Mapmaking is a very old skill, at least on a smal scale.. Maps of the "known
world" are more recent. But one of the questions that needs to be answered
is how do you line up the map with the real world. i.e. which direction is
at the top of the map?
One of our words for doing this is orienting the map and from the name it is
apparent that east was the know point presumably from the rising of the sun
being easily determined. Of course, all the observers who were likely to do
much traveling knew this varied some over the course of the year, but that
could be allowed for.
People who lived in lands with clearer skies than ours paid a lot more
attention to the stars too. My students can hardly see them here with clouds
and light pollution from some big malls and car dealers.
Mention was also made of desert peoples. there exist some instruments whose
name I forget that are designed to set pointers to stars and the date and
calculate which way Moslems have to face to be praying toward Mecca. I saw a
number of them in Istanbul mesums.
James Braunsdorf
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