History of Land Surveys

Ever since ancient man decided that one parcel 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 are more sophisticated through the years, the basic have to define our boundaries remains. Every major civilization in the history of the world utilized land surveying, some with an increase of sophisticated and accurate results than others.

Among the first types 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 before other civilizations of their own time when it comes to their surveying and irrigation techniques, nowadays we prefer a more scientific method of marking boundaries instead of declaring "I swear by the fantastic god that's in heaven that the proper boundary stone has been set up," once the boundary stones were replaced following 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. These were called agrimensores, collectively referred to as Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum and they performed various tasks through the entire Empire.  Helpful site  were remarkably thorough and precise in their methodology; they might create straight lines and right angles using simple tools. Once the lines were measured, they might create a furrow or perhaps a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Texts have already been found which date as far back as the first century AD, plus some furrows created by them remain today.

In England in 1086, William the Conqueror wrote the Domesday Book, which covered most of England and contained the names of the land owners, the volume of land they owned, the standard of said land, and specific information about each area's resources and peoples. While the breadth of information was impressive for enough time, the technical surveying skills were lacking. The maps were not designed to scale and did not accurately show locations.

It should not surprise anyone to learn that Napoleon Bonaparte was thinking about proper surveying. When you're trying to conquer the known world, it can help to have accurate maps. In 1908 he founded the cadastre, a comprehensive register of the property of a county, which included ownership details, location as precisely as you possibly can, and as much information regarding the value and usage of the land. It also included maps drawn to scale both at 1:2500 and 1:1250. Using the cadastre spread quickly, but ran into problems in the more sparsely populated and disputed areas, as it would have to be updated each and every time anything changed. Napoleon felt that the establishment of the cadastre will be his greatest accomplishment in civil law.

Land surveying has a lot 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 by which we measure and record our boundaries and land.