Using high-resolution 3D studies and photogrammetry, researchers re-examined the Saint-Bélec Plate – an engraved and partially broken piece of stone discovered in 1900 but forgotten for nearly a century.
Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), the British Bournemouth University, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Western Brittany say the recent study of the stone has found it to be the oldest cartographic representation of a known area in Europe.
Researchers noted that the topography of the plate resembled a valley, with lines representing a river network.
From Bournemouth University
The slab, with intricate carvings and scattered motifs, has had a busy life: excavated on a burial mound in western Brittany, it is said to have been reused in an old burial towards the end of the early Bronze Age (between 1900 and 1640). BCE), experts say, where it formed a wall of a small, coffin-like box containing human remains. At the time of excavation, the 12.7 meter long slab had already broken and was missing the top half.
In 1900 it was moved to a private museum and until the 1990s it was stored in the National Archaeological Museum in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in a niche in the moat. In 2014 it was rediscovered in one of the museum’s cellars.
When studying the rediscovered slab, researchers found that the carvings resembled a map, with repeated motifs connected by lines.
They noted that the surface was deliberately 3D shaped to represent a valley, with lines in the stone that would represent a river network.
The team found similarities between the engravings and elements of the landscape of western Brittany, with the area shown on the plate appearing to show an area of about 30 by 21 miles along the course of the Odet River.
Clément Nicolas, a postdoctoral researcher at Bournemouth University and lead author of the study, told CNN that the discovery “highlights the cartographic understanding of prehistoric societies.”
But there are still many unknowns, including why the record was broken at all.
“The Saint-Bélec Plate depicts the territory of a highly hierarchical political entity that tightly controlled a territory in the Early Bronze Age, and its breaking may indicate condemnation and detachment,” said Nicolas.