Sundaland 24 Mile Hex Map

A map of Sundaland at the height of the last Ice Age overlaid with a 24 mile hex-grid. The image is 5260 by 4754 pixels and was created with Wonderdraft. Left click to load the full map then right click to download it.

For a while I considered creating a hex map with Worldographer but I wouldn't be able to depict all the small islands, which is half the fun of this map!

The good thing is that Wonderdraft allows you to import this map, match the hex size and then add a second hex overlay at a smaller resolution, for example 6 or 3 mile hexes. So you could use this map for the big picture overview and then create hex maps for smaller areas if you want to have an old-school hex experience.

Since this part of the world is close to the equator the size of the landmass is frequently underestimated. You can use TheTrueSize.com to see how large this sub-continent is by comparing it to a country or state that you are familiar with. Just enter and select a country on the left and then drag it over South-East Asia

This example section of the map is 28 x 12 hexes (504 hexes total) which makes it roughly the size of countries like Afghanistan or South Sudan according to How big is your hex map? 

This is how far you can zoom in before the hexes become pixelated.

For more maps depicting biomes, locations of precious metals and spices as well as tools for creating your own Sword & Sorcery Sundaland setting visit the Sundaland Content Overview

If you use any of this please tell me about it in the comments. I always love to hear about how people use this material.

Real History: Nan Madol

 A mysterious structure deep in the Pacific Ocean. Wikipedia: Nan Madol

Real History: Science Daily: Who are the Papua New Guineans? New DNA study reveals stunning origins

 
On remote islands of Papua New Guinea, people carry a story that ties us all back to our deepest roots. Although their striking appearance once puzzled scientists, new genetic evidence shows they share a common ancestry with other Asians, shaped by isolation, adaptation, and even interbreeding with mysterious Denisovans. Yet, their unique history — marked by survival bottlenecks and separation from farming-driven booms — leaves open questions about the earliest migrations out of Africa and whether their lineage holds traces of a forgotten branch of humanity.

Read the full article here: Who are the Papua New Guineans? New DNA study reveals stunning origins 

Real History: The Nuragic Civilisation

A look at a Bronze Age civilisation that many people might not know about. The Nuragic civilisation of the island of Sardinia.

Real History: Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest

Two great articles about the the remains of cultures that existed in South America. I find this type of culture fascinating and imagine many of the cultures in my Sundaland setting exist.

The first article includes some artist impressions of what the area could have looked like. 

Archaeologists using 3D mapping are uncovering the remains of thousands of green metropolises with composted gardens, fisheries, and forests groomed into orchards

Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest 

This article prioritized studying the roads and paths that are interconnected to geoglyph-type sites in the Western Brazilian Amazon, not only because of their originality, but also to understand some issues that permeate the universe of geoglyphs, such as how was gave the spatial distribution of these roads in the region, what meaning they had within the sociocultural context of that society.

The pre-Colombian roads of geoglyphs sites in the state of acre: the tequinho site road complex

Real History: Lost Maya city with temple pyramids and plazas discovered in Mexico

Another day and another lost Mayan city has been discovered: 

“The larger of Valeriana’s two monumental precincts has all the hallmarks of a Classic Maya political capital: multiple enclosed plazas connected by a broad causeway, temple pyramids, a ballcourt, a reservoir formed by damming an arroyo (a seasonal watercourse), and a probable … architectural arrangement that generally indicates a founding date prior to AD150,”

“The ancient world is full of examples of cities that are completely different than the cities we have today,” Auld-Thomas said. “There were cities that were sprawling agricultural patchworks and hyper-dense; there were cities that were highly egalitarian and extremely unequal. Given the environmental and social challenges we’re facing from rapid population growth, it can only help to study ancient cities and expand our view of what urban living can look like.”

You can read the article here:

Lost Maya city with temple pyramids and plazas discovered in Mexico

Ancient Apocalypse Season 2 is out now on Netflix

 

 

Ancient Apocalypse Season 2 is available to watch on Netflix. I've only watched the first episode and it's very light on details, but then I've read a bunch of Graham's book and listened to many interviews so I'm quite familiar with his hypotheses. In any case it still provides ample inspiration for my Sword & Sorcery setting.

The first episode includes Graham visiting the Amazon to see large earthworks. The the concept of Garden Urbanism is very interesting to me. The idea that large complex societies could exist in rain-forest or tropical environments.

In recent years researchers have found huge earthen structures, including platforms, mounds and causeways, across the Amazon, from Venezuela to central Brazil. But the infrastructure in Upano, described in a study published on Thursday in Science, “is completely unprecedented in Amazonia and in Andean prehistory,” says archaeologist José Iriarte of the University of Exeter in England, who studies pre-Columbian earth-builder cultures in Brazil and was not involved in the new study. “We don’t see an equivalent to these plazas elsewhere in Amazonia.” The nearest similar urban layout is in Maya territory in Central America.

Scientific American: Ancient Amazon Civilization Developed Unique Form of ‘Garden Urbanism’