{"id":2034,"date":"2021-04-23T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepoetryofscience.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2021-04-23T08:32:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T08:32:49","slug":"a-bronze-map-of-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/thepoetryofscience\/2034\/a-bronze-map-of-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bronze Map of Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embalmed in earth,
\nyour chiselled contours
\nlay dormant
\nin another\u2019s chamber;
\nrivulets in rock
\ncongealed
\nwith dampened soil
\nuntil we break you
\nfree
\nand into pieces.<\/p>\n

Running wrinkled fingers
\nalong weathered channels
\nwe scry for secrets
\nbetween your boundaries;
\ntrading burials
\nas we lay you to rest
\nbeneath the edges
\nof your distant kingdom.<\/p>\n

Wordlessly you call to us,
\ntriumphant topographies
\nproclaiming all
\nthat you once were;
\nproud motifs mark
\na face now lost
\namongst a landscape
\nyou no longer are.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One side of the \u2018Saint-B\u00e9lec Slab\u2019 (Image credit: Denis Gliksman).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This poem is inspired by recent research<\/a>, which has found that a 4,000-year-old carved stone slab is Europe\u2019s oldest known map.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Saint-B\u00e9lec Slab\u2019, is a 2m by 1.5m stone slab that was first discovered in 1900 by Paul du Ch\u00e2tellier, a local archaeologist, during an excavation of prehistoric burial ground in Finist\u00e8re, western Brittany, France. After its discovery in 1900 it was moved to the Kernuz Castle, du Ch\u00e2tellier’s home and private museum. In 1924, it was acquired and then moved to the National Museum of Archaeology, hosted in the Royal Castle at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Paris region). The slab was then stored in the niche of the moat of the Saint-Germain-en-Laye Castle until the 1990s, and then moved to one of the cellars of the Castle, where it was re-discovered by researchers who had read du Ch\u00e2tellier’s original reports and had come to the conclusion that the slab might represent an early map because of the intricate engravings that lined its surface.<\/p>\n

After re-discovering the slab, the researchers in this study carried out high-resolution 3D surveys recording its surface and engravings. They found that the slab bears many of the elements expected in a prehistoric map, including repeated motifs joined by lines to give the layout of a map. The slab\u2019s topography was also purposely 3D-shaped to represent the valley of the River Odet, whilst several lines appear to depict the river network. In addition to the rivers and hills, the slab also contains motifs that may represent the locations of settlements, barrow sites, and field systems. The central motif (which was interpreted by the researchers as a symbol of an enclosure) suggests that the centre of a territory might have existed within three river springs: the Odet, the Isole, and the St\u00ear La\u00ebr, perhaps an early Bronze Age territory, extending over an area of 545 to 843 km2<\/sup>. So why was the Saint-B\u00e9lec slab made? One possibility is that it was a way to affirm the ownership of the territory by a small prince or king at the time, making it the oldest map of a European territory that has ever been identified, and highlighting the map-making knowledge (and need) of these early civilisations.<\/p>\n