An archaeology scholar excavates a burial mound in Leuhan, western France, on October 11, 2023. This burial mound courting from historical Bronze age was found in 1900 by French archeologist Paul du Chatellier. On this website du Chatellier additionally discovered a carved granite slab that might be the oldest map in Europe. The precise searchs are carried out to know the structure of the tumulus and the way in which it was constructed. A brand new piece of the previous slab was additionally discovered throughout these searchs.
| Photo Credit: AFP
A bit of rock with mysterious markings that lay largely unstudied for 4,000 years is now being hailed as a “treasure map” for archaeologists, who’re utilizing it to hunt for historical websites round north-western France.
The so-called Saint-Belec slab was claimed as Europe’s oldest map by researchers in 2021 they usually have been working ever since to know its etchings — each to assist them date the slab, and to rediscover misplaced monuments.
“Using the map to try to find archaeological sites is a great approach. We never work like that,” mentioned Yvan Pailler, a professor on the University of Western Brittany (UBO).
Ancient websites are extra generally uncovered by refined radar gear, aerial pictures or by chance in cities when the foundations for new buildings are being dug.
“It’s a treasure map,” mentioned Pailler.
But the crew are solely simply starting their treasure hunt.
The historical map marks an space roughly 30 by 21 kilometres and Pailler’s colleague, Clement Nicolas from the CNRS analysis institute, mentioned they would want to survey the whole territory and cross reference the markings on the slab.
That job may take 15 years, he mentioned.
Rivers and mountains
Nicolas and Pailler have been a part of the crew that rediscovered the slab in 2014 — it was initially uncovered in 1900 by a native historian who didn’t perceive its significance.
The French specialists have been joined by colleagues from different establishments in France and abroad as they started to decode its mysteries.
“There were a few engraved symbols that made sense right away,” mentioned Pailler.
In the coarse bumps and features of the slab, they may see the rivers and mountains of Roudouallec, a part of the Brittany area about 500 kilometres west of Paris.
The researchers scanned the slab and in contrast it with present maps, discovering a roughly 80 p.c match.
“We still have to identify all the geometric symbols, the legend that goes with them,” mentioned Nicolas.
The slab is pocked with tiny hollows, which researchers imagine may level to burial mounds, dwellings or geological deposits.
Discovering their which means may result in a complete flood of latest finds.
‘Doomed’ slab
But first, the archaeologists have spent the previous few weeks digging on the website the place the slab was initially uncovered, which Pailler mentioned was one of many greatest Bronze Age burial websites in Brittany.
“We are trying to better contextualise the discovery, to have a way to date the slab,” mentioned Pailler.
Their newest dig has already turned up a handful of beforehand undiscovered fragments from the slab.
The items had apparently been damaged off and used as a tomb wall in what Nicolas suggests may signify the shifting energy dynamics of Bronze Age settlements.
The space coated by the map most likely corresponds to an historical kingdom, maybe one which collapsed in revolts and rebellions.
“The engraved slab no longer made sense and was doomed by being broken up and used as building material,” mentioned Nicolas.
