-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Not a map, but a leopard's skin, at prehistoric Catalhoyuk
Date:   Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:31:40 -0000
From:   Francis Herbert <[log in to unmask]>
To:     <[log in to unmask]>
CC:     'Maps-L'



And now, for something completely different:-

A bird’s eye view – of a leopard’s spots : the Çatalhöyük ‘map’ and the
development of cartographic representation in prehistory / Stephanie
Meece. – /In/: Anatolian Studies (Ankara : The British Institute at
Ankara ; Hertford : printed by Stephen Austin & Sons), 2006, *56*, 1-16:
ill. – Bibliogr.: p.13-16. – Summ. in E & Tr. – “This article
re-evaluates the claim that one of these [wall] paintings is a map of
the village, with Hasan Dağ erupting above it. It is argued that the
[1963] excavator [i.e. J. Mellaart (1964)]’s first interpretation of the
objects . . . that they are a leopard skin above a panel of geometric
design, is in fact a far more reasonable one, when . . . contextualised
within the entire corpus of painting and other art objects found at the
site.” – Summ. in E. - ISSN 0066-1546

This re-interpretation of a Neolithic art work (and ideas of spatial and
symbolic representation) may well ‘set the cat [or leopard] among the
pigeons’ . . .

PS: Some computers may not cope with the Turkish diacritics in this
message (the ‘Subject’ header is simplified).

Francis Herbert

[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>