World's oldest map: Spanish cave has landscape from 14,000 years ago

Telegraph ^ | Aug. 6, 2009 | Fiona Govan

[decimon]

Archaeologists have discovered what they believe is man's earliest map, dating from almost 14,000 years ago Photo: EPA

A stone tablet found in a cave in Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain is believed to contain the earliest known representation of a landscape.

Engravings on the stone, which measures less than seven inches by five inches, and is less than an inch thick, appear to depict mountains, meandering rivers and areas of good foraging and hunting.

[decimon]

Etching ping.

[AlexW]

Well, it shows absolutely nothing to me, but I really am convinced that there were people before me in 1944.

[count-your-change]

Of course it was found in a cave. Real men don’t take maps with them when they travel.

[afraidfortherepublic]

With the speed that Obama is dismantling our nation and infrastructure (communications, banking, health, energy), we’ll soon be reduced to relying on such crude instruments ourselves.

Seriously, this is a very interesting post. Thanks. It gives me something else to think about besides the rotten state this nation is in.

[silverleaf]

Is that map an aerial shot?

[PureSolace]

[afraidfortherepublic]

Early GPS.

[smokingfrog]

It took them 15 years to figure this out?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Latest translation:

TURN AHEAD!

TURN LEFT IN 240 CUBITS.

AFTER THE TURN, TAKE THE TRAIL!

YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION!

[GulfBreeze]

How do they know it wasn’t a fake? Were there any other etchings in the cave?

[blam]

"Real men don’t take maps with them when they travel."

Or, stop and ask direction along the way.

[ClearCase_guy]

Sounds like a metrosexual caveman’s pickup line: “Would you like to go back to my cave and see my etchings?”

[posterchild]

Maybe it is a networking diagram posting that someone sent to the guy below.
http://www.radford.edu/~ibarland/Public/Humor/helpCaveman

[eCSMaster]

It says “You are here.”

[Doogle]

"I had the same image this AM in my oatmeal"

[SMARTY]

Directions to the Taco Bel

[SMARTY]

Seriously, bottom left ‘relief design’ looks like tepees or fences.

[new cruelty]

[PIF]

Good catch.

Notice that the “relief design” is also found in the area designated “schematic Ibex”? A clue that the “archaeologists” haven’t the faintest what the map represents, or how it was made, and are once again making a fact fit a theory.

[PIF]

It took 15 years to figure out how to spin the release to the public when they were least likely to pay attention.

[muawiyah]

Hey, that’s right there near the quite obvious “WWW” ~ now what ever could that mean?

[silverleaf]

So what do you think this is?

[Kirkwood]

“Notice that the “relief design” is also found in the area designated “schematic Ibex”? A clue that the “archaeologists” haven’t the faintest what the map represents, or how it was made, and are once again making a fact fit a theory.”

You need a bigger monitor. The symbols are indicated in both areas as ibex.

[decimon]

Gee, they did have SUVs.

[wildbill]

What’s really cool is that the notes on names and places are in English. Way to go, Cave Man

[PIF]

All donations gladly accepted :)

[smokingfrog]

lol!

[PIF]

Still, a really detailed map - for a bunch of supposed primative people in 12,000 BC - to make without any access to an overhead view, or surveying equip. or GPS. Just how did they make the representations accurate enough for them to follow? These are not simple scrachings on a rock wall. Simple scratchings would not be made like a modern relief map, which that one is, certainly not by a people who say “Ugh” a lot.

To paraphrase:
The deep past is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger that we can imagine.

[snarks_when_bored]

Pretty impressive use of fonts for 14,000 years ago...

[1ofmanyfree]

GPS = Game Proximity Stone

[count-your-change]

You betcha! They drive by rest stops to find a tree and they save time by spending three hours driving around to find cheaper gas. Put’er there, pal!

[calex59]

This map is obviously a fake. This map was made with the “sharp rock on rock” font, a font that was not in use 14,000 years ago and only came into being about 10,000 years ago. At the time this map was drawn the “sharp stick in the dirt” font was the only one in use. Clearly this is a forgery.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Early press briefing notes from Helen Thomas.

[TexasRepublic]

A map so simple, even a caveman could understand it.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks decimon and wildbill. In her Plato Prehistorian: 10,000 to 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology, Mary Settegast reproduces a table which shows four runic character sets; a is Upper Paleolithic (found among the cave paintings), b is Indus Valley script, c is Greek (western branch), and d is the Scandinavian runic alphabet. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[BJClinton]

Nice.

[JohnG45]

What’s really cool is that the notes on names and places are in English. Way to go, Cave Man.

Cool - yeah, but where is the "You Are Here."

[Pharmboy]

Great.

[Pharmboy]

Where’s the Exxon station that I’m supposed to make a left at?

[Political Junkie Too]

All you need to add is the GEICO logo, and a caveman can operate it!

-PJ

[colorado tanker]

Hey, baby, wanna go over to my cave and see my etchings?

[bert]

The meaning of WWW is secret and important to the rites of the Order Of the Arrow, a society of Honor Campers BSA.

[PIF]

It was unintentionally omitted... sorry.

[SunkenCiv]

[WoofDog123]

The first thing that came to my mind was to wonder if the permanent features (e.g. hills) resembled anything in the immediate area, or if the features are too general and could resemble just about anything. Rivers would likely have moved over this period of time, and flora obviously would not be a guide for anything there today.

[colorado tanker]

LOL!

[PIF]

Did you ever see a piece which appeared some years back in Pravda or Izvestia called The Map of the Creator? Very interesting map - much the same detail plus symbols like Chinese but not. Was supposed to be a fragment of a larger map depicting the entire Earth as seen from orbit. Extreme detail preserved under a silica coating if I remember correctly. Cause quite a stir, but other than a phone-in conversation with the professor (he found and publicized it) at his university, nothing further appeared.

[Fresh Wind]

They found Fred Flintstone’s GPS?

[ApplegateRanch]

Pretty impressive use of fonts for 14,000 years ago...

The kerning is a dead give away.

Also, if you examine the "\" part of the hashings on this etching to the same strokes of the large Siberian stone map, you'll notice that there is a micro-groove within the left-bottom edge of the main groove that indicates the same stylus was used for both.

You'll need a very high resolution monitor to make it out.

In any case, this map appears to be a Glyph-O-Shop forgery.