During the first two weeks of the summer program, we began a study of the history of cartography (map-making) as an extension of our work with the Land and Water Forms materials in the Children's House.
The earliest maps known to archaeologists are small (palm-sized) bas-reliefs etched into clay tablets, hardened by the sun. This is the copy we have of one of the oldest and most famous of these, the Ga-Sur Map, which dates back to about 2500 BC.
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| The Ga-Sur Map, a bas-relief of a river valley, a small village, and a delta connecting with a larger body of water. |
After a week of working with Land and Water Forms outside, drawing in the dirt with sticks and discussing the importance of different types of Land and Water Forms for the survival of ancient people (a lake is a good place to find fish to eat; a river is a source of fresh, clean water to drink; a river delta is also a good place to find fish, and the good-tasting birds that feed on fish, such as ducks; an isthmus is a way to get from this landmass to that landmass during migration)... we were ready to sculpt our own clay tablet bas-reliefs!
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| Some of our own clay tablet maps. Can you see river valleys, long ridges, mountains, caves, islands, peninsulas, bays and gulfs, volcanoes, houses, roads, and straits? If you look carefully, you may spy all of these, and more. |
We used an oven-bake polymer clay called Sculpey. Our clay tablets were just the size of our hands. Some of us tried to make representations of real places we had been and others created landscapes we imagined ourselves.
We can't wait to hear what comes next in our summer exploration of geography and cartography!
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