The Turin Papyrus Map is an ancient Egyptian

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

, generally considered the oldest surviving map of topographical interest from the ancient world. It is drawn on a

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to ...

reportedly discovered at

Deir el-Medina Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom ...

in Thebes, collected by

Bernardino Drovetti Bernardino Michele Maria Drovetti (January 7, 1776 – March 5, 1852) was an Italian antiquities collector, diplomat, and politician. He is best remembered for having acquired the Turin Royal Canon and for his questionable behavior in colle ...

(known as

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

's Proconsul) in Egypt sometime before 1824 AD and now preserved in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio ( Italian for Egyptian Museum) is an archaeological museum in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, specializing in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, with more than 30,0 ...

. The map was drawn about 1150 BC by the well-known Scribe-of-the-Tomb Amennakhte, son of Ipuy. It was prepared for

Ramesses IV Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and became crown prince when his elder brother Amenhe ...

's quarrying expedition to the Wadi Hammamat in the

Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (Archaically known as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara desert that is located east of the Nile river. It spans of North-Eastern Africa and is bordered by the Nile river to the west and the Red Sea an ...

, which exposes

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

rocks of the

Arabian-Nubian Shield The Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) is an exposure of Precambrian crystalline rocks on the flanks of the Red Sea. The crystalline rocks are mostly Neoproterozoic in age. Geographically - and from north to south - the ANS includes parts of Israel, Jo ...

. The purpose of the expedition was to obtain blocks of ''bekhen''-stone (metagraywacke

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

) to be used for statues of the king.

Description

The map shows a 15-kilometre stretch of Wadi Hammamat and has depictions of this

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water ...

's confluence with wadis Atalla and el-Sid, the surrounding hills, the ''bekhen''-stone quarry, and the

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

mine and settlement at Bir Umm Fawakhir. It also includes numerous annotations (written in the

hieratic Hieratic (; grc, ἱερατικά, hieratiká, priestly) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BC until the ris ...

script) identifying the features shown on the map, the destinations of the wadi routes, the distance between the quarry and mine, the location of gold deposits in the hills, and the sizes of the ''bekhen''-stone blocks quarried. The top of the map is toward the south and the source of the

Nile River The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

. As currently reconstructed in the Turin Museum, the map measures 2.8 m long by 0.41 m wide. This arrangement of the map fragments is currently considered incorrect however. A new and more accurate reconstruction was proposed by Harrell and Brown in 1992, leading to a reduced length of 2.1 m. Besides being a

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

of surprisingly modern aspect, the Turin Papyrus is also a

geological map A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show various geological features. Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols. Bedding planes and structural features such as faults, folds, are shown with st ...

(the earliest known) because it accurately shows the local distribution of different rock types (with black and pink hills), the lithologically diverse wadi

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

s (with brown, green and white dots), and it contains information on quarrying and mining. The draughtsman clearly and carefully distributed distinctive features in accordance with the reality of a particular area, adding clarity by the use of legends and contrasting colors. In this respect, the Turin Papyrus may be regarded as the earliest known

Geographic Information System A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a ...

.Harrell, James A. "Turin Papyrus Map from Ancient Egypt", ''Research on the Archaeological Geology of Ancient Egypt'', Accessed Feb 24, 2018, http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Harrell/Egypt/Turin%20Papyrus/Harrell_Papyrus_Map_text.htm. The location of the map on the ground has been identified and has been shown to be accurate. The verso of the papyrus is inscribed with unrelated texts, in particular a letter addressed directly to

Ramesses VI Ramesses VI Nebmaatre-Meryamun (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses, also known under his princely name of Amenherkhepshef C) was the fifth ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. He reigned for about eight years in the mid-to-late 12th century ...

and pertaining to a cult statue of his setup in the temple of

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...

. The letter asks that a certain man be put in charge of the daily offerings presented to the statue of the king. The request seems to have been granted as the grandson of the author still held the title of "High Priest of Ramesses VI".

The map in origami history

Among

origami ) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a f ...

(paper folding) enthusiasts, the map has been considered as the earliest known example of folding. According to origami historian David Lister, the map was mentioned by Profs.

Koryo Miura Koryo may refer to: Korea Koryo or Goryeo () was the name of several states in Korean history, known as Corea or Coree in the western world: *Goryeo was a state located in northern and central Korean Peninsula and southern and central Manchuria fro ...

(inventor of the Miura fold) and Masamori Sakamaki, from the University of Tokyo, in a meeting of the International Cartographic Association in 1980 as an example of early map folding. However, the vertical creases on the papyrus may not be folding marks, as believed by Miura and Sakamaki. Harrell notes that "The map was rolled up when discovered and subsequently handled, and this explains the especially poor preservation of the rightmost portion in Figure 3, which formed the outer abraded surface of the scroll.".

References

{{Reflist

External links

Prof. Harrell's description of Turin Papyrus, with figures
Maps Egyptian papyri containing images Geologic maps Museo Egizio 19th-century archaeological discoveries Ramesses IV Mining in Egypt History of mining 12th century BC maps

Description

The map in origami history

See also

References

External links