Anthropomorphic maps of the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages are the thousand years between the collapse of the Roman Empire, in the 5th century AD, and the era of discoveries in the 16th century. During that long period, people were confined to cities, castles and monasteries, with a sense of loss for the destroyed world. The roads were destroyed and degenerated, the traffic was very limited, and with it the voyages of geographical discovery were canceled.

In the Middle Ages, due to the general decline in the development of civilizations in the West, the cognitive, imaginary, abstract, and anthropomprphic maps became the main cartographic works. They were based on books and maps from the Classical period that survived after the collapse of the Roman Empire. But because of the dangers on the roads, the scholars, gathered in their homes, tried to imagine what the world outside the walls was, in order to create a cognitive tool that would enable them to recalculate their course.

Science became concentrated in the hands of the Church, which sought to shape a worldview in the spirit of faith. For about a thousand years, the maps became a reflection of the Christian worldview, and had distinct characteristics of sacred geometry. This does not mean that the maps were purely cognitive. Over the years, as the general security situation improved, many passengers returned with travel stories, and with the level of education increased, the ability to draw the land in a much more detailed and precise manner also developed.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, a conceptual, religious, abstract and symmetrical world map, known as the T-O map, was estabblished as a concept, among scholars and in popular culture.

T-O maps are based on the map of the world in the form of a skull by Herodotus, but are an abstraction. Their high level of abstraction conveys a message according to which the world is built as a Christian religious idea.

In these maps, the world is a circle - O, divided into two thick lines in the form of T. The Land of Israel at the intersection of the lines. The continent of Asia is all the upper half. The continents of Africa and Europe are in the lower half, right and left. The continents are separated by the T shape, which represent the Mediterranean Sea in the center, and the Black Sea and the Red Sea, and the Nile and Don rivers, on either side.

The classic T-O map was established as the map of the Christian world by Isidore of Seville, the last of the fathers of the Catholic Church, in the 7th century AD. He described it in a 20-volume encyclopaedia that he wrote, which was a collection of all the known knowledge until his time, which was almost entirely from the classical period.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the basic and small schematic T-O maps, which were primitive, were developed into detailed giant maps, drawn with sophisticated techniques. The basic idea in all of them is one: cartographers were sure about the idea that Jesus Christ is also the formal visual image that controls the life of this world. The map of the world, following this idea, was round and neatly divided by the cross. Saints and monsters were painted in different places in the spirit of faith. Moreover, Jerusalem, the city of the Christian Messiah, has become the center of the map, and its central theme. Jerusalem, too was in a T-O shape.

The development of the T-O map in European culture through the ages through various maps:

The Mediterranean, illustrated on the T-O map at the heart of the world, had an anthropomorphic interpretation in the 7th century Merovingian map, in which it is portrayed as a fetus, whose parents, the mother Europe and the father Africa, embrace it on the left and right.

Atlas Beatus includes about a dozen T-O maps, drawn up to the 13th century. The Atlas is named after a Spanish monk from the 8th century who created a prototype of the map, which tried to be true to reality, with the landscape having some natural lines.

In 1234 Ebstorf map was created. This is a huge map, divided into 30 sheets, in a total size of about 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters. The map is very detailed and shows every important geographical element that was known at the time. The map is illustrated in the spirit of the period: illustrations of real places and creatures, alongside illustrations of imaginary places and creatures, combined with written descriptions. Small illustrations of Jesus Christ head, hands and feet, in the sides of the map, are meant to declare that this map has an attempt to combine the details of reality with the abstract and imaginary world.

The T-O map was a source of inspiration for the Crusades. The Crusades, in the 11-13, were also the major geographical journeys of the Middle Ages. They began throughout the European continent, and crossed the eastern Mediterranean towards the Land of Israel. They were probably done without maps, along familiar routes. The journeys were based, in their last section, on Mediterranean-friendly cities, mainly of the Venetian Empire.

The central mapping subject in the Middle Ages in Europe was the city, surrounded by a wall. Civilization was concentrated mainly in citiy-states, which competed against others, therefore meticulously mapped. Many city maps show two similar characteristics:

A. Fortified wall which surrounds the city in a circle, near a sea or a river.

B. The city is crossed by two avenues, along and across.

These maps continued to be a central cartographic subject in the 16th to 18th centuries. The maps shaped the worldview of their citizens according to Christianity, thanks to their similarity to the T-O map.

The invention of the compass, and the beginning of its use in the 11th century, created a significant turning point in European cartography. The compass strongly encouraged the use of ships at sea, so cartographic attention shifted westward toward Britain, Scandinavia, and the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, much larger sailing ships were developed in Europe, which allowed the crossing of oceans. Maritime transportation has become the focus of attention, and with it the lives of seafarers.

O-T is the schema of a sailboat, where the O is the hull and the T is the sail.

In Christian Europe of the Middle Ages, the T-O form became dominant intellectual image of: God, the world, the city, the ship, and man.

In the Middle Ages, the Eastern civilizations, the Muslims and the Chinese, flourished. There were scholars in all fields. The science of cartography also flourished, but it did not approach the level reached in classical Greece.

The Arabs, who were traders based in the Arabian Peninsula, drew maps of the world based primarily on the T-O concept, plus countries on the Indian Ocean shores. Mecca is at the center of the Muslim maps.

The shape of the crescent, the symbol of the Arab world, is prominent in the curved map lines.

On the connection between China and Europe we know mainly through the journeys made by Marco Polo, in the second half of the 13th century. He came to China and spent a lot of time with the emperor. His book, "The Book of the Venetian Marco Polo: On the Kingdoms and Miracles of the East," was published in Europe and created brainstormings. The geographers became eager to find the maritime route to China. The Chinese, based on the shape of the mandala, sketched the world with China and the Yangtze River in its center, and Europe on its western border, back in the 2nd century BC. At the same time, the Chinese also had accurate geographical maps, which showed rivers, mountains, roads and cities.

At the end of the Middle Ages, characterized by the struggle between the monarchy and the Church, education and science gradually became stronger, and the maps became more objective, to a great extent similar to reality. However, T-O remained in use even in the 16th century. 

The most striking example is a map of the world in this style that Christopher Columbus drew for the journey in which he discovered America, at the end of the 15th century. He embarked on a journey from the assumption that the world is a circle of the three continents known in his days, surrounded by water. Columbus thought that if he will  continue sailing west, he would eventually reach India, which was in the east of his map.

.Merovingian map of the 7th century
T-O primitive map, with the Mediterranean shaped as a fetus

Schematic T-O map from the Encyclopedia

 of Isidore of Seville

An elegant T-O map, from Isidore of Seville of the 7th century

A typical Arab T-O map of the Middle Ages, by Ibn al-Wardi, 

with curved lines. Indian Subcontinent is at the bottom right.

T-O maps of the 13th century  from Atlas of Beatus,

which tries to combine abstract world view with reality

Ebstorf map, a huge and detailed T-O map 

from the 13th century

Top part of Ebstorf map - Illustrations of Paradise

Canistris map, from the 14th century, 

shows Europe and Africa as spouses

Christopher Columbus world map, from the end of the 15th century, is a classic T-O map

T-O boat shape

Anthropomorphic maps in ancient times

The invention of the wheel has greatly helped mankind create the abstract world view. The long times required to cross long distances were greatly reduced, and heavy loads could be carried on carts. Reality has become time dependent instead of space dependent. The world's image had turned upside down. The geographical world has turned from a subject to an object. There was a need to give it new marks. The most natural was to map it according to  human connections.

"The Great Wagon" is a famous constellation system. It direct toward the North Star, which guided the ancient seafarers. The name was given to the system because of its shape.

The zodiac map is the most known anthropomorphic map. As part of the entire  planetary maps, the zodiac takes up a special place. These are constellations of stars which are fixed in the sky, which since the dawn of history man has called by their form, with names from the realm of human existence: figures, animals and objects.

The twelve signs, from Aries to Pisces, are influencing nowdays popular culture. They are used daily for the purposes of personality analysis, setting the calendar, predicting the future, and alternative medicine. 

The zodiac is a clear example of the great power of anthropomorphism in human culture.

Stars and stars constellations that do not belong to the Zodiac have been animated too. For example, the Orion constellation is called, according to its shape, the 'Orion Hunter'.

The zodiac illustrates a central aspect of anthropomorphism: its intensity.

The intensity varies according to two main factors:

A. The similarity between reality and the source of inspiration. To what extent the object that stimulates the concept of anthropomorphism is similar to that in reality. For example: how similar is the constellation Aries in the sky to a lamb in reality, or how similar is the constellation of Geminy  to human twins.

B. The highest level of anthropomorphism is a similarity of objects to the human body, specially the face. Lower levels are of objects similar to animals. The lowest levels are of practical tools, and abstract concepts.

The Zodiac's division according to these levels is:

Humans: twins, virgin

Domestic animals: lamb, ox, capricorn

Other animals: lion, fish

Invertebrates: crab, scorpion

Objects: scales, bow, bucket

The first hanthropomorphic conception of the entire earth in human culture was by Mesopotamian cultures and the ancient Greeks, up to the classical Greek period. They described the entire surface of the earth, as was known to them, in the form of a cauldron, or a spherical boat, floating in the seas that surround it. Around the boat and over it were the strong forces of nature. This world view had several versions, all of which survived by a mere verbal description, including in the Illiads by Homer. This description is similar, to a certain extent, to the modern description of the earth as a ball. It is in contrast to the conventional world view that survived until America was discovered, which described the surface of the earth as flat.

With all its  precision, the mathematical and geometric globe form of the earth is, to a certain extent, a return to the ancient Mesopotamian world view.

Herodotus was a Greek historian from the 5th century BC. He is called the father of history. This is because he was the first to refer to historical issues in a research method. He traveled in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, gathered information from people he met, and documented his findings in his great treatise 'Histories', which provides a detailed picture of the cultures of his time.

According to his descriptions, the map of the world was also drawn. Greek civilization is at the center of this world map. His narrative is geopolitically partial, combining his cultural world view and his research.

The most prominent and intersting feature of the map is that it is in the form of a human skull. The land areas of the world correspond to the bones, and the seas are parallel the head's interior cavities.

There is no doubt that the shape of the skull stood in front of Herodotus when he drew. In antiquity, the phenomenon of animating the forces of nature was very well known. The entire geographical landscape, such as mountain and rock forms, islands and bays, served as a direct source of inspiration for human beings.

Some of the parallels between a skull and the world map are:

Africa is the jaw

Europe is the forehead and the nose

Asia is the back of the head

Mediterranean sea is the oral cavity

The East Mediterranean coast, part of which is Land of Israel, is at the heart of the map, but Herodotus described it only briefly, as being between Greece, Persia and Egypt. He has seven references to the region, which he calls Syria-Palestine. The peoples inhabiting the area are: the Phoenicians in the north, the Syrians on the eastern side of the Jordan, the Syrian-Palestinians who are apparently Jews in the Land of Israel, and the Egyptians in the south.

The contemporaries of Herodotus, and later generations, used this map , throughout the Middle Ages, until the discovery of America. Therefore, the map has many versions on similar lines.

The Romans, for example, preserved the shape of the map, but simplified it. They were not interested in further geographical research, but in practical maps that could be used to build the Roman Empire.

Greek sages who lived after Herodotus devoted a great deal of time to geographical research. 
They discovered, after doing geographical measurements and geometric calculations, that the world is in the shape of a round ball, and even calculated its dimensions.
They realized also that the entire earth which they knew is just a small part of the entire globe. 

They drew many maps in which they speculated about what was hidden in the back sides of the globe, but were not correct.

The ball is a human object in daily use, and also a very important abstract concept. Therefore, the image of the world as a ball had always created a strong feeling of anthropomorphism, and influenced enthusiatic geographical researchers throughout the ages.
The image of the ball is also very close to the image of the wheel, a transport invention that changed the face of the world in ancient times, and created an anthropomorphic pattern of its own.

The Great Wagon constellation system

The Zodiac

Human body organs can be identified with the Zodiac's symbols.

'The hunter from Orion' - a painting by Flamstead, 1729

map of the world in the shape of a cauldron according to ancient Mesopotamian cultures

World map in the form of a skull according to Herodotus, 5th century BC

Statue of Atlas who carries the earth

Geopolitics and Maps

Alexander Dugin wrote that geopolitics has a special place among modern sciences. Geopolitical concepts became major elements of modern politics long ago. They are built on general principles that make it easy to analyze the situation of each particular country and region. Geopolitics in its current form is undoubtedly a secular science. But perhaps, among all modern sciences, it maintains the greatest connection with tradition and traditional science. Modern geopolitics is the product of freedom from religious control in the traditional science of sacred geography. It is often classified as "pseudo-science." Because its secularization is not as perfect and irreversible, as in the case of chemistry or physics, the connection with sacred geography is still quite visible: geopolitics is in an intermediate place between the traditional science of sacred geography and modern geography .

Modern geographers are aware that religion can be a starting point for building an ethnic and national identity, and religious ideology and practice have a great influence on location. Religious belief may influence how the entire public space is used. Geographers find that many modern religious spaces deviate from the traditional official spaces of places of worship. One of the new areas of research on the connection between geography and religion examines the rise of religious fundamentalism. Immigration processes have also created landscape changes, as there are many immigrant communities defined by religion. Studies in this field analyze the changes in the fundamentalist population in the Western world and its impact on the design of space. Public places not defined by religion in the recent past, including the city, the neighborhood, the street, the schools, and many domestic spaces, and at the same time wide areasin the media and the economy, have become everyday compounds that combine religious practice in an informal manner.

Maps are a powerful means of transmitting messages using cultural symbols. Many ancient maps represented a visual essence of knowledge combined with the worldview of their creators. Although modern scientific mapping uses sophisticated measurement methods, it is still subject to the imperative of aesthetic design. Accurate maps also represent an interpretive and tendentious point of view.

The anthropomorphic [anthropogenic, humanized] maps offer a reflection of the personal and collective identity of the human body. These maps were created in a protracted procreation process. The landscape is not exactly the character of man. A complex transformation process is required to make geography a human portrait. But this is possible because there is constant dialogue between man and landscape, as a process of refined dynamic and image in action.

Early anthropogenic maps are the star maps identified with the entire universe, and the world maps of early Christianity. Some of them gradually developed into anthropogenic maps of countries and continents. Atlases of these maps have been very successful. Political cartoons are sometimes portrayed as humanized maps.

.The Western Wall in Jerusalem is the holiest place for Jews
.On the upper left is Omar Mosque  and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

.The Kaaba structure in Mecca
.Muslims around the world turn to it during their prayers

Maps Legend

The abstract and schematic representation of reality is done in maps using alphabets of symbols, lines, spots, colors, shading and more. The design of the maps indicates the tension between form, content and knowledge.

One of the leading cartographers of our generation says: "In order to capture the nature of the landscape, we have to merge the components in a graphic way so that we receive an iconic quality, a unique sense of place and character. The essence of the personality. "

Another senior cartographer says: "A good topographical map should look like a national monument. It must be a cartographic reflection of the face of the earth that presents the relief, the covering and the dissolution of all the details of the landscape, in a way that emphasizes its unique landscape."

The great precision and the sophisticated graphic means, combined with the development of art and visual communication, led to the fact that every serious decision maker today draw a map highlighting the elements he is interested in, and does so very convincingly.

Modern cartography, having achieved full accuracy of surface description, can assume that the average map reader already easily identifies the area described. It can use this assumption as a springboard for an original presentation of the surface to illustrate certain facts.

One of the most common examples is the creation of maps that emphasize the vertical dimension of the landscape beyond its relative proportions in reality. The accumulated statistical information enables maps in which the desired geographic unit, for example countries, is emphasized, according to the relative size of a given data. For example, in a map that describes the size of the world's population, China and India will appear to be larger than their real size. A third style, mainly tourist maps, is turning the terrain into a background on which images of attractions are featured.

Legend symbols of the basic elements in the modern city

World map with self-filling legend

IMAGO MUNDI - maps as World Picture

The traditional name of the map is: ''World Picture''. Its origins is in Latin - IMAGO MUNDI, and perhaps more than anything else, it is the complex essence of cartography. It encapsulates both its representational character and its artistic, pictorial aspect.

Although modern scientific mapping is aided by sophisticated measurement methods and has removed many of the decorative elements from the map, it is still subject to the imperative of aesthetic design. Beyond that, scientific mapping can not fail to present reality selectively, by the necessity of using symbols and emphasizing certain data. Accurate maps represent an interpretive and tendentious perspective.

From first glance it can be noticed that art and science have existed side by side throughout the history of map production. The maps linked the world of religious symbols and folklore to the encyclopedic scientific knowledge of geography, geometry, and cosmography. The link between the artistic and the scientific aspects on the map is easy to discover, by the artistic decorations that surrounded every map until recently. Much of the maps area was dedicated to them.

The decorations expressed the connection between cultural style and geographic objectivity, during a certain era. Maps, like works of art, are powerful means of transmitting messages through cultural symbols. Many ancient maps represented a visual summary of their creators' knowledge and worldview. These maps have layers and meanings which are of works of art in every respect.

The golden age of the maps as works of art, and of the anthropomorphic maps in particular, was the Middle Ages in Europe. The Middle Ages are the thousand years between the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and the age of discoveries which started in the 15th century. During this long period, people were confined to cities, castles and monasteries. The roads were destroyed, and the intercities traffic was greatly reduced. Science became concentrated in the hands of the Church, which sought to shape a worldview in the spirit of faith. For about 1000 years, the maps became a reflection of the Christian world view, with the distinct characteristics of sacred geometry: Jerusalem was at the center, the world was round, and accurately divided into three continents, populated by saints or monsters.

The collaboration between cartographers and artists became, surprisingly, increasingly intense in the age of discovery, which emphasized the accuracy of mapping. It was the result of introducting of new discoveries, such as new species, as graphic elements, and filling white areas, not mapped yet, with various illustrations, especially of ships and monsters. The ''accurate maps'' included also eye catching illustrations of interesting landscape details, especially of fortified cities. Co-existence was established between geographers, aspiring accuracy and reliability, to cartographers,  experienced in styles of art and cultural moods  of their era.

Combination of  map and art on the world map of Patolami,
the most popular map until the age of discoveries.

Map of the Holy Land, 16th century,
with illustrations of the human landscape.

Cognitive Maps

Modern men carry themselves to their goals through a central image they organize in the mind, for the purpose of achieving goals step by step.

A cognitive map at the heart of the human spirit may provide creative directions of thought, in a random and unplanned fashion. The cognitive maps serve the construction and accumulation of spatial knowledge, enabling images to be visualized in order to reduce cognitive load, and improve memory and learning of information.

This type of spatial thinking can also be used as a tool for non-spatial tasks, when people who perform non-spatial memory-related tasks use spatial knowledge to help process the task.

The cognitive map is a spatial representation of the outside world information, that is preserved in the consciousness until an objective revelation of the requested knowledge is created.

Cognitive mapping is a mental mapping of information that is defined in the search for knowledge. Thus, In most cases, the cognitive map exists independently of the psychoanalytic map. Cognitive maps exist in various fields such as psychology, education, archeology, planning, geography, cartography, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, management and history. As a result, many mental maps in these areas are often referred to by different names, such as: cognitive maps, mental maps, mind maps, scripts, schemas, and reference frames.

One of the applications of the cognitive map is carried out by urban theorists who ask the city dwellers to draw from their memory the city or place where they live. This tool allows the theorist to get an idea of which parts of the city or residence are more significant. This, in turn, throw light on the overwhelming idea of how to properly perform urban planning.

Different population groups need different presentations of reality, in the form of maps that reinforce personal tendencies. Children do not know much beyond the limited world of their lives, and they will draw the map in a way that greatly increases the objects they know, such as home, school, and the connecting way. Advertisers draw maps of the ways to shelves of products they market, in a way that puts them as a priority against others. In fact, anyone who aspires to change his world will draw a map in his imagination that is different from reality.

 Cognitive map is an illustration that combines the physical and mental environment

Map of Tokyo metro lines in cognitive and artistic style

Trip Maps

If life is art, the trip is a masterpiece. The pre-planning is an important component of the trip, which makes us enjoy it long before we started it. During the planning process, we are actually one step in the journey, with all that it means for the daily routine. The real journey is a journey to the imaginary land, because imagination is always a journey.

We often lack a guiding principle when planning a trip. Imagination takes us somewhere else, without really knowing what we want. The future traveler finds himself drifting, but he is dissatisfied with this escaping imagination. He needs a map. Each trip must include an accurate map, with a drawn path, stations, and schedules. The means of transportation, the attractions and the places of rest must all be included in the invitation to the trip, and they must also be displayed graphically.

The map of the trip is regularly carried on the garment during the trip, as the most loyal companion. The traveler takes it out of his pocket at every opportunity, not to know his location, but to ascertain whether the journey in reality matches the journey to the imaginary land he had planned in advance. Are the places suitable for what he thought about them, and whether he can produce the right inspiration. The inner self gets a gentle push, which pulls out of balance, and causes a healthy daydreaming movement. If the route is chosen carefully, it evokes a well defined poetic dream. The map of the trip, followed by other maps and dry data, are tools in pursuit of a seductive dream. We strive to realize our dreams during the trip, and it is a key opportunity in life to reach the threshold of their realization. 

This is why the meaning of the journey is very different for different travelers who make the same route. They want to find something new in what others seem to think as ordinary. They load, sometimes too much, their expectations of the trip, and there is no power in the world that might prevent them from being sucked into it. This is also because the actual trip is in unfamiliar roads, and there are many dangers in it. Unexpected events, planned and unplanned, occur on every trip.

The map of the trip is therefore a road story. A story in which every path and every place is interwoven with far-reaching descriptions. The story of the road becomes, after the trip, a life story. This is done through storytelling. After the journey, loaded with experiences and pictures, the traveller tells about the trip as part of the important sources of his lives, and do it as a storyteller, while carefully preserving the balance between the real and imaginary.

Woman engrossed in reading a trip map  in the middle of the street 

Tourist map of China with famous attractions

Animation

Basically animation is a graphic art that is not static, but rather uniquely run one frame after another, to create an illusion of a movie. It is a sequence of images, 2-D or 3D, that runs in a sequential order. The order is of  small action moves, of an object or character.

Animation from History to the Present

Some animations, originated as  sequential paintings by primitive people from the Paleolithic era, were found in caves in Europe. 

Shadow Puppetry, created in eastern Asian countries, is considerd an animation ancestor. 

More modern are animation works that were modified into simple or complex animation devices. Among them is the flip book, often using drawings, paintings, or photos. Slides projectors, cylinders with rotating cards, optical toys etc., are other well known instruments of animation. 

The present digital era of animation is far ahead of the sequential cave painting. There are computers, software, methodologies and process of work, to produce nice and quality animation works.

Animation Applications

Animation appear very well in the electronic media. Television and film industry have big exposure of animations. There are exclusive television channels that are showing animation movies. Advertisers prefer animated advertisement, acted with  attracting characters. Web media is packed with many animations. Websites have animated elements such as warning messages, links, buttons and logos. Web banners come frequently with an animation.  These stuffs make alive the web, with enchanting users feelings.

Animation Projects

Based on a story line, a series of images can be created and placed in a storyboard, that describe the sequence, events, ambiance, music, sound, voice, etc,. Storyboard is the descriptive document which explains steps of the progressing animated movie. It is a layout. Dimension and frame structure, graphics, characters, elements, background, objects, color scheme and so on,  has to be designed from the beginning. They  are produced based on the storyboard. In this way, the ambiance of the story can be kept in mind all along the making. 

Multiple animators are required for an Animation project. Animators have to take care of the screen play, story writing, direction, actions, expressions, etc,. 

The interface of the animation movie storyboard must be user-friendly and correct. This quality add value to the animation material against the competition. 

Animation Characters

Animation characters are highly demanded in both 2-D and 3-D animation fields. This is similar to acting stars in a movie or stage show. The animation character must look friendly to the audience. The character must be shown with feelings, thinking, reaction, consistency, dress code and mood, just as a human being.

AniBoom has many upcoming projects of animation proects promotions, as well as introducing many animators. AniBoom promotes events and opportunities for aspirant animators. Many events like seminars, workshops, training and contests are designed to help the aspirants through the Internet.

About the Author

Shakir A. 

Shakir A. is an independent writer on topics like marketing of products and services through electronic media, especially for Entertainment, creatives and movies. For details Log on to ''AniBoom".