-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Not a map, but a leopard's skin, at prehistoric Catalhoyuk Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:17:22 -0000 From: Nicholas Verge <[log in to unmask]> To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]> I think the inhabitants of Catalhoyuk were probably quite capable of drawing a leopard skin. They were VERY advanced in other ways for the period. The Catalhoyuk "map" if it is a depiction of a leopard skin is not a very good one or at least it is a very styalised one. Therefore I am sceptical of this suggestion. I think the "map" is just that, a map or more correctly a perspective view. A picture of the the Map. http://www.infovis.net/imagenes/T1_N110_A5_CatalHoyukMap.jpg I dont think we should view ancient peoples as being so intellectually primitive that they were incapablable of visualising their location in the surrounding landscape and drawing this as a map. Nicholas Verge > 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]> > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nicholas J. Verge BSc. FGS Geologist and geological remote sensing/GIS consultant CEO, Earthscience Technologies, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK. Voice: ++ 44 (0)1491 572022 (office hours 0900-2200UTC, Monday - Saturday) Email: [log in to unmask]