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A freshly unearthed Bronze-Age stone may be the oldest three-dimensional map in Europe, BBC News reports, citing researchers.

The 2m by 1.5m slab (5ft by 6.5ft), first uncovered in 1900, was found again in a cellar in a castle in France in 2014.

Archaeologists who studied patterns engraved on the 4,000-year-old stone say they believe the markings are a map of an area in western Brittany.

They say this makes the slab the oldest 3D map of a known area in Europe.

The piece of rock, known as the Saint-Bélec Slab, is believed to date from the early Bronze Age, between 1900 BC and 1650 BC.

It was first unearthed in 1900, during digs on an prehistoric burial ground in Finistère, western Brittany, by local archaeologist Paul du Chatellier.

The slab was apparently forgotten for over a century, stored for decades under a moat at Mr du Chatellier's home, the Château de Kernuz.

But researchers hunting for the slab found it in a cellar in 2014.