What's on the Map?: re-assessing the first urban map of Torneå and early map-making in Sweden

Maps can arguably provide a wealth of information about various aspects of historical landscapes and societies. While it is clear that not all information on historical maps is reliable, some basic assumptions about the nature of maps tend to go unquestioned. There is thus a need to scrutinize scholarly assumptions about historical maps and map-making, especially in early modern contexts, in order to correct certain modernist biases and gain new perspectives on early cartography. This paper first offers a new interpretation of the earliest known urban map of Torneå (Tornio), considers some implications of the reinterpretation, and proceeds to discuss the nature of early Swedish cartography and problems of interpreting cartographic material on a more general level.