Using high-resolution 3D surveys and photogrammetry, researchers re-examined the Saint-Bélec slab, a piece of engraved and partially broken stone that was discovered in 1900 but forgotten for nearly a century.
Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), the University of the United Kingdom of Bournemouth, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of West Brittany say the recent study of the stone has revealed to be the oldest cartographic representation of a known territory in Europe.
The researchers noticed that the topography of the slab resembled a valley, with lines representing a river network.
From the University of Bournemouth
The slab, which has intricate carvings and scattered motifs, has had a busy life: unearthed from a mound in western Brittany, it is believed to have been reused in an ancient burial towards the end of the Bronze Age ( between 1900 and 1640) ECB), experts say, where it formed a wall of a small coffin-like box containing human remains. At the time of the excavation, the 12.7-foot-long slab was already broken and the upper half was missing.
In 1900 he moved to a private museum, and until the 1990s, it was kept in the National Museum of Archeology of the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in a niche in the moat of the castle. In 2014 it was rediscovered in one of the museum’s cellars.
In studying the rediscovered slab, the researchers found that the carvings resembled a map, with repeated motifs joined by lines.
They realized that its surface was deliberately 3D shaped to represent a valley, with lines in the stone that were thought to represent a river network.
The team noticed similarities between the engravings and landscape elements of western Brittany, with the territory represented on the slab showing a region of about 19 kilometers by 13 miles, along the course of the river Odet.
Clément Nicolas, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bournemouth and lead author of the study, told CNN that the discovery “highlights the cartographic knowledge of prehistoric societies.”
But there are still many unknowns, including why the slab was broken in the first place.
“The Saint-Bélec slab represents the territory of a strongly hierarchical political entity that closely controlled a territory in the early Bronze Age, and breaking it may have indicated condemnation and deconsecration,” Nicolas said.