The First Transit Map

Final video, based on this script.

The very first transit map is often said to be the London Tube map from 1933. But let’s go further back. What was the very first map to take an area, and rather than trying to show it accurately, show it in the most readable fashion to understand how to travel, whether its for trains, or in our case, horses?

The very oldest, detailed transit map, that we still have a copy of, goes all the way back to showing the Roman Empire, and the big question is why does it exist?

And can I even call it a transit map?

The map, called the Peutinger Map, or the Tabula Peutingeriana is 13 inches tall and 22’ across. To give you a sense - each of these are cities. These are the roads. These are the distances each road will take. And these are the stops along the way. It spans from Spain to India - the whole Roman Empire at its height, showing mountains and rivers, and completely squishes the waterways.

Here’s the entire map. Let me stretch it, expand the water, adjust Italy, Greece and Turkey so they’re pointing the right way, and there you go. That’s what it’s showing.

Going by the Peutinger Map, if someone wanted to travel from Rome to Constantinople, this is the path. But, people didn’t travel just by roads. For long distances, you’d go by sea. Rome to Constantinople would look like this, as ships were much faster. Links for both of these incredible data visualizations and the people who made them are below.

But for centuries, people studying the map assumed it was primarily a guide for traveling from one location to another. Mostly people named Conrad who weren’t Shey-b about making some wonderful copies of the original version. Yes. I did just make a Von Sheyb pun that no one will get. And Well-ser’s, and madam’s, I am okay with that. I’m proud of that. 

Even today, many major scholars consider it primarily valuable as a route map. But it never made sense to use for travel. Let me just pull out my 22’ crazy expensive map of the entire world, and I’ll be right there! No! As a map either to understand the layout of the world or to travel, this thing is ridiculous. Even the cities on it never existed at the same time. Pompeii was destroyed in 79 while Francia didn’t come into existence until the 400’s. The creator was likely pulling information from expeditions done hundreds of years apart, with some of the places referenced near-inaccessible to Romans at that time. So, again, why does this exist?

It’s not for military purposes as it doesn’t show strategic points like mountain outposts or river crossings.

And it’s unlikely it was made as a historical document, years after the Roman Empire dissolved as it doesn’t highlight Christianity in any major way. It barely even shows Jerusalem, so many believe the original version of the map was made before Christianity spread.

Let’s be clear - the first version that we still have a copy of is from the 12th century, but that document is clearly a copy of copy of a copy of a much, much older map. Maps were constantly getting copied. So in trying to get to the root of why was this made, part of the answer comes from figuring out when was the very first version created?

Let me share Professor Talbert’s take, with the caveat that we’re entering the world of speculation. Incredibly researched, speculation. It was not made for transportation or for military movement or even for historical records. Rather, it was made to brag. It was made for political reasons, all the way back in the time of the Roman Empire. Possibly the 400’s. Possibly even the 300’s or earlier, with some of the cities we now see on it getting added later. It said, look how big the Roman Empire is - it is the entire world with Rome at the center, and you, citizen, are a small part of it. Professor Talbert imagined it displayed in a throne room behind a King. This, of course, is a reconstruction of what that might have felt like.

It said: here’s what’s important [Rome, Antioch, Constantinople]. And here’s what’s not [Jerusalem, Alexandria]. Because that’s what maps do. They point you to the information they believe you should care about.

In looking at the history of maps, one way to view them is the evolution of cartographic accomplishments, the pooled knowledge of the many, many explorers. But not all maps are created equal, and the other piece that comes into play isn’t accuracy, but rather intentional inaccuracies, because how those shape up, show how the benefactors of the map wish for the world to be seen.

For in shaping how someone sees the world, you shape how they see their role in it. How they see themselves. 

Or maybe it was just a really old, really inconvenient transit map. 

Thank you to Professor Richard Talbert and also Alireza Khounani for taking the time to talk with me in the process of creating this piece. If you’d like to learn more, I’ve included links below to both deeper research and some fun data visualizations you can play around with. Thank you for watching.