small-scale by a print-only format, in grayscale moreover.  The Center’s map in color on a physical landscape base at 1:750,000 – scale chosen to match that of Asia Minor and Black Sea in the Maps for Texts series – offers distinct improvement; its extraordinary elongation creates no obstacle for digital production and presentation.

The interactive map in preparation by Gabriel Moss and Ryan Horne to accompany the forthcoming translation of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History Books 2 to 6 and more by Brian Turner and Richard Talbert is close to completion.  Meantime the translation itself of these ‘geographical’ books and passages has been delivered to Cambridge University Press for expert review.

After lengthy discussions, agreement was reached that Lindsay Holman and Benet Salway (University College London) should join Richard Talbert to co-edit the substantially revised edition of the Atlas of Classical History.  It is to be published by Routledge, with the maps all remade digitally in color, using the Center’s Map Tiles as base.  Contributors to the original edition are being invited to review the fresh drafts of their maps; at the same time new contributors have been recruited, in most instances for plans of cities that could not be accommodated previously.  So much mapmaking has provided exceptional opportunities for student assistants to gain training and experience.  Hania Zanib has specialized in drafting city- and battle-plans with precision.  Peter Streilein, Tyler Brown and Coleman Cheeley have concentrated on maps of the Near East, Aegean and Roman Empire. Ross Twele has begun to compile the gazetteer.

As Richard Talbert’s collection of maps made of Asia Minor (Turkey) during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries continues to expand in size and complexity, Ross Twele has also worked towards organizing its presentation online.

A supplement negotiated to the partnership agreement made last year with the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, Roma Capitale authorized a three-week initiative in Rome to proceed during September–October.  Within this period a joint Italian–U.S. team made 3D scans of all 823 incised fragments of the Great Marble Map (Forma Urbis) to an accuracy of approximately 0.05 mm; because several of this formidable total were dispersed across Rome, visits to various museums were required (Museo dell’Ara Pacis, for example).  The number scanned far exceeded even the most optimistic estimate of what might be achieved in the limited time available.  Such success was due not least to the efficiency of the four 3D handheld structured light scanners used – three Creaform Go!SCAN and one Creaform Spark 3D.  Derek Miller (Center for Digital Scholarship, IUPUI) brought these scanners and oversaw their operation throughout.  Prof. Elizabeth Wolfram Thill (Classical Studies, IUPUI) again took a leading role.  She and Dr. Riccardo Montalbano in Rome (partially funded by the Center) have now begun the arduous work of organizing the scans for online presentation in a format that will enable a further agreement with the Sovrintendenza to be reached, one granting public access to this remarkable material.   In January Prof. Wolfram Thill outlined the recent progress made by the partnership, as well as future prospects, at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Washington, DC; the stream of questions following her paper attests to the high level of interest generated.  A potentially rewarding further goal – which in current conditions must remain on hold – is to scan likewise the neglected mass of uninscribed fragments; their number has been greatly increased by finds from recent tunneling for a new metro line in the area where the Map was displayed.

Once again this year it was the Center’s good fortune to have an outstanding workforce: three graduate students – Gabriel Moss, Ross Twele, Miguel Vargas; and four undergraduates – Tyler Brown, Coleman Cheeley, Peter Streilein, Hania Zanib.  All three graduating at the year’s end – former Director Gabriel Moss (PhD), Tyler Brown and Peter Streilein (both BA) – will be greatly missed.

A further word of sincere appreciation to all, including Director Lindsay Holman, is called for this year because of the pandemic crisis.  In mid-March, during the last hour before the sudden closure of Davis library, Lindsay brilliantly reconfigured the Center’s machines for remote working.  In consequence, everyone gained, and seized, the welcome opportunity to continue working and communicating from home – at a somewhat slower pace, to be sure, and with certain technical limitations, but overall almost as productively as before.

Lindsay Holman continues as Director, and Richard Talbert (after his retirement from all other duties) remains in charge as research professor.

Lindsay Holman

Richard Talbert