Mapping our Museum Object’s Provenance

This map shows how our object, a large pot with intricate swirls, travelled over time. It was made in the Han Dynasty sometime between 206 BCE and 220 CE, was brought to San Francisco, and then was recently donated to Carleton.

Uploading a CSV with location information makes mapping in ArcGIS very painless. While using ArcGIS in class I found that the UI was simplistic enough for me not to be overwhelmed by options, which I enjoyed. The process over all was understandable and clear, which made mapping intuitive and interesting. At the same time I can see how spending more time using the software would uncover many more capabilities, and that there is lots of potential for mapping projects using ArcGIS.

When we first started discussing mapping in relation to digital humanities, I was skeptical that geographic information could reveal very much about history. After spending some time using ArcGIS and looking at maps, I now understand a bit more about how old maps can reveal so much historical information. Labels on the map can reveal information about places that we didn’t know had historical significance before. On top of that, subtle elements like how different parts of the map are skewed from reality can give insights as to how different parts of the real world were perceived and what that meant historically. For example, if a body of water was perceived to be much larger than it was, then would people have been less likely to traverse it rather than go around? I can see how things like this could reveal intricacies of trade routes. In short, this project helped me understand how historical maps hold much more value than they appear to, and how digital humanities acts as a medium to explore those maps’ nuance.