In reply to:

-imagine standing with a compass in front of you, with an arrow on one end. If you rotate yourself around, at some point the compass will face straight to you / away from you. You are now facing either north or south - for simplicity's sake let's say north. (Sorry Max!!!)
-if you now map what's in front of you, stuff in the far north ends up at the top of the page. By extension, stuff behind you must belong at the bottom of the page.
...

I find myself much more flummoxed by the idea of a map with east at the top than that of a map with south at the top.

If I remember rightly the compass came into use (in Europe at least, earlier in China) some time in the early 15th century, so I think Ted's theory of celestial globes is more likely.


Bingley


Bingley