Cartocacoethes
“Cartocacoethes” is, apparently, the uncontrollable urge to see maps everywhere, in everything. It’s a flavour of apophenia, which is the experience of seeing patterns in meaningless or random data (e.g., canals on Mars). A well-known version of apophenia is pareidolia, which is when people see significant things in random patterns (e.g., apparitions of the Virgin Mary).
Anyway, John Krygier uses the term to describe a putative map of Çatalhöyük dating from 6200 BC, citing a recent study that casts doubt on its claim as one of the oldest maps in existence. Strange Maps takes it from there, providing a veritable cornucopia of things that look like continents or countries (which, strictly speaking, isn’t exactly the same thing as looking like a map, but what the hell), from clouds to food items to a puddle.
Categories: Miscellany
The Map Room is a blog about maps by
Comments
No comments have been posted to this entry. It is more than 30 days old and is closed to new comments.
Comments on all entries are available via RSS.