Map Evidence Lab
Maps
Historical maps, projections, geographic evidence, scriptural cosmology, and institutional symbolism — with sources, uncertainty, and clear separation between artifact facts and interpretation.
Methodology
Sources & methodology
Everything you see in the Map Evidence Lab is traceable back to a named dataset, a published projection formula, or an archival scan with a repository record. This page is the ledger.
Primary coastline dataset
Natural Earth 1:110m coastline / countries (via world-atlas TopoJSON) — Public domain (Natural Earth). Distributed via the world-atlas@2.0.2 npm package as TopoJSON, converted at build time with topojson-client.
Projection formulas
Each projection is implemented via d3-geo / d3-geo-projection. What each preserves and distorts is quoted in the Projection Lab; the source function is listed here.
| Projection | Creator | Date | Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equirectangular (Plate Carrée) | Marinus of Tyre (attributed) | c. 100 CE | d3-geo · geoEquirectangular |
| Mercator | Gerardus Mercator | 1569 | d3-geo · geoMercator |
| Equal Earth | Šavrič, Patterson & Jenny | 2018 | d3-geo · geoEqualEarth |
| Robinson | Arthur H. Robinson | 1963 (adopted by NGS 1988) | d3-geo-projection · geoRobinson |
| Orthographic (globe view) | Hipparchus (attributed) | c. 200 BCE | d3-geo · geoOrthographic |
| Azimuthal Equidistant · North Pole | Postel (attributed) | 1581 | d3-geo · geoAzimuthalEquidistant · rotate [0,-90] |
| Azimuthal Equidistant · South Pole | Postel (attributed) | 1581 | d3-geo · geoAzimuthalEquidistant · rotate [0,90] |
| Gleason layout — analytical approximation | d3 azimuthal equidistant, N-pole centered (analytical stand-in) | n/a | Analytical stand-in only. See the Gleason tab for the authentic archival scan (Boston Public Library, commonwealth:7h149v85z). |
Sphere constants
- Mean radius R = 6371.0088 km (WGS84 mean).
- Great-circle distance uses d3.geoDistance (spherical law of cosines).
- Axial tilt slider on the Globe tab ranges ±23.5°; day/night terminator uses current UTC hour to compute the sub-solar meridian.
Discipline for exhibits
- The authentic 1892 Gleason map is only ever displayed as an archival scan (Boston Public Library, commonwealth:7h149v85z) with its rights statement. It is never redrawn, cleaned up, or substituted with a schematic or AI reconstruction.
- Historical maps carry: creator, date, repository, catalog URL, rights statement, and any georeferencing status (approximate / anchored / not georeferenceable).
- Where a historical map cannot be georeferenced, it is not overlaid on any coordinate system — it is displayed on its own with interpretive notes.
- Overlays are only permitted within one projection. Different projections force side-by-side or difference views.
- An organization's use of a polar-azimuthal or circular emblem is documented as an emblem, not evidence of institutional belief.
- User submissions are held in a separate lane until reviewed; nothing enters the archive without founder approval.
See also About our method for the site-wide rules on evidence, findings, and corrections.