Mapping Antiquity in the Black Sea Region in the Middle Ages
independent researcher
For citation: Denisov, Andrei O. Mapping Antiquity in the Black Sea Region in the Middle Ages // Drevneishie gosudarstva Vostochnoi Evropy (The Earliest States of Eastern Europe). 2023: The Black Sea Region in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Problems of Historical Geography / Editor of the volume A.V. Podossinov. Мoscow: GAUGN-Press, 2023. S. 471–501.
DOI: 10.32608/1560-1382-2023-44-471-501
Abstract: Antique names, images and ideas about the world take an important place on medieval maps although the situation was changing with the beginning of another epoch and during it. And this can’t always be explained only by nescience, but also by homage to the ancient heritage (including geography) which was one of the foundations of medieval culture. The authors of medieval maps were seeking for archaization and the image of the world on them was historical in general. Several layers of time are presented on maps as on other pictures of this epoch. In most cases it is about different moments of one event or of one person’s life for the last, while the scenes from different epochs of the world history are presented on the first. From this point of view the Black Sea and adjacent lands were not an exception. Besides, this region was actively colonized in the Antiquity. Moreover, the Black Sea was some kind of a frontier: its western and southern shores were ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire, eastern countries were on the other side, while its northern shores were considered as periphery of the world inhabited by barbarian nomads and monsters. The representation of the Black Sea depended on the type of a map a lot: some of them don’t have even the mention of its name while its outline constantly appears on others. More detailed maps contain more data about the structure of the Black Sea basin, the islands located within it, the rivers flowing into it and the surrounding lands. A more pragmatic approach towards the space of the Black Sea and the Black Sea Region is represented on nautical portolan charts created in the late Middle Ages when Italian merchants were trading in this area in an active way.
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