A Global Perspective on the Past: The Institute of Archaeology Around the World

Abstract

The Mollweide projection is an equal-area, pseudocylindrical map projection generally used for global maps of the world or night sky. The projection trades accuracy of angle and shape for accuracy of propor-tions in area, and as such is used where that property is needed, such as maps depicting global distributions. The projection was first published by mathematician and astronomer Karl (or Carl) Brandan Mollweide (1774–1825) of Leipzig in 1805. It was reinvented and popularised in 1857 by Jacques Babinet, who gave it the name homalographic projection (Snyder 1993). The map that follows on p. 46 is of UCL Institute of Archaeology projects around the world (Mollweide projection), showing the total number of projects for each regional cluster. For projects with a regional focus, a single dot has been placed in the centre of the region concerned. Projects that have a broader theoretical or conceptual focus and cannot be regionally situated are not included on the map. See the Institute of Archaeology website for further details: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ archaeology.