Ever since ancient man decided that one parcel would participate in one tribe and another parcel to another, there's been a need for land surveys. As the technology and means of mediation have definitely become more sophisticated over the years, the basic need to define our boundaries remains. Every major civilization in the annals of the planet utilized land surveying, some with more sophisticated and accurate results than others.
One of the first types of surveying by mathematical means was by the Egyptians. THE FANTASTIC Pyramid at Giza, build around 2700 BC, demonstrates their prowess and understanding of surveying techniques. When the Nile overflowed its banks and flooded the plains, the ancient Egyptians redrew boundary lines by using basic geometry. Also, an Egyptian Land register existed as soon 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 much more scientific method of marking boundaries instead of declaring "I swear by the fantastic god that is 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 example 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 known as Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum and they performed various tasks through the entire Empire. They were remarkably thorough and precise within their methodology; they would create straight lines and right angles using simple tools. Once the lines were measured, they would create a furrow or perhaps a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Texts have already been found which date dating back to the first century AD, plus some furrows developed by them remain today.
In England in 1086, William the Conqueror wrote the Domesday Book, which covered all of England and contained the names of the land owners, the amount of land they owned, the quality of said land, and specific information about each area's resources and peoples. As the breadth of information was impressive for enough time, the technical surveying skills were lacking. The maps weren't designed to scale and didn't accurately show locations.
Land Surveyor Hyde should not surprise anyone to learn that Napoleon Bonaparte was enthusiastic about proper surveying. If you are attempting 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 possible, and as much information regarding the value and using the land. In addition, it included maps attracted 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, since it would have to be updated each time anything changed. Napoleon felt that the establishment of the cadastre will be his greatest accomplishment in civil law.
Land surveying has even 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.
