Abstract
Ancient maps, as well as their modern counterparts, never contained all geographic matters related to the territory they mapped. Instead, the contents of the maps resulted from the choices of the mapmakers concerning the matters to be displayed. The selection of represented elements might have been conducted according to principles dramatically different from those adopted in modern cartography, which makes the analysis of the ancient maps a non-trivial task. One may suggest that written records might be used for interpretation of old maps; however, the textual records and maps were often based on different methodologies and therefore the interpretation of old maps with the help of contemporaneous textual records may pose additional problems. This thesis is devoted to an analysis of two maps from Ma Wang Dui 馬王堆 (Hunan Province, China) found in a tomb sealed in the 2nd century BCE. Interpretation of these two maps is related with the problems mentioned above. To deal with them, firstly, I analyzed the cartographic representations of rivers, lakes, mountains, places of residence, and military installations used in these maps; I arguef that these two maps were probably drawn by different cartographers using different cartographic methodologies. Secodnly, I studied the locations of a selection of sites represented in the Ma Wang Dui maps in comparison with their locations on modern satellite maps. One of the problems worth discussing is related to the scales of the maps. Recently researchers calculated the scales presumably used by the ancient Chinese cartographers in the Ma Wang Dui maps, but there are certain questionable elements in these reconstructions. For example, it was suggested that one of the maps was South-oriented; however, my study of this map shows that the actual South might have been located in the right upper part of the map. In my thesis, I discuss in detail this and other particular features found in the maps and advance hypotheses concerning the methods used to produce them; in particular, I argue that the maps can be categorized as “schematic maps”. Finally, I use various textual records to analyze the historical background and the contemporaneous geographic concepts, and compare them with relevant features of the Ma Wang Dui maps. On the basis of my study of these two maps, I provide a reconstruction of the geographic concepts of the time when the maps were designed.