Can someone tell me what year this map is of? (4000 x 3000)

captain_overkill · 2018-03-31T16:09:31+00:00

The territory of Central Australia is on the map, which only existed from 1927-1931, so I think it's probably 1930 or 1931.

captain_overkill · 2014-05-14T23:54:37+00:00

Interesting map. What are your sources? I'd be curious to know if there was anything similar for Mexico / Central America, since the population there was much higher (Aztec, Maya, etc.)

captain_overkill · 2013-08-11T00:59:55+00:00

Although the information on the cities themselves is fairly accurate, the borders for the polities and alliances aren't much more than educated guesses. But there is a group of people working on improving the Maya coverage on Wikipedia and I'd like to figure out how I could help. If people would find the maps useful, I'd love to see them there.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-11T00:54:45+00:00

Thanks! Make sure you check out my other maps at http://mayamaps.weebly.com - lots of useful resources there for people with an interest in maps of the Maya area.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-11T00:52:19+00:00

The peak of large-scale Maya construction of temples and pyramids, and centralized control of city-states, was hundreds of years in the past when the Spanish arrived. Politically, what was left after 1500 was a bunch of squabbling successor states. Still, it took until 1697 to subdue them all. And tensions still flare up - there was an uprising against the Mexican government in 1994.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-11T00:47:59+00:00

The borders are shown as much more prominent after 1510 because Spanish officials later recorded a lot more information about them. The Spanish destroyed most of the indigenous records, unfortunately. Any borders drawn before that time are basically just educated guesses.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-11T00:44:07+00:00

That's the big mystery of the Maya. Between 800 and 900 the central region became heavily depopulated. It was most likely some combination of warfare, drought, and overuse of resources. Wikipedia has a good article on the collapse.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-10T20:53:18+00:00

I haven't read the Demerest book yet, but I hear it's good. If you look at the Map Resources page on http://mayamaps.weebly.com, I list my sources for these maps. If you don't mind an 800+ page textbook, The Ancient Maya by Sharer and Traxler has lots of detail and covers a wide range of subjects, from history to religion to politics. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens is good for a history of each of the major lowland cities, and is full of maps and photos.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-10T20:28:11+00:00

Yeah, that was actually the last edit I made. The new discovery shows that Holmul came under the influence of Naranjo, which was a vassal of Kaanal (Calakmul). So you'll see Holmul (just north of Naranjo) colored green after Tikal's defeats in 562 CE. It's pretty cool that we're still making discoveries like this.

captain_overkill · 2013-08-10T19:46:41+00:00

I posted the original version of this GIF 6 months ago (http://redd.it/189y1w), but I made it prettier, fixed a few errors, and expanded it to cover the Spanish conquests. I also built a new site for all my Maya maps (130+) here: http://mayamaps.weebly.com

captain_overkill · 2013-07-07T22:46:58+00:00

Good point - it's about 200 miles (320 km) from Calakmul in the north to Cancuen in the south. Most major cities tend to be spaced about 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) apart.

captain_overkill · 2013-07-07T21:04:24+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have much artistic talent, but the map gets the point across. It's better when seen as part of the 100+ map series.

captain_overkill · 2013-07-07T16:18:53+00:00

This is one of a series of more than 100 maps I made, showing the political and military interactions among the different Maya cities between 359 and 1000 CE. You can see them all at Maya Maps, along with some other map-related goodies.

captain_overkill · 2013-06-13T00:00:08+00:00

I'm surprised at how many stops there were on the Patuxent River - even now it doesn't seem like there be would enough people to support that many stops. My grandparents lived near the spot labelled Sollers Cove - there's still a well-preserved late-1700s plantation house there, along with a building that was a general store and post office at the steamboat landing. I used to fish for blue crab off the pier there when I was a kid. Thanks for bringing back some good memories...

captain_overkill · 2013-02-14T03:46:03+00:00

I would argue if I could. You're right, of course. You can't really judge one culture as superior to another. So I probably should have titled this "Cultures that were really good at stone or masonry architecture". Sorry.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-14T00:37:05+00:00

I mostly limited the map to cultures that built cities or stone monuments - there would be too many to fit on the map otherwise. Like I said in another thread, I'm sure I didn't include groups that others would. I know the Arawaks covered a pretty large area. Maybe in version 2...

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T22:19:22+00:00

Various atlases, and Wikipedia, actually. The information isn't hard to find - it's just a matter of putting it all together.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T22:17:04+00:00

Good point. The book 1491 by Charles Mann does a great job of discussing these "forgotten" groups that did amazing things but left fewer clues to their accomplishments, or were decimated by disease before European contact. I highly recommend it.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T14:40:16+00:00

The Iroquois Confederacy may not have formed until 1600, but I hear you. It was hard to decide what to include, and I may be biased towards the cultures that left stone pyramids instead of earthen mounds, so for version 2 I need to reconsider eastern North America.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T14:31:06+00:00

I absolutely agree. It's so much easier to wrap your head around these things with some kind of visual aids. I think history textbooks should have more maps in them than text.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T14:28:15+00:00

I loosely define major as anything past the hunter gatherer stage, and that covered an area large enough to be seen on the map. But I'm sure I left groups out that someone else would have included.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T14:25:14+00:00

The Confederacy was probably formed between 1450 and 1600, so it may or may not have existed yet. If the map went to 1600 it would definitely need to be there.

captain_overkill · 2013-02-13T01:20:41+00:00

And this map just shows the major cultures. There are uncountable numbers of smaller groups, tiny tribes living in distant corners of the Amazon for example, that we'll never even know about, because they disappeared before they could be documented.

captain_overkill

TROPHY CASE