Using 3D imagery and high-resolution photogrammetry, researchers re-examined the Saint-Bélec plate – an engraved and partially broken piece of stone discovered in 1900 but forgotten for almost a century.
Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), the British University of Bournemouth, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Western Brittany say the recent study of the stone showed that it is the oldest cartography is. representation of a well-known area in Europe.
Researchers have noted that the topography of the plate looks like a valley, with lines representing a river network.
From Bournemouth University
The plate, which boasts intricate wood carvings and scattered motifs, had a busy life: it is believed to have been excavated in an ancient burial at the end of the Early Bronze Age (between 1900 and 1640). BCE), say experts, where it formed a wall of a small coffin-like box with human remains. At the time of the excavation, the 12.7-foot sheet was already broken and the upper half was missing.
In 1900 it was moved to a private museum, and until the 1990s it was stored in the National Museum of Archeology in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in a niche in the castle grave. In 2014, it was rediscovered in one of the museum’s cellars.
When studying the rediscovered plate, researchers found that the wood carvings appear on a map, with repeated motifs connected by lines.
They noted that its surface was deliberately 3D-shaped to represent a valley, with lines in the stone thought to depict a river network.
The team noticed similarities between the engravings and elements of the landscape of West Brittany, with the area represented on the page appearing to show a region of about 19 miles by 13 miles, along the course of the Odet River .
Clément Nicolas, a postdoctoral researcher at Bournemouth University and first author of the study, told CNN that the discovery ’emphasizes the cartographic knowledge of prehistoric societies’.
But there are still many unknowns, including why the plate was broken in the first place.
“The Saint-Bélec plate depicts the territory of a strong hierarchical political entity that strictly controlled an area in the early Bronze Age, and its breach may indicate condemnation and desecration,” Nicolas said.