Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – A devoted analysis staff deserves recognition for his or her unbelievable work in creating an intensive map illustrating the spatial distribution of supernatural beings alongside the Polish-German borderland.
This spectacular mission captures numerous phenomena, together with devils, spirits, wild hunters, gnomes, will-o’-the-wisps, giants, dragons, mermaids, ghosts, werewolves, apparitions, and nightmares. Drawing from nineteenth and Twentieth-century folkloric sources compiled right into a geospatial database, this map is a outstanding achievement that enriches our understanding of cultural heritage and folklore.
This stylized map, developed at a scale of 1:720,000 as a part of a analysis mission funded by the Nationwide Science Heart, is now freely accessible on-line by a scientific publication within the Journal of Maps.
This useful resource permits residents of Pomerania, folklore fanatics, fantasy followers, map aficionados, artwork lovers, ethnographers, and cartographers to discover historic websites linked to nightmares and supernatural beings like ghosts or water spirits from 150 years in the past. The creation of this distinctive map required an interdisciplinary staff comprising an ethnographer, cartographer, historian of cartography, graphic artist, author, and pc scientist.
Ethnologist Dr. Robert Piotrowski, a member of the Interdisciplinary Anthropocene Analysis Workforce on the Institute of Geography and Spatial Group of the Polish Academy of Sciences, performed an evaluation of supplies from German and Polish folklorists corresponding to Otto Knoop, Karol Bartsch, Oskar Kolberg, and Stefan Ramult.
These folklorists documented tales from Pomerania’s inhabitants across the late nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. Dr. Piotrowski compiled 1,200 examples of beliefs and concepts associated to the supernatural world by this analysis. A map was created utilizing information from 600 places the place native communities linked particular panorama options—corresponding to erratic boulders, moraine hills, or peat bogs—to non secular legends.
Credit score: Journal of Maps
“We have been primarily interested by native tales about uncanny occasions related to particular locations. For instance, spiritual legends imagining witches assembly on a specific mountain, a boulder as soon as thrown by a large, the satan constructing a dam on a lake, or will-o’-the-wisp showing in a swamp. The mix of pure and spiritual contexts allowed us to recreate how the inhabitants of the studied areas valued the panorama,” defined Dr. Piotrowski in a press release.
Firstly of the Twentieth century, beliefs concerning the supernatural have been instrumental in explaining pure phenomena and geological origins by cultural views. These beliefs helped kind a coherent view of actuality that was each daunting and reassuring because of its structured nature. Dr. Wlodzimierz Juskiewicz, a cartographer from IGiPZ PAN, highlights that maps are invaluable instruments for understanding our world. He got down to create a totally cartometric map utilizing modern data however aimed to current it in a fascinating format past conventional requirements. His goal was to captivate audiences with an unconventional design showcasing intriguing information.
Credit score: Journal of Maps
Dr. Juskiewicz decided that Renaissance map aesthetics would greatest seize the period’s environment and relate effectively to depicted demonic figures. Throughout this era in Italy, maps have been esteemed as artwork kinds and celebrated for his or her creative refinement. Drawing inspiration from this custom, he sought to merge scientific accuracy with creative aptitude, crafting a map that conveys data and provides visible delight.
Renaissance maps are well-known for his or her depictions of monsters. “Prior to now, these monsters crammed clean areas—corresponding to water or unknown areas on maps,” defined Dr. Dariusz Brykala, a geographer specializing within the historical past of cartography from IGiPZ PAN. He added that monsters appeared in scientific publications as late because the 18th century, for example, within the first model of Carl Linnaeus’s taxonomy of the animal kingdom.
The map it available online for free as a part of a scientific publication in the Journal of Maps .
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Workers Author
