Deel van een kaart van het Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland, met Zoetermeer en omgeving 1615

This is a section of a map of Rijnland by Floris Balthasarsz van Berckenrode, made in the late 16th or early 17th century. In it, symbols emerge not as static markers, but as active participants in a cultural memory. Note the presence of water, meticulously charted through canals and waterways. Water is life, but also a force of chaos, constantly threatening to reclaim the structured land. This duality echoes in ancient flood myths, where water both destroys and regenerates. The act of mapping itself becomes a symbolic assertion of control. Across cultures, maps are far more than simple navigational tools. They are a projection of power, a visual declaration of ownership, and a testament to mankind’s relentless drive to order the natural world. We see this same impulse mirrored across time. These symbols have resurfaced, evolved, and taken on new meanings.