Deel van een kaart van Rijnland, met het Haarlemmermeer en het IJ 1615

This is part of a map of Rijnland, with the Haarlemmermeer and the IJ, made by Floris Balthasarsz van Berckenrode. Look at the ships scattered across the water. Ships, since antiquity, have been potent symbols of journeys, both physical and spiritual. They evoke ideas of exploration, trade, and the fraught navigation of life's uncertainties. These small vessels, with their flags fluttering, remind me of similar motifs in ancient Greek pottery, where ships also symbolized passage—often the crossing into the afterlife. Here, in this early modern map, the ships perhaps signify the burgeoning maritime power of the Dutch Republic, their sails full with ambition and mercantile drive. Such symbols are never static. They evolve, their meanings influenced by collective experience and cultural memory, continuously resurfacing across history. The ship, therefore, is not merely a mode of transport but a powerful emblem, its recurring presence proof of humanity’s unending quest for discovery and meaning.