The contributions in this volume combine fundamental questions of common sense geography with case studies of ancient geographical texts. The book bridges synchronic cognitive linguistic and cognitive psychological approaches to the ancient texts with a diachronic perspective. The mental modeling of common sense geography is a fruitful theoretical approach, to gain deeper insights in universal and cultural-specific mnemonic representational systems on the one hand, and to enhance our understanding of ancient geography on the other. (Series: Ancient Culture and History / Antike Kultur und Geschichte - Vol. 16)
In Aspects of Ancient Institutions and Geography colleagues and students honor Richard J.A. Talbert for his numerous contributions and influence on the fields of ancient history, political and social science, as well as cartography and geography. This collection of original and useful examinations is focused around the core theme of Talbert’s work – how ancient individuals and groups organized their world, through their institutions and geography. The first half of the book considers institutional history in chapters on such diverse topics as the Roman Senate, Roman provincial politics and administration, healing springs, gladiators, and soldiers. Chapters on the geography of Thucydides and Alexander III, imperial geography, tracking letters and using sundials round out the second half of the book.
Lucy lives on the twenty-fourth floor. Owen lives in the basement. It's fitting, then, that they meet in the middle -- stuck between two floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, Lucy and Owen spend the night wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is back, so is reality. Lucy soon moves abroad with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and to San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland, Lucy and Owen stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and phone calls. But can they -- despite the odds -- find a way to reunite? Smartly observed and wonderfully romantic, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. Sometimes, it can be a person.
This anthology aims to present the fundamental philosophical issues and tools required by the reflection within and upon geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . It is an introduction to the philosophy for GIScience from an analytical perspective, which looks at GIS with a specific focus on its fundamental and most general concepts and distinctions. The first part of the book is devoted to explore some of the main philosophical questions arising from GIS and GIScience, which include, among others, investigations in ontology, epistemology, linguistics and geometrical modeling. The second part concerns issues related to spatial and cartographical representations of the geographical world. The third part is focused on the ontology of geography, specifically in terms of geographical entities, objects and boundaries. Finally, in the fourth part, the topic of GIS constitutes a starting point for exploring themes such as quantum geography and disorientation, and for defining professional profiles for geographers with competences in GIS environment. This book on a new and unexplored field of research could be a fundamental point of reference for professional philosophers and geographers interested in the theoretical reflection about the foundational concepts of GIScience. It is also interesting reading material for students (both undergraduates, postgraduates and Ph.D. students) in philosophy, geography, applied ontology, GIScience, geomatics and computer science.
Placed at the intersection among philosophy, geography, and computer science, the domain of investigation of applied ontology of geography ranges from making explicit assumptions and commitments of geography as a discipline, to the theoretical and technical needs of geographical/IT tools, such as GIS and geo-ontologies. Such a domain of investigation represents the central topic of discussion of this book, which intends: 1) to provide an overview of the mutual interactions among the disciplines encompassed in the domain; 2) to discuss notions such as spatial representation, boundaries, and geographical entities that constitute the main focus of the (philosophical) ontology of geography; 3) to propose a geographical classification of geo-ontologies in response to their increasing diffusion within the contemporary debate, as well as to show what ontological categories best systematize their contents. The second edition of the book differs from the first one as it offers a broader analysis of the (philosophical) ontology of geography: an analysis that is no more limited to the theoretical need of geo-ontologies.
Today's information technology often seems to take on a life of its own, spreading into every part of our lives. In the Roman world things were different. Technologies were limited to small, scattered social groups. By examining five technologies-lists, tables, weights and measures, artistic perspective, and mapping-Mosaics of Knowledge demonstrates how the Romans broke up a world we might have imagined them to unite. That is, the recording, storage, and recall of information in physical media might be expected to bind together persons distant in time and space. More often than not, however, Roman instances serve to create or reinforce the isolation of particular groups. Persons in different "locations"- whether those are geographical, social, or occupational-had access to quite different informational resources, and the overall situation is thus not controlled by the needs of any particular class or group. On the one hand, these constraints on use in turn constrain the development and power of individual technologies. Development is slow, scattered, and far from one-directional. On the other, seeming technological weaknesses can turn out to be illusory if we set them in actual use-contexts. Romans deploy no more but also no less "computing" power than needed for very narrowly defined goals. This study combines detailed readings of a wide variety of evidence (inscriptions, small archeological finds, artworks, literary texts) with theoretical consideration of the social, cognitive, and material contexts for their use to present a unique portrait of Roman IT capabilities, limitations, and habits.
This volume is a translation and commentary on the works of three geographers from Greco-Roman antiquity: Hanno of Carthage, from around 500 BC; the author of the Periodos Dedicated to King Nikomedes, from the last half of the second century BC; and Avienus, from the fourth century AD. The modern translations of texts in this book represent 1,000 years of Greco-Roman geographical scholarship, and thus provide an overview of the discipline from its beginnings to late antiquity. Readers will learn about the development of Greek geography, and the earliest adventures outside the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, as far south as the tropics and north toward the Arctic. These explorations make for fascinating stories about early human endeavors into an unknown world. Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation offers specialists new information about Greek exploration and a modern translation of significant ancient texts, while non-specialist scholars and undergraduate students with an interest in Greco-Roman literature and ancient geography will also find the volume useful and accessible.
A close relationship exists between GIS and numerous applications, including cartography, photogrammetry, geodesy, surveying, computer and information science, and statistics, among others. Scientists coined the term "geographic information science (GIScience)" to describe the theory behind these fields. A Research Agenda for Geographic Information
Ancient Greek geographical writing is represented not just by the surviving works of the well-known authors Strabo, Pausanias, and Ptolemy, but also by many other texts dating from the Archaic to the Late Antique period. Most of these texts are, however, hard for non-specialists to find, and many have never been translated into English. This volume, the work of an international team of experts, presents the most important thirty-six texts in new, accurate translations. In addition, there are explanatory notes and authoritative introductions to each text, which offer a new understanding of the individual writings and demonstrate their importance: no longer marginal, but in the mainstream of Greek literature and science. The book includes twenty-eight newly drawn maps, images of the medieval manuscripts in which most of these works survive, and a full Introduction providing a comprehensive survey of the field of Greek and Roman geography.
The Routledge Companion to Strabo explores the works of Strabo of Amasia (c. 64 BCE – c. CE 24), a Greek author writing at the prime of Roman expansion and political empowerment. While his earlier historiographical composition is almost entirely lost, his major opus of the Geography includes an encyclopaedic look at the entire world known at the time: numerous ethnographic, topographic, historical, mythological, botanical, and zoological details, and much more. This volume offers various insights to the literary and historical context of the man and his world. The Companion, in twenty-eight chapters written by an international group of scholars, examines several aspects of Strabo’s personality, the political and scholarly environment in which he was active, his choices as an author, and his ideas of history and geography. This selection of ongoing Strabonian studies is an invaluable resource not just for students and scholars of Strabo himself, but also for anyone interested in ancient geography and in the world of the early Roman Empire.
