Map Regression

[muddyandcold]

Does anyone know of any courses/books/leaflets! on map regression?

Thanks

[monitor lizard]

Hiya

Oxford University Department of Continuing Education has an archaeology day course programme (http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk) that offers a great range of courses. I know there's one on DBAs that presumably has a session on source materials and maps. I've been on some of the others and found them very useful.

ML

[BAJR Host]

Would somebody like a BAJR Guide on it?

?When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.?
William Blake

[muddyandcold]

That would be most useful Mr Hosty :face-approve:

[drpeterwardle]

There is little if anything published on map regression or the computerised analysis of historic maps apart from stuff on my web site and my method statement see
http://historicenvironment.co.uk/index.php/map-analysis
for an example of its use in place names
http://historicenvironment.co.uk/index.p...placenames
for an example of conservation area analysis
http://www.historicenvironment.co.uk/dow...Amwell.pdf


I take map regression analysis to mean the analysis of maps and plans to produce some historic information such as the evolution of villages and building, the change in positions of rivers and coast or similar.

As undertaken in a dba map regression simply means a collection of photocopy of historic maps at different scales and some accompanying text describing the changes that are obvious. There are few more sophisticated examples apart from my own. A useful source of references to early examples can be found on the Britarch board a search under map regression should find it.

Maps of different date cannot be directly compared ? even OS maps because of the way they have been compiled. Early OS plans for example used a different map projection to modern OS maps so if they are directly overlaid a building will be in a slightly different place.

To correct for this digital maps are usually stretched at the corners (so that there is a continuous sheet for use in a GIS system). This makes it harder still to identify changes in for example buildings.

It is perfectly possible to correct all of these different errors however correcting the me to what is the question? Modern OS digital mapping has its errors and limitations and anybody who has tried to compare a site survey to an OS plan will know that they never fit perfectly. They cannot ? a plan at a scale of 1:100 will be very different from a plan at 1:2500.

The best place for a beginner to start are books like OS maps for the historian or Maps and Plans for the local historian and collector.

My own book is nearly complete and is due to be published later this year. I will produce a BAJR guide.

Dr Peter Wardle

[leic]

Map regression actually means something slightly more specific to historical geographers and landscape historians than just comparing maps over time. It is the concept of projecting back features in time from the present but in practice often from the 25ins 1st edition in the UK. Maitland in Domesday Book and beyond is an early exposition of the concept which was also used by people like Marc Bloch and Hoskins. The problem with the method is determining how far back you can project any feature. A parish church was probably there in c.1300 but was a road - slightly more difficult. Is a parish boundary modern or ancient, does it reflect a Saxon estate or a medieval modification. We tend to be much more critical these days than in the past but the method is still critical to landscape analysis and at the centre of many debates.

[Lolabun]

There is a fantastic book written by Richard Oliver on Ordnance Survey maps which is priced around ?20. The book gives a short history of the OS maps, details on scales, symbol definitions and a list of all editions of OS maps produced for the different regions in Britain (allowing you to check what maps and editions are available before you trudge all the way to the map library!). Details are below!

Oliver, R 2005 'Ordnance Survey Maps: a concise guide for historians' . British Library (ISBN 1 870598 24 15)

[Lolabun]

oops sorry ISBN code is 1 870598 24 5! It will come up on google anyhow.

[Gog]

Published by the Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps, no less!

[leic]

I haven't read it but Stephen Rippon's guide to landscape analysis in the CBA handbook series ought to be helpful.