How to Make a Map of Historical Roads

I wanted to make a map of the major trade routes in history. This was partly because I thought it would look cool but partly to spite one of my friends who didn't believe me when I said the ancient world was interconnected. So yes, I'm doing this out of spite.

While I'm making a map of the major trade routes, you could use any roads, it doesn't even have to be ancient but if you want to make this but can't think of anything you can use this transit map of the Roman roads made by cartographer Alexandr Trubetskoy

You will need:

A map of the area you're mapping (I used one of the world and then cut out the piece I needed)

A corkboard (or just a piece of cardboard) to stick the map on

Glue (you will need more than you think)

Coloured string (enough different colours for all your different routes)

Coloured push pins (the same amount of different colours as the string)

A book (optional but if you don't have it you will want some other kind of framing)

Every good map starts with stealing other peoples maps. If you're working on historical maps you need to find the originals. I can't help you much on this as its pretty case by case but there are plenty of maps online you can use but the original sources are going to work better. That said, there are companies that help you follow ancient routes like this one that takes tourists along the silk road.

Find an image of your area so that you can make a rough draft of your map before you make the final copy in real life. Trust me this is important.

You will need some room on either side of your map if you are going to put it in a frame.

You can find maps of just about anywhere, like this 4k map of the world. This is important because finding the places you want to put on your map is actually really hard and going off landmarks is really your only option.

Re-map your draft maps onto your new map.

I used dots to mark the cities and in the more complicated webs of financial movement, like the West-African trade network, I also labelled them to help keep track.

Google Maps is really useful for finding the places you need. Also if you look up an ancient city most websites say "Carthage, now Tunis" which is very handy since many places no longer exist e.g. Antioch, Ctesiphon, Yarkands

Add the roads, streets and paths to your map. Now, you don't need this to be very precise as this is just so you can have everything on the same map. This is so you can see how it all goes together and see what cities are on more than one path.

Alexandria, for example, lay on three of the four routes I was using and I had to spend 20 minutes finding what it was most important to.

Most image editing software has a "line" tool such as the pen on Adobe Illustrate and the line shape on the Mac image editor. On all of these you can set the colour of the line to differentiate between the different routes.

The next step is to make the map in the physical plane. You'll want to have everything you're going to need on hand before you start because the longest part of this step is waiting for the glue to dry. You'll need a base, a frame, and of course, a map.

For my base, I had an old cork board that I could cut up, but a piece of a heavy cardboard box will work just as well. For the frame I used a bunch of pages I cut out of a book but you could inlay it into a wooden log and surround it with feathers or, if you're feeling really adventurous you could use a picture frame. If you can find a map of the place you want that would be best but the only one I could find was a world map so I had to cut out the part I wanted to use.

Now you need to cut off the parts you don't need so you can focus on the part you're going to use. I recommend using a knife and a ruler to help you cut it in a straighter line- or even a guillotine if you have one. You can use scissors to clean up your cut later. Also if I was going to do this again I would cut off the oceans and have them on a second piece of board below the first one to give it some more depth.

The board needs to be as close in size to the map as possible so that when it's stuck to the frame it's all in line, if it's hanging over the side it'll look unprofessional and poorly made, so this step is important.

One trick is to put the map face down on the board and going around the outline with spray paint. This will give you a much closer outline to cut along. Then you should put it on a cutting board or something else firm that won't blunt your knife (I just used a log) and carefully cut along the outline with a Stanley knife.

When you glue the map onto the board you need to be careful to line it up perfectly because if this is off even a little bit the entire thing looks bad. You can put the map and board against a flat surface to help the glue stick evenly. I used the trailer tyre guard but that was just because it was the closest flat surface (near the log) that worked. Also, smear the glue around so it's an even coating otherwise, the glue soaks through and the map and it doesn't sit evenly.

For the frame, you have two options. The first is something like I did where you cut out a second piece of board and make a surrounding out of something like pages out of a book or feathers. All you need to do is stick the surrounding on the second board and then the map on top of that. If you use this framing method it looks better if you arrange them in a chaotic explosion rather than a well-organised pattern. The other option is to take something like a log or slate and carve an inlay into it and glue the map into it. This would look better in a modest house belonging to a responsible person. I obviously didn't go with that one.

This step is why you made the digital map, it's much easier when you don't have to keep checking all the different maps and looking up various cities and cross-referencing the paths and roads. Also depending on how big your map is and how big your pins are you often don't have to be very precise as the pins are sometimes proportionally hundreds of kilometres across. This is one of the easiest steps. It's the same as step 3 but with pins rather than dots.

Next, you use string to cover the routes. For clarity, use the same colour string as your pins. You need to mark each route several times for it to be properly visible if you use sewing cotton like I did. I recommend using one string to mark everything out and then going back and doing it again, looping it between the pairs of pins several times to make it easier to see.

To attach the string to the pins tie a bow-line in one end of the string and loop it around the pins, you can just use a half hitch on the end to hold it on.

Aaaaand, you're done.