The oldest geographical map

A group of Danish archaeologists discovered what is thought to be one of the oldest maps ever made: it is a series of signs that were carved about 5,000 years ago on a rock and that seem to represent the position of footpaths and fields.

The stone, which measures 5 centimeters at the widest part, has been dated between 2700 and 2900

BC and is part of a series of artifacts discovered on the island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, where other depictions have been found that they represent the sun.

According to researchers at the National Museum of Denmark, the stone was probably damaged during one of the rites addressed to our star, who came ufficiati by farmers of that era. Currently we were found two pieces of the map.

Explains Flemming Kaul, an expert on the Bronze Age iconography, on the online pages of The Local: "The engravings on the stone are not accidental scratches, but precise lines that reproduce ears of corn and plants with leaves'. Along with this finding you were found eight other stones that seem to bring more maps, but this is the most complex.

BLESSING SOLAR. The drawing does not correspond to our concept of the map, and is interpreted: "What we see," says Kaul, "he has many similarities with the rock carvings found in the Alps of northern Italy and who have more or less the same age. Even then the performance is stylized and symbolic. "

According to the researcher, the similarity between the Danish and the rock carvings stones at sites such as the Val Camonica indicate that people of that time had similar beliefs about the power of the Sun in the "bless" the land to cultivate.

JUDGING IN WAITING. The oldest maps of which there are traces dating back 16 to 18,000 years ago, discovered on the walls of the Lascaux caves: in that case, however, despite the inclusion of hunting scenes, depictions seem to refer to the position of the stars.

At about 14,000 years ago they belong instead of the figures found in Spain are mountains, rivers and lakes, but are more than maps representations. The study by Kaul is however not yet been verified and is therefore still only a hypothesis to be confirmed.