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CARTOGRAPHIC HISTORIOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDIEVAL BALE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ITS REPRESENTATIONS IN OLD AND RECENT MAPS OF ETHIOPIA [Abstract ID: 0514-03]
This article compares and contrasts the viability of old and recent maps in understanding historical geography of the medieval Bale. The study was initiated by inconsistencies and contradictions between Bale’s representation in old maps of Ethiopia and the Horn and that of the 20th century. Therefore, five old maps, one each from Linschoten (1519), Oritelious (1570), Marcator (1607), Legrand (1628) and Ludolf 1684 have been contrasted with five recent maps selected from Huntingford (1955, 1965), Taddesse (1972) and Braukämper (1977, 2004). It also examines how both categories of maps were related to geographical knowledge in oral maps of medieval Bale. Comparison parameters include levels of detail and accuracy, merits and demerits and historical orientation of the maps by using publication date as the base of grouping. Findings show that old maps not only archived geographical features like landscape, rivers, lakes and resources and historical data like key sites, states, distributions of ethnic groups and religions in greater details than recent maps; but also concur with traditions of nomenclature in Bale. In contrast, due to their specialization to specific purposes, the recent maps improved the inconsistency in size, direction and locations of features in the old maps. Moreover, though paradoxically some producers of old maps were never been to Ethiopia, their maps included more oral data like traditions of expansion and itinerary reports than the recent ones. Furthermore, most recent maps resemble each another due to selectiveness and reliance on chronicles than the former. Lastly, old maps were more historical orientated by documenting data of the region before it was marred by wars of conquests and population movements than oversimplified recent maps. However, Bale, being the southern extreme of the medieval Ethiopia, is represented in lesser cartographic detail as compared to the north in both groups of maps. Thus, the study is part of the growing body of research on the Ethiopian Peripheries with significant implications for historians to reexamine maps, cartographic sketches and nomenclature traditions as useful sources of history.