World history: German researchers create Germany’s map dating back to the first century AD

After six years of studies a team of German researchers in Berlin - historians, linguists and cartographers have created a map of Germany of the first century AD and came to a conclusion that many modern German cities, whose early history was until now unclear, existed at that times. So far, no one has been able to detect the precise date of their founding. The research was carried out at Berlin Technical University’s Department for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science. The Darmstadt–based publisher WBG has already released a collective monograph of scholars. The key results of the research have been published in Spiegel journal.

The study was centered around an atlas of the world, compiled in the middle of second century AD by the famous ancient scholar from Alexandria Claudius Ptolemy. One of 26 maps, created by Ptolemy on the basis on notes made by geographers and travelers of that time, shows Germania Magna (Great Germany), which covers the whole Central Europe as well as the south of Scandinavia (considered by Ptolemy as an island). Scholars have tried repeatedly to decode the document and identify numerous cities and rivers marked on the Ptolemy’s map, however the distortion of an ancient map prevented from doing it.

Ptolemy’s map is preserved only in duplication. The copy so far considered the most accurate is an edition produced around the year 1300 and kept by the Vatican. But the team of experts in Berlin tracked down an earlier parchment at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. It is considered the oldest edition of Ptolemy’s work ever discovered which will be published in 2011.

On the Ptolemy’s map scientists could identify many cities: the eastern German city that is now called Jena (in Thuringia) was called “Bicurgium” (until now the history of Jena was known only up to 11th c.), while Essen which is located in the in North Rhine-Westphalia was called “Navalia”. The new map suggests that “Treva” located at the confluence of the Elbe and Alster Rivers was the precursor to Hamburg, which was considered to have appeared on the site of Charlemagne’s fortress (beginning of 9th c.). Leipzig (Slavic Lipsk, which was for the first time mentioned in chronicles of Thietmar of Merseburg of 11th c.) was known as “Aregelia”. “Lupfurdum” (literary - "ford over Lup”, i.e. the Elba River) located at a shallow, fordable spot along the Elbe River was the predecessor of Dresden (Slavic settlement of 12th c.), Hanover – then “Tulifurdum” was a place where the Leine River could be crossed. What is more, the Ptolemy map has identified three important German archeological complexes – an ancient fort in Waldau (Saxony-Anhalt), a commercial hub in Brno (Czech Republic) and Fritzlar (Hesse), where according to the legends the missionary St. Baniface felled the Donar Oak, a sacred symbol to the Germanic Chatti tribe in 723.

Scholars also found out that across the whole Germania Magna was a highway that started at Moers on the Rhine on the border of the Roman Empire and reached as far as the Sambia peninsula in present day Kaliningrad, which was likely to be used for active trading. The route which was used for transporting amber from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans has been also detected.