‘This is the place:’ putting the past on the map1

All events noticed in the historical record necessarily occurred—if they occurred at all—in a specific time and place. Although perhaps more interested in the first of these, historians and others have also attempted to localize these events as far as possible. Using evidence from the written and oral sources, archaeology, aerial photography, and the like, they attempt to match present-day locales with this testimony. Inevitably problems arise. Sometimes these are due to the exiguity of the evidence, sometimes to the desire to match the past and the present in specific ways regardless of the evidence, and sometimes to a failure to appreciate that both historiography and topography are dynamic entities. In this paper I look at a few examples of the phenomenon that can serve as a microcosm of the issues that arise and suggest that they serve as a cautionary tale.