There are many wonderful things about the world at large, the earth and the sea and the shape of it all. One of the ways that we navigate this world of ours, as well as express its complexities, is through the use of maps. The more and more we learn about the world, the more detailed the maps that we have become. But what is the first known recorded instance of a map?

There are many artifacts throughout history that depict landscapes, although it is unclear whether or not these sorts of objects and artifacts constitute as maps. A mammoth tusk from 250000 BC depicted images of the landscape, with the sky and the river, though it is not clearly a map. There have however been maps carved in mammoth tusks and bones to have been discovered. Materials such as stone and smoothed sandstone were carved into to create maps as well as wall paintings depicting them too. 

We navigate the world in many different ways and maps are just one of them. We gain insight into where we have delved as well as the advancements we have made. It is not just directions you can use a  map for these days, with height and topography maps existing as well as other interesting additions to what initial may appear as a simple chart. 

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cartography 
• https://www.reference.com/history-geography/invented-first-map-7e62cd0a463cd31b