President’s Distinguished Lecture Series

Roman Maps and World view: New Discoveries, Fresh Perspectives

Dr. Richard Talbert

William Rand Kennan, Jr., Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Classics

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Date: Monday October 25, 2004

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location: Billings North Lounge

(Followed by reception at Billings Apse)

Abstract

The spatial awareness of premodern societies is a topic now receiving unprecedented attention. The Roman case is especially controversial: What sense of scale did Romans have, if any? Did they make maps and use them as we do, or even as the ancient Chinese did? Was their conception of space linear and one dimensional only? This lecture reviews these, and other issues, that continue to fuel debate. At the same time it evaluates the impact of tantalizing new discoveries such as a mosaic from Tunisia, a monument from southern Turkey, and an unfinished papyrus map from Egypt. Also introduced are the fresh approaches being taken to the study of Rome's Marble Plan and (by Talbert himself) to the so-called 'Peutinger map', the one large surviving specimen of Roman cartography. While Romans' world view never matched ours, it still developed greater sophistication than it is often given credit for.

(Hosted by the Departments of Geography and Classics. Co-sponsored by Departments of Computer Science, History, Bailey-Howe Special Collections, Humanities Center, University Libraries.)

Speaker bio:

Prof. Talbert has been the recipient of numerous prestigious fellowships and awards. He is author of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton 2002), hailed as that year's best professional/scholarly multi volume reference work in the humanities. He heads the new Ancient World Mapping Center, established to promote cartography and geographical information science as essential components in ancient studies.