When I first went on the David Rumsey site to georeference a map I had to skip over the first few maps until I found one I could do. The first few were in different languages, with no significant landmarks, so it felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
As I was georeferencing this map, I had to focus on the land-sea borders because even though I could understand the names of the countries, their borders have changed over time making it hard to align solely based on those borders. Once I had the map and knew the relative location where it belonged, the actual process was quite easy.
I started thinking about the endless possibilities of combining old and historical maps with new digital tools. This can help historians better understand how society has viewed borders or how, over time, the general size and power of countries have shifted. I think it could also be interesting (if accessible) to see how the origins of this map influence how it is interpreted.
Throughout this process, I also experienced and realized the importance of minimizing errors. It is easy to misalign the map (some of the borders on my map don’t line up exactly). These errors could be due to user error or possible errors in the original map making it hard to align to our modern maps. Since there is little to no information on the old maps it is hard to validate the authenticity and accuracy of its aspects (country size, borders, etc.). This could potentially influence how we interpret the map, trying to mold it to match our current world could shift the story the original map is telling.
