Map making.

[frank rabbets]

When it was discovered that the world was a spinning sphere I guess they realised there were only 2 fixed points but who decided that North should go at the top of the page and not to the bottom?

 

[Shayne]

i guess the stars were named first

Even before maps or compass the sun rose in the east and set in the west but at night you had to look up to the brightest star to get your bearings .

 

[Towpack]

"North" is derived from a really old European word meaning "Left" and North is to the left when facing the sunrise.

 

[frank rabbets]

No explanation yet then. South could have been at the top in both the above cases.

 

[fbnss]

Because "shredded eat never wheat" wouldn't make sense

 

[Chris]

Because when they viewed it from the moon, that's the way up that made sense. Everyone knows that.

 

[Towpack]

No explanation yet then. South could have been at the top in both the above cases.

If you’re looking for a name then the answer appears to be the Greek philosopher Ptolemy.......

From Wikipedia....

• Up is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be up and east at the right was established by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The historian Daniel Boorstin suggests that perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner.[8]

 

[frank rabbets]

TP that makes sense especially as the early map makers were operating in the Northern hemisphere. Had they been in the Southern hemisphere South might have been at the top.

 

[moggy1968]

Well, ‘cos norfs up innit, if they had saarf up it’s be the wrong way round like!