French Discovered 4000-Year-Old Carving Is Oldest Map In Europe as Researchers Says

A Bronze Age slab first discovered in 1900 in western France is the oldest map in Europe, according to a study published this week.

The 4,000-year-old object, known as the Saint-Belec slab, is etched with markings representing part of the Black Mountains region of western France, said Yvan Pailler, an archaeologist and one of the authors of the study published in the Bulletin. . of the French Prehistoric Society.

“Today, it is the oldest map of a territory in Europe,” he said.

“You can see carvings in the slabs that, at first glance, are not understandable.

“You really have to take your time to begin to understand how motifs are organized and structured and how they are interconnected through lines.”

Archaeologist Paul du Chatellier discovered the slab in an old cemetery in Finistere in 1900, and it was stored for decades in one of his properties.

Researchers only began studying the rock, which measures 2.2 meters by 1.5 meters and weighs a ton, in 2017.

The repeating motifs linked by lines represent a territory 30 kilometers long and 21 kilometers wide and may signify ownership of the land by a prince or king, the researchers said.

“If we could figure out what these symbols mean, we would know what the map represents,” Paillier said, adding that the slab raises many questions.

“Can we go on talking about societies in which there was no writing and prehistory or protohistory when you can produce a map with a legend?”