Descartes invented the analytic or coordinate type of this, from the Greek for "earth measure"
[DOC] [TLE] Map Projections, Structures, and Scale - College of Forestry [PAR] (or spherical) rather than flat, but Greek philosophers ... by land surveyors or 
others involved in Earth measure- ... of datums have been developed to describe 
the Earth, ... known as a Cartesian coordinate system (figure 2.4).