mapping bad habits

Cartocacoethes :- a mania, uncontrollable urge, compulsion or itch to see maps everywhere. John Krygier discusses the world’s allegedly oldest map from Çatalhöyük (link).

The Çatalhöyük “map” provides a great case study of the perils of prehistoric map hunting.

The Çatalhöyük map was first brought to attention in a 1964 article entitled “Excavations at Çatal Höyük, 1963, Third Preliminary Report” by James Mellaart Anatolian Studies 14 (1964, pp. 39–119).

Image by John Swogger via Flickr.

[Via Grant Barrett’s Double-Tongued Dictionary (link) via Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words Newsletter (link).]