Archaeo-Tech: Evaluating Historical Maps as Primary Resources

1. This lesson plan can be tailored in its content to best match the academic standards for each grade level. For 3rd and 7th grade classes, more attention can be given to geography, cartography, and landscapes, while a greater emphasis can be given to colonial South Carolina history for 4th and 8th grade. Ways in which this lesson can be adapted for each grade level will be detailed in the following steps.

2. It is recommended that students complete this activity on a computer or tablet so they can move around the maps and zoom in and out. Alternatively, this lesson can be completed in the classroom by displaying the maps on the board or by printing the maps on paper and distributing them as handouts.

3. Begin the lesson by distributing pens, pencils, markers, crayons, rulers, and sheets of paper. Tell your students that they will be constructing a map depicting the route from their home to their school. If students do not wish to use their personal address for this activity, they may choose to use an alternative location that is familiar to them. Review necessary map skills and vocabulary as necessary, depending on grade level and previous experience studying maps. All maps should include a map legend, scale, and orientation.

4. Allow time for your students to complete their maps.

5. When finished creating their maps, ask your students to think of and discuss the different types and uses of maps. Explore how maps can display different kinds of information and serve a variety of purposes. Pass around examples or show your students images of different map types, like general reference maps, political maps, topographic maps, transit maps, etc.

a. For 4th and 8th grade, review key events in the development of colonial South Carolina and ask your students to brainstorm why maps would be important or useful to the colonial South Carolina / British government.

6. Explain that humans have been creating maps to document and express information about their surroundings for thousands of years. Consider how maps are important historical resources for studying the past, just like letters, journals, and photographs. Not only are maps helpful in providing evidence of past built environments, they also, when read critically, provide insight into the worldview of the mapmaker. Like other primary resources, maps are subject to bias.

7. Show your students the “Imago Mundi” (linked in the resources tab) or “Babylonian Map of the World” (© The Trustees of the British Museum) and discuss. Identify key map elements, but also how the map reflects the author’s worldview or bias.

8. Next, show your students the 1786 plat “A Plan of Comingtee Plantation” by Joseph Purcell. Explain the purpose of a plat map and then compare and contrast this map with the Imago Mundi map. Identify key map elements and brainstorm ways in which this map could also be biased.

9. Discuss how maps have improved in accuracy and detail over time, especially during the period of European colonization in North and South America. Have your students think about why Europeans would want accurate maps of the New World.

a. For 4th and 8th grade classes, work these questions into the economic development of South Carolina as a British colony, specifically the formation of rice plantations as a lucrative cash crop. You may also place Bonneau Ferry in the context of this development.

10. Explain how historical maps and plats, such as “A Plan of Comingtee Plantation” are useful to archaeologists and how they can be used by archaeologists to locate sites. Using what your students learned previously in the lesson, discuss how maps can potentially be misleading for archaeologists, how they omit or emphasize different information, and how old maps can be inaccurate compared to modern maps. Brainstorm ways in which archaeologists can overcome these problems.

11. For 4th and 8th grade, show your students The Inevitable Evolution of Fort Frederick documentary film (twenty-six minutes in length -linked in the resources tab) and have them observe when historical maps are used. Discuss how maps were used in the development of Beaufort and the location of Fort Frederick and how archaeologists use maps to not only locate archaeological sites but also to excavate and document sites.

12. Have your students return to the maps they created at the start of the lesson depicting their route from home to school. Using satellite maps, like Google Maps or Google Earth, have your students search the route from their home to school. Have your students compare their map to the satellite map and note any discrepancies between the two.

13. Divide your class into pairs or small groups and have your students share their maps with each other. Have them discuss the differences between their maps and the satellite map and think about how their bias or individual perception of their local area has influenced their map. Have them write their observations and conclusions on the back of their map.

differentiate: Scaffolded Bias: When discussing bias (Step 6), provide a pre-written definition of two simple biases: Omission (what's left out) and Exaggeration (what's drawn too big). Students only need to identify one of these biases in each historical map.

extend: Complex Map Analysis & Synthesis: Require students to analyze the "Imago Mundi" and the Comingtee Plat and synthesize their findings to create a Thesis Statement about how the worldviews of the mapmakers reflect their culture's political or economic power structures.

Use the maps students create during the lesson to assess student learning outcomes.