[MartinMansson]

Hello, i'm the author of the map. Sarai has been suggested to have existed before the mongols arrived, and was a strategic location on the route between europe and asia before the height of the "north" northern silk road.

The reason for why Arkhangelsk is there has been explained by earlier replies.

Names are misspelled. Sometimes it was my fingers that moved too fast, and sometimes i've experienced sources spelling names differently.

If i have omitted significant trade routes i would be happy to receive some notice.

This is a continuous passion project of mine, and i'm happy to improve it. I have already gotten a lot of good feedback, all from cities being placed in the wrong order to misspellings.

The purpose of the map is to make it interesting and engaging for people to look at. It's also meant as a road map to navigate the trade/communication networks of the old world that you otherwise could only get from overly general maps. It's a mammoth task, and i appreciate all help i can get.

[kingofhdds]

Hi Martin! I respect your effort, and welcome it, because I'm a lover, and collector of maps, actually. You certainly made a lot of work. However (and please don't take it personally) if it's not just a decoration, and you claim it has an educational value, then, sorry, it falls short of even most relaxed standards of accuracy. Let's imagine there was a native settlement in place of modern Washington D.C. Do you really believe it would be correct then to have Washington on a map, which depicts pre-Columbian America? There was no Arkhangelsk, there was no Sarai. There's quite an established (and supported by chronicles) understanding that the former was founded by wish of czar Ivan The Terrible, and latter by order of khan Batu. Both possibly were predated by earlier smaller settlements (although there's no sound evidence for this in relation to Sarai), but, at first, they weren't major trading centers (and that's why you don't know their names), and second, you cannot freely use names from the future without making your map a historic mess, having essentially anti-educational effect. So, it's a noble attempt, but as you said it's a mammoth work, and one have to chew a whole library of historical literature, and look at numerous historical atlases to make it good. Maybe, it's just a chunk too big to digest quickly. Maybe, it would be better to try to start from a smaller part of the world. Btw, crowdsourcing doesn't work in such cases well, because you would still need to verify suggestions, and chose between them. Also because maps are by their nature very politically loaded. Even a question of proper spelling can ignite serious conflicts, and offend a lot of people. I would like to encourage you to continue map making, but I suggest to start from a less ambitious project, and extend it gradually.

And thank you for your calm response!

[MartinMansson]

I understand that errors like this can make one doubt the whole product. The content of the map is not made up and very well researched. The fact that i chose to name the settlements like i did (didn't have to be major, but notable or strategic) does not erase its educational value. i causght myself actually defending the location of sarai-juk, and not sarai. You are completely correct in the instance of Sarai. This will have to be corrected in future editions.

Instead of putting the settlements in quotes i should rather find another way of describing their lack of known name. There were trade links and settlements that were involved in international trade but that remains unnamed, simply referring to areas or islands. I wanted to depict these links as well.

The objective with the map is to not start from a smaller part of the world, but to remedy the fact that the maps out there are either local and detailed, or global and general. I want to strike a balance between the two, and the only way i can do that is to publish and republish my map for constant reviews, which is why i appreciate your effort of correcting the map.

This is a side passion project of mine that has been revised constantly during 2 years, there are other versions of this map out there significantly less accurate. And i plan to keep updating this project, because i think its usefulness definitely outweighs the drawbacks of small errors. Spelling errors are however a big drawback, and as you say, will make the map look less reliable.

You said earlier that i missed some major trade routes, do you have any of these in mind that i can work with?

I don't know the guy who put this map up here for crowdfunding. I was just told by someone that it was up here. I just like to track down wherever this map goes to see who comments on it in order for me to improve it. I give this map out for free to anyone who asks and have no commercial interest.

Thank you again for your response.

[elsurudo]

Hi Martin,

First of all, this is great work, and fascinating!

Suggestion: for the "named roads", I think it'd be a good addition to actually add the names of the roads.

[MartinMansson]

all roads that are depicted as named roads do have their names on the map. Azalay in west Africa is one example.