ROCKMAPS

The ROCKMAPS project aims to recognise and analyse the cartographic content of an undervalued cultural heritage, the pre- and protohistoric map-like carvings found across western Europe. Beyond few well-accepted and world famous representations, not many are considered as real maps and their cartographic content is rarely underpinned, either by caution or evolutionist scepticism. Plan topographic maps are usually identified through the repetition of symbols linked by a network of lines that establish their spatial relationships. Carved on outcrops or stone slabs, the engravings frequently used or modified the morphology of the rock surface, probably in order to express the topographical dimensions of the figured space, and so they might be considered as 3D maps. The recent re-discovery and 3D recording of a map-like figuration, the Saint-Bélec Slab, stemming from an early Bronze Age barrow in Brittany, allowed for the first time to demonstrate statistically the spatial extent and part of the cartographic content of a prehistoric map. The ROCKMAPS project aims to investigate in-depth the Saint-Bélec Slab and the map-like carvings of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bedolina (Italy) in order to demonstrate their cartographic content through an interdisciplinary approach combining the development of 3D recording and modelling methodology, statistic and spatial analyses, use-wear analysis, field research, Bayesian modelling of 14C and OSL dating, geology, geomorphology and geoarchaeology.