Maps have been with humanity since time immemorial. In recent years, archaeologists have found various objects that our Paleolithic ancestors may have used to navigate their daily lives, find resources, and organize hunting parties.
In three dimensions. The latest find has curious details that could make it unique. The scientists responsible for its discovery speculate that it may be the oldest known 3D map.
20,000 years old. According to archaeologists’ estimates, the inhabitants created the map about 20,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic.
As experts stated, this “map” would have been the work of human action and not a natural rock formation. This, along with the similarities between the excavation and the cave’s surroundings, has led the authors to conclude that this formation would represent the surrounding hills and valleys. In other words, a map of the area.
Ségognole 3. The possible map is located in the cave known as Ségognole 3, in the Paris Basin, near the French capital. This isn’t the first unique find proposed in this environment.
In 2020, a group of researchers (including a member of the group that has now reported the new find) found a rock formation excavated by humans in the cave’s rock. In it, they saw the figure of female genitalia, a vulva that may have had some kind of ritual function embodied in a planned flow of water through this anthropogenic formation.
Water, the protagonist. The team also intuited that the flow of water is a fundamental element of the map. According to the study, recently published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, the map’s creators would have adapted the cave’s rock to allow the flow of water through the alleged map. This would make their creation not just a representation of the area but part of a water-channeling system in a cave inhabited by humans millennia ago.
Abstract thinking or pareidolia. The study’s authors highlight the fact that such a representation would have required a significant capacity for abstraction on the part of its creators. “The accuracy of the drawing of this hydrographical network reveals a remarkable capacity for abstract thinking in those who drew it and in those for whom it was intended,” the team points out in their article.
Interpreting such findings is a complicated task, so it’s important to consider alternative hypotheses. The relationship between the alleged map and the cave’s hydrology could mean that the purpose of the cave dwellers’ work was to serve as a channel for the cave’s water, for example, to reduce the risk of flooding or stagnant water.
The human brain is “programmed” to find patterns in the abstract. Pareidolia refers to seeing faces where there are none, but this phenomenon has variants in other contexts. Therefore, experts can’t discard this alternative hypothesis without forgetting that the people who lived in Europe 20,000 years ago weren’t so different from modern humans and that their capacity for abstraction shouldn’t have been significantly inferior.
Image | Patrick Nouhailler
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