Old Besokian World Map

The Old Besokian World Map is a schematic representation of the lands surrounding the Besokan river. Found among the Nishûnâc stone carvings, it is labelled in Proto-Besokian and thought to represent the Besokian knowledge of the world in the late 3rd millennium B.E.B.

Description

The map is found in a dedicated chamber to the west of the Mule’s chamber, carved into the flat surface of a round pillar around one kâl high and three kâla in diameter. No other carvings have been found in the chamber, suggesting its purpose was related directly to the map itself; whether it had a spiritual or practical function cannot be determined.

Markings on the map are schematic, with squares used to represent mountains and hills, long horizontal or vertical lines to represent water, and loosely hatched areas presumably representing woodland. Islands are given as large rectangles, lakes as ellipses, and rivers as lines. The map itself is circular and centred on Nishûnâc, showing a mountain range to the (presumed) north and a large body of water with two islands, presumably the sea, to the south. East and west are filled by plains, bordered by a forest in the west and three lakes in the east; mountains and sea are bent into a crescent shape and meet in the far east and west, producing a world entirely surrounding by mountains and water. The Besokan is shown emerging from a mountain on one edge and traversing the map in a straight line before discharging into the sea. Several additional details are shown, including minor rivers, forests, and mountain ranges. The map has no primary direction, labels roughly rotate around Nishûnâc.

23 locations are annotated with short labels written in the Besokian abugida and a later form of Proto-Besokian. It is unclear whether these labels are meant to give proper names or merely descriptions of locations; many are strikingly general terms, so kîrîmin ‘mountains’ for the mountain range presumed to represent the Reknaya. Given the language and the locations included, the map is usually dated to around 2200 B.E.B., making it the second oldest extant evidence of Besokian writing, roughly 700 years younger than the Besokian Cosmogony. The inscriptions are consistent with those of the latter in both writing and language, leading to the general classification of the language represented as Proto-Besokian; this identification has been criticized mostly based on the historical distance of the two inscriptions, suggesting a form of Old Besokian with a conservative orthography might be a better interpretation of the find. Nonregarding the language used in its labels, the map is almost invariably dated to the early Old Besokian period, hence gaining its appellation.

Analysis

The map is often assumed to represent the world as known to the Besokians in the early years of their explorations. It is focused on the sacred complex at Nishûnâc and includes detailed depictions of its surroundings, including Lake Marin, Tár, Pár, and the Forests of the Besokan. The large body of water shown in the bottom, labelled as urenân ‘sea’, is presumed to be the Gulf of Seligon, with the two islands possibly representing Golim and Kirospel or Margnan. The plain to the east is labelled as Nôrâshet ‘land of summer’, the name used for the Third Hill in the Besokian Cosmogony and ancestor of names for Old and New Seligon in later Besokian languages. It has a small forest in the north crossed by a river that later joins the Besokan; these are presumed to represent Parmirgeb forest and the river Estennil, respectively. The far east is taken up by three lakes, most likely the great lakes of Amasia, which are likely to have been known to the Besokian either through trade with the Avalians or their own earliest explorations.

The western plain is labelled tûnûshetor ‘marsh’, a name later used for Belkondíl. Its only features are a long river mouthing into the sea in an indicated delta and a large forest filling its west. The river most likely is the Nellac, which crosses Oakshire and would have been known to the Besokians. Its portrayal as culminating in a river delta is somewhat puzzling, as neither the Nellac nor its target body of water, the Cëlac, develop a delta; the carving might have been influenced by knowledge of the Brethan delta, which is however unlikely to have been known to the Besokians at this point, or could represent the unstable riverbed of the Nellac upon its entering the Marsh of Singrall, which could have been interpreted as the edge of the world by early exploring Besokians. The forest is labelled nâkerânat ‘boundless’, which survives as appellation for the Old Rouningwood in Soskish in Reknayan, and an identification is likely.