Maps II Lesson

Due: Friday at 8 p.m.

Big question: How does historical GIS help us answer questions about the ancient Roman world?

Learning objectives. By the end of this lesson you will:

  1. be familiar with robust historical GIS interfaces.

  2. be able to calculate distance and speed using historical GIS.

  3. be able to analyze information you learn from historical GIS.

  4. be able to include a screen capture in a discussion post as part of a historical analysis.

  5. be able to evaluate the usefulness of GIS metadata on historical GIS maps.

Background Information and Step 1

For this lesson you are going to be using, rather than building, GIS maps. You will use the Orbis map and the Augustan Rome map. Please note that these are interactive maps, so if a map doesn’t work at first, please try your secondary browser. The lesson is in two parts. The first part asks you to use Orbis to answer questions about travel from Memphis (Egypt) to Melita (Malta) to Argentorate (France). The second part asks you to evaluate the Augustan Rome map for its use of metadata (information attached to map points).

Please write your answers in a document in a text file that you can upload to the D2L Assignment Submission Folder called Maps II Assignment.

For this exercise, you are a male merchant, carrying a valuable package of silk from Memphis to Argentorate (current-day Strasbourg, France). You have promised your sister-in-law to stop in Melita (current day Malta) to deliver a letter to her husband. You are have enough money to travel by foot or by oxcart. Although you are willing to sail on a boat, your can only afford a slow boat or a boat that only travels during daylight. It is currently fall, and you must reach Argentorate by Spring in order to sell your silk.

Please read the following directions carefully. There are multiple questions in each section to answer.