#  Following in Ancient Footsteps: Jeff Blossom Maps an Explorer's Intercontinental Walk 

 





April 24, 2020

 

 

     ![Jeffrey Blossom](/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/harvard-iqss/files/jeffery_blossom_0_0.png?itok=iuyxRYkr) 

 



 

####  by Jonathan Colburn  


 For the past six years, Jeff Blossom of Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) at IQSS has been collaborating on one of the most immersive and adventurous National Geographic Society projects the world has ever seen.

 On his [Out of Eden Walk](https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/), Paul Salopek has been traveling on foot from East Africa through Asia, headed toward Alaska and through the Americas as he retraces the path of prehistoric human migration. Students, journalists, scientists, and others following along the journey need a way to consume the gargantuan amounts of information, and maps are essential and the perfect way to match the scale of this project.

#####    ![Paul Salopek and camels are led by local guides across the Ethiopian landscape](/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/harvard-iqss/files/out-of-eden-walk_photog-john-stanmeyer.jpg?itok=wSEqHVo_) 

 

  
[Photo: John Stanmeyer / National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/)

   
Jeff is chronicling countless milestones, including the people that Paul meets and the number of [police stops](/https:/harvard-cga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StoryMapBasic/index.html?appid=1857c7c97cb4442691fed8c8c8e95bdd&extent=-23.8362,-1.5316,97.0134,45.9861) that Paul encounters as he moves through the invisible boundaries between countries and societies. Whether hiking on the open road or [strolling through Kolkata’s markets](/https:/harvard-cga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=91b97bd39e4b49b588f4f498308c290b), mosques, and tea shops, Jeff is with him for every step of the journey, sometimes in person but always within reach.

 You can see the entirety of Jeff’s work on the Out of Eden Project [at the Center for Geographic Analysis website](https://gis.harvard.edu/out-eden-walk).

 [Check out National Geographic's video about Jeff Blossom’s work](https://www.nationalgeographic.org/video/mapping-human-journey/)



 

 

 



 

 

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