Monday, August 22, 2011

How the World was once viewed....


I found this map today. It's from an 1820 edition of a book called "The Missionary Register". I've added it here because it is interesting to see both how much they knew about the world back then, plus how different some of the country names were. Australia, for example, is listed as "New Holland", which is the name the Dutch gave to it back in the 1600s when they first landed on the Western Australian coast - long before British Settlement on the Eastern Coast! It is also interesting to see that Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land, back then) also got a look in on this map. Most contemporary maps of the time seem to forget our poor little triangle state off the south end of Australia.

I like old maps, old photos, old books. It gives me the chance to trundle through history after my own fashion.

I've recently rediscovered the joy that is "Time Team" (in other words, they have started broadcasting old episodes on Foxtel, and I finally have time to watch them again). I like this show. It, too, allows a person to look into the past. It's also a very nice way to get in some armchair archaeology.

When my sister and I were just girls, we used to spend our weekends (mostly Saturdays, as I recall) "digging" in our own back yard. Given the house was a Worker's Cottage, and most likely built by convicts back in the days when Brisbane had such poor individuals, it is little surprise that we found many, many convict-era things in our yard. I have no idea what happened to any of the spoils that we found - I can only hope that Dad kept them (bower bird that he is, he tends to keep most things!).

Anyway, things to do....