The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
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Articles | Volume XL-4/W3
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-4-W3-1-2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-4-W3-1-2013
13 Nov 2013
 | 13 Nov 2013

On Borders: From Ancient to Postmodern Times

G. Bellezza

Keywords: Borders evolution in History, Type of borders, Frontier Turner's concept, Borders in Modern States, Human and Cultural borders, Postmodern thoughts on borders, Virtual cyberspace borders

Abstract. The article deals with the evolution of the concept of borders between human groups and with its slow evolution from the initial no men’s land zones to the ideal single-dimension linear borders. In ancient times the first borders were natural, such as mountain ranges or large rivers until, with the development of Geodesy, astronomical borders based on meridians and parallels became a favourite natural base. Actually, Modern States adopted these to fix limits in unknown conquered territories. The postmodern thought led give more importance to cultural borders until, in the most recent times, is becoming rather impossible to fix borders in the virtual cyberspace.