Researchers Find the Oldest 3D Map in the World in Grooves and Indents on the Cave Floor

Photo Credit (Pixabay)

Researchers have discovered proof that Stone Age people in modern-day France engraved a map of their region onto the cave floor, which is a great moment for our heritage.

In order to depict rivers and gullies, these early cartographers first chipped away to make indentations for basins. They then carved grooves into the cave floor, which precisely depicted a low-lying river system in the Esssone Department of the Iles-de-France Region.

Prior to this discovery, it was thought that a big moveable rock slab etched by Bronze Age humans some 3,000 years ago was the oldest known three-dimensional map.

This 3D map was discovered in the Segnole 3 rock shelter in the 1980s, and if it matches previous activities in the cave, it would be 13,000 years old.

According to Dr. Médard Thiry of the Mines Paris—PSL Centre of Geosciences, whose researchers helped make the discovery, “this brand-new discovery offers a better understanding and insight into the capacity of these early humans,” he told the University of Adelaide press.

The exquisite engraving of two feminine horses on either side of another representation of an equine sexual organ is what makes Segnole 3 famous. Through what is thought to be the vulva, rainwater that had infiltrated the cave spilt out onto the cave floor.

After a few meters, though, the water starts to flow through a number of jagged channels and around little humps that rise from the ground. Following their initial exploration of the cave in 2017, the PSL and Adelaide research team returned and firmly believe that the humps and grooves are a model of the surrounding ecosystem, and that their association with the horse carving symbolises “a profound meaning of conception of life and nature, which will never be accessible to us.”

The topographical and floor maps of the Segnole 3 Rock Shelter are credited to Dr. Médard Thiry.
According to Dr. Anthony Milnes of Adelaide, “what we’ve described is not a map as we understand it today—with distances, directions, and travel times—but rather a three-dimensional miniature explaining the functioning of a landscape, with runoff from highlands into streams and rivers, the convergence of valleys, and the downstream formation of lakes and swamps.”

The achievements of early man include the construction of Lincoln log-like structures 500,000 years ago, as evidenced by newly preserved wood.

“The direction of water flows and the identification of landscape features were probably more significant to Palaeolithic peoples than contemporary ideas like time and distance.”

A dark depression in the illustration stands in for a sizable level basin created by the River École’s bend. The fainter lines in the image’s centre show the École’s course and the locations of its overflow channels, while the crisp, clearly defined line on the right indicates the start of the valley slope.

The astounding accomplishments of our ancestors: 13,000 years ago, these ancient builders carved a calendar into stone to commemorate destructive events.

“Our research shows that human changes to the hydraulic behaviour within and surrounding the shelter extended to simulating natural water flows in the surrounding landscape,” Milnes adds. “These are remarkable discoveries that amply demonstrate our distant ancestors’ mental capacity, inventiveness, and engineering prowess.”

The fittings most likely have a mystical, deeper meaning that has to do with water. Dr. Thiry writes, “The two hydraulic installations—the miniature landscape and the sexual figuration—are two to three meters apart and are certain to convey a profound meaning of conception of life and nature, which will never be accessible to us.”

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