MAPPING GREEK HISTORY: HISTORICAL
QUESTIONS WITH GEOGRAPHICAL ANSWERS
DOUG CLAPP
Geographical Information Systems software offers a versatile new tool to help
students better comprehend the reality of ancient history. By generating vivid
representations of relevant landscape, this software provides physical context for
the intangible names and ideas found in textbooks. Close engagement with the
landscape can suggest answers to historical questions, as well as help students to
explore historical issues raised by geography.
To students involved for the first time in an examination of the Mediterranean
world and its classical roots, the persons and places of interest are at risk of
remaining little more than random concatenations of letters that they find difficult
to pronounce. “Mycenae,” for example, can acquire all sorts of vocal variations
painful to the ears of classical scholars. Without an identifiable context, persons
and places fail to find a home in the neural networks that construct memory and
knowledge. So instead of focusing upon the relationship between Late Bronze
Age Greece and the Homeric tradition, students struggle to remember that King
Agamemnon lived in that hard-to-say “M-place,” while his brother, “M-
The Occasional Papers of the American Philological Association’s
Committee on Ancient History
— Occasional Papers 3 (2006) 51–60 —
Copyright © 2006 by the American Philological Association
, 52 DOUG CLAPP
somebody,” lived in Sparta. Establishing the relationships between facts and ideas
requires making connections, but it’s hard to connect one elusive shadow with
another. Unconnected, a word will remain letters and not a name; appropriately
connected, its letters will take on significance.
By the same token, if place names occupy no more than a nebulous space—
perhaps a blue backdrop with words in white type floating in and out of focus—
then difficulties inevitably arise in anchoring the connections. At a moment’s
notice, Mycenae, Corinth, Sparta and Thebes can all rearrange themselves from
the memory of a list on a review sheet, thus untying the connections that establish
meaningful relationships. The letters “Mycenae” have significance beyond an
answer for an exam; they signify a settlement characterized by a Bronze Age
palace and by a Homeric king. This settlement had a specific location on the
surface of the earth at 37.39N and 22.52E, and an awareness of this location can
lead to an appreciation of the settlement’s relationships to other areas of the
Mediterranean world. In this way, Mycenae can become real, no longer just a
word devoid of meaningful connections.
The technology of Geographic Informations Systems (GIS) offers a powerful
digital tool for visualizing such spatial relationships.112 Because GIS software is
becoming more accessible, it is creating extraordinary potential for helping
students to comprehend the reality of Greece and the entire Mediterranean world,
from Mycenae to Macedon to Mesopotamia.113 Files produced with GIS software
110
E.g., see “Mycenae” in the Perseus Site Catalog (www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/
ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0042) and in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical
Sites (R. Stillwell, et al., 1976 and www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%
3A1999.04.0006).
111
www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/greece-lat-long.html.
112
This paper arose from work done in the AEGIS Program at Samford University, directed
by Dr. Max Baber and funded by the National Science Foundation in order to teach faculty how to
integrate GIS into a variety of curricular contexts (www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/geography/
aegis).
113
Google Earth (earth.google.com) offers those with Internet connections a dramatic and
relatively painless access to the fruits of GIS, but it currently has limited potential for tailoring to
QUESTIONS WITH GEOGRAPHICAL ANSWERS
DOUG CLAPP
Geographical Information Systems software offers a versatile new tool to help
students better comprehend the reality of ancient history. By generating vivid
representations of relevant landscape, this software provides physical context for
the intangible names and ideas found in textbooks. Close engagement with the
landscape can suggest answers to historical questions, as well as help students to
explore historical issues raised by geography.
To students involved for the first time in an examination of the Mediterranean
world and its classical roots, the persons and places of interest are at risk of
remaining little more than random concatenations of letters that they find difficult
to pronounce. “Mycenae,” for example, can acquire all sorts of vocal variations
painful to the ears of classical scholars. Without an identifiable context, persons
and places fail to find a home in the neural networks that construct memory and
knowledge. So instead of focusing upon the relationship between Late Bronze
Age Greece and the Homeric tradition, students struggle to remember that King
Agamemnon lived in that hard-to-say “M-place,” while his brother, “M-
The Occasional Papers of the American Philological Association’s
Committee on Ancient History
— Occasional Papers 3 (2006) 51–60 —
Copyright © 2006 by the American Philological Association
, 52 DOUG CLAPP
somebody,” lived in Sparta. Establishing the relationships between facts and ideas
requires making connections, but it’s hard to connect one elusive shadow with
another. Unconnected, a word will remain letters and not a name; appropriately
connected, its letters will take on significance.
By the same token, if place names occupy no more than a nebulous space—
perhaps a blue backdrop with words in white type floating in and out of focus—
then difficulties inevitably arise in anchoring the connections. At a moment’s
notice, Mycenae, Corinth, Sparta and Thebes can all rearrange themselves from
the memory of a list on a review sheet, thus untying the connections that establish
meaningful relationships. The letters “Mycenae” have significance beyond an
answer for an exam; they signify a settlement characterized by a Bronze Age
palace and by a Homeric king. This settlement had a specific location on the
surface of the earth at 37.39N and 22.52E, and an awareness of this location can
lead to an appreciation of the settlement’s relationships to other areas of the
Mediterranean world. In this way, Mycenae can become real, no longer just a
word devoid of meaningful connections.
The technology of Geographic Informations Systems (GIS) offers a powerful
digital tool for visualizing such spatial relationships.112 Because GIS software is
becoming more accessible, it is creating extraordinary potential for helping
students to comprehend the reality of Greece and the entire Mediterranean world,
from Mycenae to Macedon to Mesopotamia.113 Files produced with GIS software
110
E.g., see “Mycenae” in the Perseus Site Catalog (www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/
ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0042) and in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical
Sites (R. Stillwell, et al., 1976 and www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%
3A1999.04.0006).
111
www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/greece-lat-long.html.
112
This paper arose from work done in the AEGIS Program at Samford University, directed
by Dr. Max Baber and funded by the National Science Foundation in order to teach faculty how to
integrate GIS into a variety of curricular contexts (www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/geography/
aegis).
113
Google Earth (earth.google.com) offers those with Internet connections a dramatic and
relatively painless access to the fruits of GIS, but it currently has limited potential for tailoring to
