Archaeology Magazine - September 1955 - 4

MAPS

continued

Claytabletshowinga plan of Nippur.This tablet
helped excavatorslocate and identify structures
at Nippur,by C. S.
in the area. FromExcavations
Fisher (Philadelphia1905) Plate 1.

it. The islands refer to neighboring
cities, not arranged in geographical
order, however, and the seven regions
refer to foreign countries. The
legends on the fourth and fifth regions show that the Babylonians had
heard about diurnal darkness and
twilight in northern latitudes during
the winter season.
Of the many surviving Babylonian
plans the most interesting is the tablet
(Figure 3) containing a plan of the
inner city of Nippur, unearthed by an
expedition of the Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, and used
by the excavators to assist in locating
and identifying the parts of the
temple complex to which the plan
relates. To appreciate its accuracy,
compare the delineation of the tablet
(Figure 4) with Clarence Fisher's
plan of Nippur after excavations
were completed (Figure 5). Certain
conventions were carefully observed
by the draftsman. Double lines represent enclosing walls and single
148

lines the walls of buildings. The
reason for the double line about the
court of Ekur (Figure 4) was made
clear when excavation revealed that
this court had been enclosed by a
double wall. Note that the double
cross-lines representing gates cut
across the double lines of the enclosing walls but are cut separately
through each of the walls of the
court of Ekur.
Greek geography and cartography,
like other branches of Greek science,
reached their highest level of development at Alexandria late in the
Hellenistic age. The late-comers accumulated the data of their predecessors, added certain refinements, and
when they combined the whole into
comprehensive systems produced
works which had canonical authority
for nearly fifteen hundred years. One
man, Ptolemy ( floruit ca. A.D. 140),
marks the culmination in two fields,
astronomy and geography, and like
his counterpart in the field of medi-

cine, Galen, achieved a reputation for
infallibility and completeness. As
soon as it was recognized that their
works were erroneous, modern science was born, a vigorous babe because of its puissant antecedents.
Ptolemy's Geography held the same
undisputed sway in the study of the
earth that the Ptolemaic system had
in the study of the heavens. So great
was his authority that maps in the
"Ptolemaic style" continued to appear
in atlases more than a century after
exploration had exposed Ptolemy's
misconceptions.
Ptolemy never intended his work
to be regarded as the final authority
on geographical matters. It was meant
to be an instruction book in scientific
map-drawing, but because his book
listed over eight thousand names of
towns, tribes, mountains and rivers,
pinpointed to minutes and secondsby
geographical coordinates, a mistaken
notion prevailed that it was a sound
scientific treatise. The principles of.

Archaeology Magazine - September 1955

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September 1955