Tables and Early Information Visualization

This chapter considers the deep history of tables as visualization modalities. It covers a variety of tables that have appeared between 1900 BCE and 1400 CE that include: Sumerian accounting tables; chronicles; canon tables; medieval calendars; gridded tables such as urine and eclipse; and tables that communicate conceptual abstractions, such as religious dogma and degrees of blood relation. These tables represent some of the earliest and most significant milestones in information visualization. Analysis of these tables demonstrates that as early as 1300 BCE the need to visualize information had driven the invention of representations that transformed the way information has been communicated and used.

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