They found a piece of ancient stone which may be the oldest 3D map of Europe

A large and mysterious stone slab recently rediscovered in France seems the oldest known map of Europe. The sculpted outlines allude to a landscape long lost in their markings.

In a new study, researchers reexamined the Dalle de Saint-Bélec, an intricately carved and partially broken stone slab that was first found in 1900, before being set aside in a castle and largely forgotten for over 100 years.

It is only now that modern archaeologists are reassessing the slab and learning its significance, in particular, which may in fact be the oldest known cartography of the Earth in Europe.

“It is probably the oldest map of an identified territory ”, The study’s first author, Clement Nicolas of the University of Bournemouth in the UK, told the BBC.

“There are many of these maps set in stone around the world. In general, these are only interpretations. But this is the first time that a map represents an area at a precise scale ”, added.

It is not fully understood how the Saint-Bélec slab found its way to the present day, but it was certainly a strange journey.

More recently, The stone was found in 1900 by the prehistoric Frenchman Paul du Châtellier, who excavated the engraved slab of an ancient burial mound in the town of Leuhan, in Brittany, in north-western France.

As to what the carvings on the nearly 4-meter-long (13-foot) slab were supposed to mean, du Châtellier was not sure. He observed at the time that some researchers interpreted the marks as a shapeless human representation, or perhaps an image of a beast, but he also suggested that the meanings could only be discovered in future research.

“A key point is that the engravers seem to have altered the relief of the original surface of the slab to create the desired 3D shape which is compared to the topography of the surrounding landscape.», Write the researchers in their article, stressing that the tumulus of Saint-Bélec dominates the valley of the mapped region of Odet.

“[Confirmamos] a good correspondence between the engravings and the topography, with results similar to the ethnographic maps requested. These correlations give an idea of ​​the possible scale of the space represented: an area 30 km long and 21 km wide.“, He said.

What is less certain is what the other patterns carved into the slab might represent, but it is possible that they reflect the location of the first Bronze Age settlements, other burial sites, systems of terrain and tracks, suggests the team.

If so, it could be that the map reflects some sort of plan for organizing land use and ownership according to the political and economic rulers of the early culture who carved this object.

“There was undoubtedly a justification for carving this work in stone … leaving a mark”, explains one of the team, archaeologist Yvan Pailler of the University of Western Britain.

“Making such a mapping is often linked to the assertion of a power, of an authority over a territory. It is the general context of the achievements which occurs in the ancient bronze age, at a time when we see the emergence of a high hierarchy of societies ”, add.

In such an interpretation, it is possible that the slab was later thrown into the grave as a further rejection of the power and property system of this ruling elite, to be buried for thousands of years, before its enigmatic divisions do not ultimately communicate the soil layout. one more time.

KEEP READING