Europe's Oldest Map

A 4,000-year-old stone slab, first discovered over a century ago in France, may be the oldest known map in Europe, according to a new study.

Transcript

00:00A 4,000-year-old stone slab first discovered over a century ago in France may be the oldest

00:05known map in Europe.

00:07The Saint-Félix slab dates back to the Early Bronze Age and was first discovered in 1900

00:12in Finistère.

00:13It made up one of the walls of a ciste, a stone box that housed the bodies of the dead.

00:18The slab was likely made before it was reused in the burial towards the end of the Early

00:21Bronze Age.

00:22At the time of the discovery, the broken slab was moved to a private museum and France's

00:28Museum of National Antiquities acquired it in 1924.

00:31It was then stored in a French castle until it was rediscovered in the castle's cellar

00:35in 2014.

00:36A few years later, a group of researchers in Europe started analyzing the engravings

00:40on the slab using high-resolution 3D surveys and photogrammetry.

00:44They discovered that the slab had all the markings that would be expected of a map,

00:48such as motifs joined by lines.

00:50They also found that lines represented a river network and its makers seem to have deliberately

00:54used the 3D shape to represent a valley.

00:57The researchers compared the engravings on the slab with elements of the French landscape

01:01and concluded that the slab represented an area along the River Odette in western France.

01:06The authors say it's likely the oldest map of a territory that's been identified in

01:10Europe, and it was likely used by a Bronze Age prince or king to mark ownership over

01:15a particular area.

01:16According to the authors, the findings suggest that we shouldn't underestimate the cartographical

01:20knowledge of past societies.