What was the river Ister in the time of Strabo? A mathematical approach

Abstract

We introduce a novel method for map registration and apply it
to transformation of the river Ister from Strabo’s map of the World to the current
map in the World Geodetic System. This transformation leads to the surprising
but convincing result that Strabo’s river Ister best coincides with the nowadays
Tauernbach-Isel-Drava-Danube course and not with the Danube river what is
commonly assumed. Such a result is supported by carefully designed mathematical
measurements and it resolves all related controversies otherwise appearing
in understanding and translation of Strabo’s original text. Based on this result,
we also show that Strabo’s Suevi in the Hercynian Forest corresponds to the
Slavic people in the Carpathian-Alpine basin and thus that the compact Slavic
settlement was there already at the beginning of the first millennium AD.