It is quite common that when we talk about old maps Actually they are not so much. Most of the time, the debate revolves around the first representations of America, but we forget that this was already in the middle of the Renaissance and that before there was an Ancient and a Medieval Age in which they were also used, only that the best-known examples were not they are on paper but on stone or mosaic.
The oldest known map is generally considered to be from the 7th century BC. Found in Sippar , a city in Lower Mesopotamia whose remains are located in what is now southern Iraq, about seven kilometers from Babylon. The document in question is inscribed on aclay tablet , which was the usual format then.
If we limit ourselves to Europe, the oldest map was found in Pavlov , current Czech Republic, and consists of a rock where a mountain, a river and some valleys are represented. It is about twenty-five thousand years old.
So it's time to ask what is the Spanish map comparable to these and the answer may come from a team of archaeologists from the University of Zaragoza led by Pilar Utrilla . Her contribution to the matter was the discovery, in the Navarran cave of Abauntz Lamizulo , of some stones engraved limestone, about the size of a hand and weighing between a kilo and a kilo and a half. They have been dated to around thirteen thousand six hundred and sixty years, which places them in the Magdalenian period. .
Actually, the finding is not from now but dates back to 1994. But these intervening years have been dedicated to an intense study of the pieces, looking for the appropriate interpretation. The conclusions were written in an article signed by Carlos Mazo, Mari Cruz Sopena, Manuel Martínez-Bea and Rafael Domingo, in addition to Pilar Utrilla herself, published in 2009 in the journal Journal of Human Evolution . As usual, they ignited a passionate debate.
The stones in question are decorated with incised engravings of animals from then, such as a deer, a reindeer and mountain goats. But the most interesting thing for the experts was that there are also some lines that seem to represent a landscape :a mountain, another smaller mountain, a river with tributaries and several lagoons. Would it be an artistic sketch of the environment, a guide to get around, a story narrating a hunting party or a plan for the latter?
Obviously, it is impossible to know. It does seem that the mountain can be identified with a real one, that of San Gregorio , visible from the grotto. In addition, the scientific team believes that some circles would be equivalent to certain plains that were flooded in winter and that another sinuous line would be a nearby riverbed. Placing everything in its prehistoric context, it could be interpreted as a map , a form of orientation in a changing land, immediately after the Ice Age. This is also believed by experts from other countries, such as Lawrence Strauss , from the University of New Mexico (USA).
But not everyone agrees with that theory. Others, case of Jill Cook (Bristish Museum), believe that the hunters of that time would not need any map because they would know their habitat very well, being able to even locate each tree and each important plant for them. Likewise, they add, it is common for the animal figures found in the stones of that period to appear accompanied by straight and circular lines.
Therefore, the enigma prevails and it does not seem that there will be a definitive answer, as usually happens in everything related to Prehistory.