Cartographies of Africa and Asia (1800–1945).
A Project for the Digitization of Maps of the Perthes Collection Gotha
The development of the European cartography of north-east Africa was strongly associated with the 18th-, 19th‑ and early 20th-century missionaries and explorers. These travellers’ insights were informed by the local knowledge of indigenous people. Prior to the mid-19th century, European geographic knowledge about the diverse kingdoms in the south and south-west of Ethiopia was sparse compared to the more northern...
Northern Abyssinia (northern Ethiopia) is home to the ancient Aksumite Kingdom. Although its capital was in Aksum, the cultural boundaries of the kingdom extended as far as the modern state of Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. According to Ethiopian and Eritrean sources, local borders were formulated using indigenous techniques to separate autonomous and semi-autonomous provinces. Borders that fall under this...
Reaching a big milestone in 2023, we completed the digitisation of more than 35,000 maps from the Perthes Collection in Gotha. It comprises cartographic pieces that were collected as well as produced by Justus Perthes, one of the world’s leading geographic publishing houses in the 19th century. Some of the most interesting maps and corresponding research have already been introduced...
On the 12th and 13th of January 2023, we celebrated the successful completion of the project Cartographies of Africa and Asia (1800–1945). A Project for the Digitization of Maps of the Perthes Collection Gotha (KarAfAs) with our final conference Territoriality and Its Other at the Centre for Transcultural Studies in Gotha. More than 35,000 maps of the Perthes Collections depicting...
With the end of the year in sight and a detailed conference report forthcoming, this short note serves to remember the international conference Mapping Asia: Cartography and the Construction of Territoriality, which took place on the 24th and 25th of November 2022 at the Centre for Transcultural Studies in Gotha. Being part and parcel of the project Cartographies of Africa...
The Centre for Transcultural Studies in Gotha hosted the annual meeting of a network of scholars in residence from Ethiopia at the 20th and 21st October 2022. The Gerda Henkel Foundation’s unfaltering support enables them, despite the civil war in Ethiopia, to continue their research in cities throughout Germany and Europe; the Centre for Transcultural Studies being a vital partner of the...