Rohl

Introduction: Analysis of the following articles have revealed problems in defining the field of chorography as well as methods, theories and insights which warrant further examination. These summaries identify, illuminate and reflect on these issues and their implications in theory and practice.

Paper 3: Rohl, Darrell J. (2012) Chorography: History, Theory and Potential for Archaeological Research. TRAC 2011: Proceedings of the Twenty-First Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. pp. 19-32.

Peter Heylyn. Cosmography in Four Books. Containing the Chorography & History of the whole World

The aim of this paper is a ‘tentative’ attempt at a theoretical framework informed by a close reading of classical texts in relation to contemporary discourse. Rohl states prior translations of Ptolemy’s description of chorography have conflated it with ‘likeness’. Within chorography’s history the term did become synonymous with a regional map gathering “information in the form of pictorial representations” (Kymäläinen and Lehtinen 2010: 252). Although he does not acknowledge this alternate history Rohl states in the 19^th–20th centuries chorography gave way to ‘empirical […] topographic and spatial analysis’ which we might understand as cartography in its present sense. According to Rohl this coincided with the sublimation of antiquarianism into the discipline of archaeology. He also notes the resurgence of chorography in historical, literary and archaeological discourse and the study of ‘early modern Britain’.

Rohl’s theoretical chorographic framework is built upon a variety of historic and contemporary sources which in practice would be difficult to quantify. Within this Rohl cites Bossing who places the existentially emplaced literature or geopoetics of Thoreau into the tradition (1999) whose emphasis on chorography as place-writing is a literal translation of the term. Bossing’s quote concerning chorography’s textual ‘advantage over cartography’ appears misplaced since the term cartography is not synonymous with chorography. Again there is an overt emphasis on representation creating a simple binary which appears unproductive. Subordinating the visual to the textual or vice versa indicates on ongoing argument between mimesis and diegesis. However, some antiquarian works and chorographic maps are iconotextual. Rohl’s way out of this aporia is to expand his use of the term representation into ‘multi-media’ (actually employed by McLucas, see below) noting the unproductive limitation of chorography to ‘writing.’ However, this is a rather limited interpretation of the suffix graphy which is a combinatory form denoting a process or form of drawing, writing, representing, recording, describing and therefore is not limited to writing.

In both practices it is worth noting the intersection of region or place, event and temporality. There is a significant corpus on the chorographic map however I maintain the archaeological trajectory for this research will enable an expanded application of chorographic methodology to artistic practice. Rohl discusses these investigations which have been driven by Michael Shanks and his collaborations with Mike Pearson and the late Clifford McLucas, visual theorist. Pearson and McLucas co-founded the Welsh site specific-theatre company Brith Gof (National Library of Wales 2013). “Brith Gof was part of a distinct and European tradition in the contemporary performing arts – visual, physical, amplified, poetic and highly designed. Rather than focusing on the dramatic script, its work is part of an ecology of ideas, aesthetics and practices which foregrounds the location of performance, the physical body of the performer, and relationships with audience and constituency. Brith Gof’s works thus deal with issues such as the nature of place and its relation with identity, and the presence of the past in strategies of cultural resistance and community construction.” [1] Their site specific multi media works dealt with memory, place and belonging.

Pearson and Shanks employed a metaphor for antiquarian approaches; the Deep Map, a term appropriated from Heat-Moon, PrairyErth (a deep map) (1991). This work is a literary cartography of place, an epic tome and a 9 year sojourn across a single Kansas County recording all manner of incidences and is described by Calder as a form of “vertical travel writing” that interweaves “autobiography, archaeology, stories, memories, folklore, traces, reportage, weather, interviews, natural history, science, and intuition”. [2] According to Shanks the deep map ‘attempts to record and represent the grain and patina of place’ (Pearson and Shanks 2001:64). McLucas outlines a ten-point scale of the Deep Map: No.4 states ’they will be genuinely multi-media’ (Jones and Urbanski n.d). Rohl does not discuss McLucas further. This deep map echoes the ‘thick description’ of ethnographic fieldwork which aims to ‘draw large conclusions from small but very densely textured facts.’ (Geertz 1973: 28). Pearson’s own exercise in deep mapping is a complex intertextual topography and autobiographical derivé incorporating region, locale, chorography, landscape, memory, archaeology and performance where historical, social, cultural and environmental temporalities are foregrounded. Landscape is not used here literally in reference to the scene of the action; Lincolnshire but as a symbolic and metaphorical re-imagining, through landscapes past and present.

Rohl more explicitly states the link between Landscape Archaeology and chorography owing to their focus on multi-temporal place relations. He expands on the list of the ten chorographic methods, explaining how they operate in relation to fieldwork, suggesting they are selectively practised according to the object of study. These include 1] “Regional Field Survey: This involves both the experience and the research of the choros and originates from chorography’s theoretical emphases on place and experiece. 2] Inquiry using a variety of sources i.e documents, maps, interviews, digital databases and GIS. 3] Collection of facts, stories and objects. 4] Detailed description and/or measurement – of specific sites, structures, people and objects encountered. 5] Listing of notable features, specific sites, artefacts and historical events. 6] Analysis examination of place names, sites, objects that is broadly representative. 7] Visualisation in the form of vivid textual description, drawings, phots, reconstructions, maps, performance and new media. 8] Historiography – examination and tracing of previous accounts, perspectives and interpretations. 9] Critical Thinking on all evidence collected and personal experiences. 10] Presentation and/or Publication – communication of results to experts or the broader public within and without the bounds of the choros.” pp.28-29 He maintains the importance of chorography in the development of archaeology in Britain. Rohl concludes with his PhD research, a chorographic account of the Antonine Wall in Scotland. He also urges those concerned with the histories and memories of place, landscape, monument and regions to devise and develop chorographic sensibilities.

Image & text reproduced from https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/non-fiction/peter-heylyn-cosmography-in-four-books-containing-the-chorography-and-history-of-the-whole-world-and-all-the/a/6043-36218.s (accessed 03/11/22)

[1] https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/26.html (accessed 23/08/23)

[2] Calder. A, “The Wilderness Plot, the Deep Map, and Sharon Butala’s Changing Prairie.” Essays on Canadian Writing 77 (2002)pp. 164–70)

Paper 1: Rohl, Darell J (2011) The Chorographic Tradition and Seventeenth-and-Eighteenth Century Scottish Antiquaries, Journal of Art Historiography 5: 1-18.

Chorographic practice and theory according to Darrel J.Rohl

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the relations between British Antiquarianism and chorography. Rohl’s primary objective is the role of chorography in the lesser known Scottish Antiquarian’s. He also situates chorography in a wider field of contemporary discourse, including archaeology, which he fails to introduce or identify in the paper. This complicates his paper and disorients the reader, undermining an article which is aimed at clarifying the field whilst simultaneously criticizing competing definitions in contemporary usage. Ironically this adds to his own observation of imprecise language within various historical, practical and theoretical discourses and a lack of clarity for a precise chorographic definition.

Rohl translates chorography unproblematically stating his definition is located within the terms etymology, employing the chorographic corpus to support his arguments. Chorography is commonly interpreted by way of its Greek origins in Classical Geography, which Rohl discusses, yet translations exist across various theoretical discourses resulting in a plethora of interpretations which he does not address i.e. Ancient Philosophy. He posits a broad yet ‘reluctant’ definition of chorography as the ‘representation of place or space’ providing an accessible entry point. Whilst this may ultimately be productive the conflation of these terms is problematic due to their complex philosophical and theoretical histories where they are often employed interchangeably. This undermines or problematizes his definition; what does Rohl mean by space, to what type of space is he referring and how does one represent space?

Through a close reading of classical texts Rohl provides a summary of chorography’s history, terminology and methodology demonstrating the significance and influence of chorographic practice ‘synonymous’ with the antiquarian approach. Based on his own definition he identifies twelve basic observations which constitute a chorographical way of thinking, developing a more thorough exposition drawn from and supported by a variety of historic and contemporary sources including Polybius, Strabo and Ptolemy. Presented as an explanatory list they include “representation of place/space, multi-media presentation, it is spatio-hisorical, connection of past and present, it highlights the interdependence of human and environment, chorography de-centres and re-centres perspective, uses authorial voice, contains a degree of native knowledge, is about experience, memory and meaning, chorography is also generative of place, calling them into being, it is transdisciplinary and is both qualititvely and quantitively empirical and critical (p.6). Rohl eventually states these principles are representative of the chorographic corpus. These valuable insights warrant further investigation for the application of chorographic thinking to artistic practice.

Archaeology is then introduced in relation to chorographic methods as if self-evident; Rohl is an archaeologist. He locates chorographic methods in archaeological practice from his reading of British Antiquarianism, although he does not explain their historical relation, the latter being archaeology’s historical precursor. Rohl then outlines ten chorographic principles of archaeological practice including “regional field survey, inquiry, collection of facts, stories and objects, detailed description/measurement, listing of historic events, analysis, visualisation, historiographic method, critical thinking and presentation” (p.7). To the uninitiated he is explicitly referring to Landscape Archaeology in contradistinction to the better known practice of excavation. This distinct and separate strand involves fieldwork and interpretation, which I have experienced directly, however it is necessary to state Landscape Archaeologists are not performing chorography. These methods provide a clear, though not uncontested route, to conducting primary site research.

Finally, he performs a comparative analysis of works by the privileged Sir Robert Sibbald and the marginalised Alexander Gordon, contrasting their chorographic methods and the presence of differing attitudes in practice. The former via the distance of the questionnaire, survey, list and inventory, the latter performing a personal, yet critical, peripatetic engagement. Their outputs combine multiple layers of textual and visual material providing a rich topography of detail. Both, according to Rohl, are united in material engagements and documenting relations between past and present, geography, historiography, archaeological remains and positioning the local in relation to the regional or national construction of identity. He concludes that the legacy of antiquarianism in relation to chorography is being developed within the contemporary practices of heritage and archaeology.

Rohl

Micro Critique Paper No.3

Micro Critique Paper No.1