The oldest map of anywhere in the western world, dating from about 500 BC, has been unearthed in southern Italy. Known as the Soleto Map, the depiction of Apulia, the heel of Italy's "boot", is on a piece of black-glazed terracotta vase about the size of a postage stamp.

　　The map details the Puglia region of southern Italy

　　It was found in a dig led by the Belgian archaeologist Thierry van Compernolle, of Montpellier University, two years ago. But its existence was kept secret until more research was carried out.

　　"The map offers, to date, for the Mediterranean, and more generally for western civilisation, the oldest map of a real space," the university said recently.

　　Its engraved place names are indicated by points, just as on maps today, and are written in ancient Greek.

　　The sea on the western side, Taras (Taranto), today's Gulf of Taranto, is named in Greek. But the rest of the map is in Messapian, the ancient tongue of the local tribes, although the script is ancient Greek.

　　The seas on either side of the peninsula, the Ionian and the Adriatic, are depicted by parallel zig-zag strokes.

　　Many of the 13 towns marked on the map, such as Otranto, Soleto, Ugento and Leuca (now called Santa Maria di Leuca) still exist.

　　The map went on public display for the first time this week in the Archaeological National Museum of Taranto.

　　Apart from being the oldest geographical map from classical antiquity ever found, it is the first material proof that the ancient Greeks were drawing maps of real places before the Romans.

　　It was known from ancient Greek literature that the concept of a map existed and that some had been drawn but none had been found.

　　The ancient Chinese had a well-defined system of map-making, but modern cartography descends from techniques laid down by the ancient Greeks.

　　Most existing classical maps are Roman and date from the period after Christ's birth.

　　Experts have suggested that the discovery demands not only a reconsideration of the beginnings of ancient cartography, but also of regional history, in particular that of relations between the local population of the Messapian tribes with their neighbours, the Greeks.

　　The Soleto map also gives vital new clues to the cultural exchange between the newly arrived Greeks and the Messapi.

　　They lived in the area but probably came originally from Greece as their language is believed to be a dialect of Illyrian.

　　The Soleto map is a contemporary of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who set up a philosophy school in Crotone, now Calabria, on the other side of the Gulf of Taranto.

　　His hypothesis that the Earth was round, developed after observing that the height of stars was different at different locations and noticing how ships appeared on the horizon, formed the basis of modern map making.

科学家公布发现西方文明最早地图

　　近日，比利时考古学家展示了在意大利南部出土的一块陶器残片。这块公元前500年左右的陶片上描画的该国南部普利亚地区的地图被认为是迄今发现的西方文明最早的地图。

　　邮票大小的陶片记录13座城镇分布

　　据《每日电讯》11月18日报道，这块黑陶罐残片的大小相当于一枚邮票，上面的图案为高脚靴形状的亚平宁半岛的“鞋跟”部分的地形。残片由来自法国蒙彼利埃大学的比利时考古学家蒂里-凡-康珀诺尔领导的发掘小组于两年前发现的。近日，研究结果的公布让人们知晓了它的存在。蒙彼利埃大学日前表示，“对于地中海地区乃至整个西方文明，这是迄今为止最早一块反映真实空间的地图”。

　　与现代地图一样，这块陶片地图上不同方位的地名前使用圆点标注。除了西面的塔兰托海湾标注的是古希腊语读音外，其他地名是按照当地部落语言(Messapian)的发音标注的。标注地名使用的都是古希腊字母。

　　这块陶片地图上一共标明了13座城镇，其中奥特朗托、乌真托、莱乌卡等地至今仍在。地图作者在陶片上意大利半岛的两边刻上波浪形状的线条，用来代表半岛西面的爱奥尼亚海与东面的亚得里亚海。

　　从本周起，这块陶片地图将在意大利南部港市塔兰托的自然考古博物馆第1次与公众见面。

　　古希腊人比罗马人更早制作地图

　　尽管古希腊文学作品中讲到地图的概念早已有之，并且有人曾制作过地图，但这些地图一直没有现身。考古学家之前发现的多数古代地图是由罗马人在公元后制作的。因此，这次公布的西方最古老地图还证明，在制作地图方面，古希腊人比罗马人早行一步。此外，专家还表示，尽管古时的中国人拥有详细的地图制作方法，但现代绘图法是源于古希腊人的技术传承。

　　与这块陶片地图同时代的古希腊哲学家毕达哥拉斯，曾在位于亚平宁半岛“脚尖”部位的卡拉布里亚地区开设学堂。他通过观察不同季节中星辰位置变动，以及海上船只视觉大小随远近变化的现象。毕达哥拉斯由此认为地球是圆的，这个假想为现代地图制作打下了理论基础。

　　专家认为，对这块早期陶片地图的研究还能够促使人们重新思考古代绘图学的起源，并为考察意大利南部当地部落Messapian与从古希腊到此开辟殖民地的邻居间的关系提供线索。

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