"But this resulted in such a colorful and unimpressive picture".

On the Beginnings of Archaeological Cartography in Germany (1870-1914)

Abstract

Maps and especially thematic maps are considered as a particular type of source in the modern Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology and belong to the matters of course in communication of this science. With the help of maps the presentation of results and regional surveys are achieved so convincingly and powerful, that their requirements, procedures and process conditions are rarely questioned. However, these questions have to be reflected because they are the traditional approach which is used to transform archaeological findings into different signs on maps in order to sort things. The historiography of sciences offers one way to understand the formation conditions of archaeological mapping. The present paper tries to look back to the beginnings of archaeological cartography in the late 19th century and see how this matter was negotiated with the members of the German Society of Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. The historically documented discussions and work reports show how mapping changed the perspective on archaeological phenomena.