Civilization manualBook 1: From Bare Hands to Steam and Electricity765 entries · 23 phases · 100 years
The Island
Phase 02 — Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkit  /  About year 1
02.28

Resource map of the island

where the flint, clay, ores, salt, coal and oil are

KnowledgeYear 1Story day 42Stands on 18 earlier

AWhat it needs

Needs 18 other products in all, 2 of them directly.

View

Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.

BWhy

Everything the settlers will ever make starts as something in the ground or growing on it, somewhere along a hundred miles of island. What one party finds must not be lost when they forget the way. The map is the camp's memory of where things are, and the plan for every journey.

CYou need

  • One large smoked hide (02.15), the palest available
  • Charcoal sticks, and red ochre ground to powder and mixed with fat into a paint
  • The canoe (02.26) for the coast, and parties on foot for the inland
  • A knotted cord for counting, and a tube of bark to store the map in

DSteps

  1. Fix the directions first. At the tally post, mark the line of the shortest midday shadow: it runs north and south. Mark where the sun rises and sets.
  2. Fix a measure. One day's steady walk on open ground is the unit. On the map, one day's walk is three finger-widths. The whole island then fits on one hide.
  3. Each party counts as it travels: days and half-days on foot or by paddle, and the direction of each stretch by the sun. One person keeps the count on a knotted cord.
  4. At every find the party notes three things: what it is, how to know the place again, and how far it is from the last water.
  5. They bring back a sample of everything: rock, clay, ore, plant.
  6. On return, the party scratches its route in sand in front of the map keeper, who questions them until it fits what is already known.
  7. Only then is it put on the hide: the coast and rivers in charcoal, the finds in red.
  8. Use the same sign every time, agreed in council: a wavy line for water, a flame for coal, a drop for the oil seep, a hammer for stone that makes tools, a pot for clay, a circle with rays for each kind of ore, a tree for each useful wood, a cross for danger.
  9. Hang the samples on a rack in the same order as the signs on the map.
  10. Bring the map to every council and add to it there, in front of everyone. Keep it rolled in its tube, dry, by the hearth. When there is a second good hide, copy it.

EIt worked if

  • Someone who has never been to a place can reach it using only the map, and find what was marked.
  • Two parties sent to the same place by the map arrive at the same place.

FWhat goes wrong

  • Distances that do not agree. Rough ground is slower. Note the kind of ground as well as the time.
  • A find that cannot be found again. No landmark was noted. No find goes on the map without one.
  • The paint flakes or smears. Too little fat, or the hide was rolled wet. Dry it flat first.
  • Only one person can read it. Read it aloud at council until everyone can.

GIn the story

The first map shows three days of coast in each direction and a great deal of empty hide. Diego looks at the empty part the way Omar looks at an unplanted field. He asks the council for the canoe and for one companion who knows plants, for a journey along the whole coast. That journey waits until the fourth month. When it happens, the map is filled, and he and Ulani come back changed.

HFigures

not drawn yet
Fig. 02.28-aThe hide map with the coast near the camp drawn in charcoal, finds marked in red signs, and most of the hide still empty; the key of signs beside it.thing
not drawn yet
Fig. 02.28-bDiego on his knees painting a red sign onto the hide, a survey party scratching their route in the sand in front of him.making
not drawn yet
Fig. 02.28-cThe council gathered round the map held up by two people, Adam pointing to a place on it.use