The ancient geographic setting of an area is known as

The ancient geographic setting of an area is known as paleogeography.

Paleogeography is the ancient geography of Earth's surface. The Earth's geography is constantly changing. Continents move due to plate tectonic interactions, mountain ranges are thrust up and erode, and sea levels rise and fall as the volume of the ocean basins change.

These geographic changes can be traced through the study of the rock and fossil record, and data can be used to create paleographic maps which illustrate how the continents have moved and how the past locations of mountains, lowlands, shallow seas and deep ocean basins have changed.

Paleography has two main goals. The first is to map the past positions of the continents and ocean basins and the second is to illustrate Earth's changing geographical features through time.