Regions and settlements. Input appreciated

[Muizer]

This weekend I've been working on the regions map. I've transferred the ones of the old map using some 100 corresponding points (islands, promontories, river mouths, confluences). That went well enough I think. However, for settlement locations, I much prefer to rely on coordinates. I've found coordinates for most of them, but some I have not been able to trace. In a couple of other cases, the names were ambiguous. It would help me a lot of someone with more historical knowledge than I have could provide the coordinates of the following places. If available, coordinates of the nearest modern town are often sufficient.

Dahaea   Igdi
Chorasmia   Dzanbas
Massagetia   Chiric
Saka-Issedonia   Chigu
Taklamakan   Kasia
Epirus   Taulantia
Albania   Gatara
Chattia   Amisia
Siracena   Uspe
Sarmatia   Roxanace
Scandiae   Thule (I don't think anyone ever thought this was a settlement?)
Venedia   Amadoca
Cimbria   Treva
Aestia   Drusa   
Olbiana   Olbia (there's several Olbias in the ancient world, which one is this?)
Aegyptus-Ptolemais   Ptolemais (there's no less than 3 settlements with that name in Egypt)
Hadramaut   Ubar (this one seems to be rather speculative, but it could be near Shisr in Oman?)
Caledonia   Devana

For the following I have coordinates but these places are speculative, being approximate, contested and/or having multiple contenders)
Teutonia   Laciburgium
Suebia   Luppia
Rugia   Rugium
Lugia   Calisia
Budinia   Gelonus
Hyrcania   Zadracarta
Cotinia   Asanca
Odrysia   Orestia
Borysthenes   Gerrhos

I also note most names have been latinized. I don't know if that was a conscious decision, but IMHO, given the timeframe it seems to make more sense to use the greek names from which they were derived.

That is not all. Quite a few settlements simply are not in the position the old map showed them to be and in some cases are in fact outside of the region they're supposedly in.  I don't really want to mess with the historical decisions about borders, but in most cases coordinates do not lie. Border corrections will be needed.

[ahowl11]

Epirus and Taulantia are both regions.
Would it help if I gave you some screenshots of some of your areas in question? I've messaged Suppanut on skype, and will paste his response here.

[xeofox]

I will help with:

Dahaea  Igdi
Chorasmia   Dzanbas (it will be Toprak name)
Massagetia   Chiric
Saka-Issedonia   Chigu
Taklamakan   Kasia (it can be Taklamakan Serica or Kasia)
Sarmatia   Roxanace (?) This is a conditional place and name? I can give the name & coordinates of some big sarmatian burial ground in this region. (?)

[ahowl11]

Also, Muizer can you replace Axum with Napata in Nubia?

[Muizer]

@xeofox:

Thanks! I couldn't find anything about those places, but that's probably also because not much is written about them in English. So I hit a dead end there.

@ahowl
Regarding Axum->Napata. No problem. Will do.

As for picking settlements beyond the world known to the Greeks and Romans, The best is evidently when archaeology and classical resources match up, but when they do not, I would prefer if we went with the people we are looking for in that area and then pick a prominent archaeological site related to them, rather than take a name from those ancient sources and plonk it down somewhere without any indication there was ever an important city there. 

[xeofox]

You can dowload points in KMZ or gpx formats.

Attention!
Chigu underwater (-+5km)
Ighdi (-+15km) in wiki not true coordinates. I try to find, but i find this place (region only) on military maps. Plase name: Upper Ighdy
Kasia under modern city

Blue marks: Bigest sarmatians burials grounds to north from Caspian sea. But modern toponyms. (name came from middle ages - posible)
Kyryk-oba or Kirik-oba (translate some thing like 40 hills KAZ)
Tomar-utkul (Turkic, Altay dialect (?) ). cross the River on a log. Somthing like sail on the wooden beam. Or сross the River on a tree trunk 
Chernyi yar (Black Yar) - RUS translate close to Black ravine
Piatimary old russian dialect - can be something like hilly place. But I do not believe in this translation

And About sanctuary Baite again . It have tracks dif. cultures but it was early sarmatians place also.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

About Uspe i think no good interpritation now. Source: Tacitus 
 map of Kuban monuments :

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Grushevskoe gorodishe (Грушевское городище) in east of map it`s ancient city VII–III bc.

[Suppanut]

Chattia   Amisia (from Ptolemy map, Fritzlar in Germany, site of Donar's Oak)
Siracena   Uspe (location is uncertain but EB and XC using site of Elista in Kalmykia in Russia due to there are Kurgan cluster in that area and description quite fit for other side of the river)
Sarmatia   Roxanace (Roxanace has no exact location, its name is coming from north-eastern indo-iranian language (which was using by indo-european steppe nomad in general) mean bright/illustrous city, it was mentioned to be capital of Saka by Ctesias of Cnidus, I put it in XC on site of Aktobe in Kazakhstan as dummy for Scythian-Sarmatian kurgan cluster in that area which seem fit with myth of Nart's great hall in later Alannic mythology)
Scandiae   Thule (area around Trondheim in Norway is one of the most ancient likely candidate)
Venedia   Amadoca  (in area around modern day Kiev or a bit north in Chernobyl)
Cimbria   Treva (https://translate.google.co.th/translate?hl=th&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTreva) (modern Hamburg in Germany, alternative would be Bad Oldesloe)
Aestia   Drusa   (modern Elblag in Poland)
Olbiana   Olbia (Olbia on Dnieper is here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbia_(archaeological_site) )
Aegyptus-Ptolemais   Ptolemais (based on ahowl's description, it is here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemais_Hermiou)
Hadramaut   Ubar (yes, Shisr in Oman)
Caledonia   Devana (modern day Aberdeen in Scotland)

For the following I have coordinates but these places are speculative, being approximate, contested and/or having multiple contenders)
Teutonia   Laciburgium (Ueckermunde or Stralsund in Germany, up to how they plotting spatial location from Ptolemy's map) (https://translate.google.co.th/translate?hl=th&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLaciburgium&sandbox=1 )
Suebia   Luppia (Burnburg on Saale in Germany)
Rugia   Rugium (both Darlowo and Miastko in Poland fit description from Ptolemy, you could use Miastko as settlement and Darlowo as port if you want, https://translate.google.co.th/translate?hl=th&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRugium )
Lugia   Calisia (Kalisz in Poland)
Budinia   Gelonus (Bilsk settlement in Poltava region in Ukraine, one of the biggest fortified settlement found in Pontic Steppe)
Hyrcania   Zadracarta (modern Gorgan in Iran)
Cotinia   Asanca (Havranok settlement in Slovakia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havr%C3%A1nok)
Odrysia   Orestia (modern day Edirne in Turkey)
Borysthenes   Gerrhos (Herodotus, Ptolemy called it Metropolis Scythica, opposite bank of Nikopol on Dnieper in Ukraine, sites of a lot of scythian kurgans)

[ahowl11]

Hope this helps Muizer!

[Muizer]

Thanks for the quick response guys. I think that will do nicely.

[xeofox]

Roxanace - saka capital (or just big city with saka palace). Zarina  (sak: zarnya) saka queen was there VII-V (?) bc.
The place (different localization and interpretation) somewhere close to Media or close to Syrdaria river (the more popular version).

"At that time the Sacae were ruled by a woman named Zarina, who was devoted to warfare and was in daring and efficiency by far the foremost of the women of the Sacae. Now this people, in general, have courageous women who share with their husbands the dangers of war, but she, it is said, was the most conspicuous of them all for her beauty and remarkable as well in respect to both her designs and whatever she undertook.
 For she subdued such of the neighbouring barbarian peoples as had become proud because of their boldness and were trying to enslave
the people of the Sacae, and into much of her own realm she introduced civilized life, founded not a few cities, and, in a word, made the life of her people happier. "  
Diodorus Siculus

"Zarinaea,the queen of the Sacae. It describes his progress to Rhoxanace, the royal city of the Sacae, and his reception by Zarinaea. By the end of the extract it is clear that the course of his love is not running smoothly, and he therefore determines to kill himself, writing a letter to the queen to explain his action."
Nicolaus of Damascus

[xeofox]

About steppe tribes  to north from Caspian sea...
The map of burials grounds in western Kazakhstan. Thanks for Arman Bisembaev

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Suppanut]

Thanks for Kurgans' map, xeofox.

[Muizer]

Also, Muizer can you replace Axum with Napata in Nubia?

On closer look, that's a bit problematic. Napata is on the other side of Meroe from Axum. So can't do that and keep the regions as they are. Would have to insert a new one north of Meroe for that, and delete the one around Axum. 

[ahowl11]

No that's fine, whatever you need to do, you can make that change.