Fangmatan wooden maps
Mapas de madera de Fangmatan
- Date
- c. 239 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu, China
- Credited to
- Officials of the state of Qin
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
Seven maps drawn on four pine boards found in a Qin tomb, depicting rivers, roads and forests of Gui county. They are the oldest surviving Chinese maps.
They were discovered in 1986 in Tomb 1 at Fangmatan; the date (around 239 BC) derives from the tomb and associated texts, and the reading of the badly damaged maps has been debated.
What it led to
- administrative and forest-resource mapping of the Qin state
- a Chinese tradition of topographic maps for governing territory