In northwest France, a piece of granite with enigmatic symbols that went mostly unstudied for 4,000 years has unexpectedly emerged as a beacon for archaeologists. It is known as the Saint-Belec slab, considered a "treasure map" that helps researchers uncover ancient locations.

The Saint-Belec slab was found beside a grave, and ever since it was named Europe's earliest known map in 2021, its engravings have piqued the interest of scholars. Archaeologists are currently interpreting these etchings to precisely date the slab and re-discover long-lost structures.

The University of Western Brittany's (UBO) Yvan Pailler commented on this innovative strategy, quoted by a report on CBS News, saying, "Using the map to try to find archaeological sites is a great approach." He noted that ancient sites are typically found accidentally during urban building, using radar technology, aerial photography, or other methods.

Unlocking the Mystery Will Take Years

The Saint-Belec slab's potential is just being discovered. It delineates a region measuring around 30 by 21 kilometers. A colleague of Pailler's from the CNRS research institute, Clement Nicolas, hypothesizes that it may take 15 years to examine the entire area and compare the marks on the slab, per MoneyControl.

Around 500 kilometers west of Paris, in the Brittany area of Roudouallec, are shown on the slab as rivers and mountains. The researchers discovered about 80% agreement between the maps and the present data. However, the significance of all the geometric symbols and their corresponding tales is still unknown.

The Saint-Belec slab is decorated with tiny hollows, which have led experts to hypothesize that they could represent homes, housing mounds, or geological deposits. Uncovering the significance of these mysterious patterns may lead to a wealth of fresh findings.

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A Glimpse of a Bronze Age Society

Archaeologists have been excavating at the location where the Saint-Belec slab was first discovered, which Pailler describes as one of the most important Bronze Age burial sites in Brittany, to learn more about this old treasure. Fragments of the slab that had never been found before have been found during these most recent excavations.

The slab appears to have been shattered into several pieces, which were then utilized to build a tomb wall. It suggests Bronze Age settlement power dynamics changed. The area shown on the map could correspond to an ancient kingdom that saw uprisings and other forms of unrest.

The slab also resembles a geographical arrangement because of the presence of repetitive motifs connected by lines. Researchers compared it to depictions from other ethnic groups and prehistoric Europe.

According to a report from The Guardian, researchers believe that the Saint-Bélec slab represents the domain of a hierarchical governmental body that exercised tight authority over the area in the early Bronze Age, as the evidence reveals. Broken slabs may represent censure and deconsecration, signaling the end or rejection of early Bronze Age elites who ruled society for ages.

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