History of Land Surveys

Ever since ancient man decided that one piece of land would participate in one tribe and another piece of land to another, there has been a dependence on land surveys. While the technology and method of mediation have definitely become more sophisticated over the years, the basic need to define our boundaries remains. Every major civilization in the annals of the planet utilized land surveying, some with an increase of sophisticated and accurate results than others.


One of the first examples of surveying by mathematical means was by the Egyptians. The Great Pyramid at Giza, build around 2700 BC, demonstrates their prowess and understanding of surveying techniques. Once the Nile overflowed its banks and flooded the plains, the ancient Egyptians redrew boundary lines through the use of basic geometry. Also, an Egyptian Land register existed as early as 3000 BC. Though miles ahead of other civilizations of their own time in regards to their surveying and irrigation techniques, nowadays we prefer a more scientific approach to marking boundaries rather than declaring "I swear by the great god that is in heaven that the proper boundary stone has been setup," when the boundary stones were replaced after the flooding waters of the Nile had receded.

Building upon the exemplory case of the Egyptians, the Romans went one step further and established Land Surveyor being an official position within the Roman Empire. They were called agrimensores, collectively known as Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum and they performed various tasks through the entire Empire. These were remarkably thorough and precise in their methodology; they would create straight lines and right angles using simple tools. After the lines were measured, they would create a furrow or a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Texts have been found which date dating back to the initial century AD, and some furrows developed by them still exist today.

In Article source in 1086, William the Conqueror wrote the Domesday Book, which covered all of England and contained the names of the land owners, how much land they owned, the caliber of said land, and specific information regarding each area's resources and peoples. As the breadth of information was impressive for enough time, the technical surveying skills were lacking. The maps weren't designed to scale and did not accurately show locations.

It will not surprise anyone to learn that Napoleon Bonaparte was thinking about proper surveying. If you are attempting to conquer the known world, it helps to possess accurate maps. In 1908 he founded the cadastre, a comprehensive register of the house of a county, including ownership details, location as precisely as possible, and as much information regarding the value and using the land. It also included maps drawn to scale both at 1:2500 and 1:1250. The usage of the cadastre spread quickly, but ran into problems in the more sparsely populated and disputed areas, as it needed to be updated every time anything changed. Napoleon felt that the establishment of the cadastre would be his greatest accomplishment in civil law.

Land surveying has even more applications today than in those of our predecessors. As our method of recording and preserving our history becomes more sophisticated, so do the means where we measure and record our boundaries and land.

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Pub: 06 Feb 2024 02:39 UTC
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