Locate the evidence
For every point or route, record the source, coordinate system, spatial precision and date. A modern city label does not prove an ancient findspot.
Separate route types
Distinguish excavated roads and ports from modelled corridors, textual references and illustrative connecting lines. A line between finds is not automatically a travelled path.
Represent uncertainty
Use ranges, zones or alternative paths when dates and locations are uncertain. Document why a symbol or boundary was chosen.
Map audit
- Identify the base-map provider, projection and licence.
- Open the primary catalogue or excavation record behind each location.
- Check whether dates refer to production, deposition, excavation or publication.
- Test whether environmental layers match the historical period and spatial resolution.
- Write a caption explaining which routes are observed, inferred or purely illustrative.
Claims a map cannot establish alone
- The identity, ethnicity or intention of the people who moved an object.
- A continuous trade route from a few separated findspots.
- Causation between a climate event and a material or settlement change.
- Exact ancient coastlines or political boundaries without dated reconstruction evidence.
Useful standards and records
- Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- Open Geospatial Consortium standards
- ArtifactView heritage-place pathway
Editorially reviewed 10 October 2026. No interactive map or downloadable geodata is supplied on this page.
Curator's evidence fileroot / READING-HERITAGE-MAPS-AND-ROUTE-STORIES
Reading Heritage Maps and Route Stories
A framework for checking place, time, uncertainty and provenance in heritage maps. ArtifactView does not currently provide a live map, time slider, data import, custom pins, offline tiles.
| Observe | Describe material, form, marks, wear or spatial relation without assigning identity or purpose. Begin with “Locate the evidence.” |
|---|---|
| Context | Locate the record in excavation, collection, restoration and display history. Check the chain against Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names and Open Geospatial Consortium standards. |
| Infer | Begin with observable features, connect each inference to a source, and mark the point where evidence gives way to a plausible but revisable interpretation. Tie every attribution to the feature that supports it and retain competing readings. |
| Withhold | Do not extend “Separate route types” beyond the date, sample, comparison or provenance actually documented. |
Provenance checkpoint
List each custody or documentation gap separately; an unknown interval is evidence about the record, not permission to invent continuity.
Catalogue note
For every point or route, record the source, coordinate system, spatial precision and date. A modern city label does not prove an ancient findspot. Mark later repairs, labels and digital reconstructions as later interventions rather than original features.
Research-room promptWhat single comparison object, technical test or archive entry would most change the interpretation of Reading Heritage Maps and Route Stories?