In this area rock paintings are also known. We could observe a group
of paintings depicted in white representing warriors, riders and zoomorphs
(6).
The weaponry usually consists of bows
and arrows, and in an oval shield.
The state of the research: Alpine and Italian post-palaeolithic Rock Art 1990-1995
The Western Alps
In the western areas of the Alps different new sites have been brought to light. The discoveries have been so important that a notable exhibition "Images from the Prehistory. Rupestrian engravings and Paintings: new messages from the rocks of the Western Alps" was conducted by a group of institutions as the Archaeological Superintendency of Piedmont, the Civic Museum of Cuneo, and the "Footsteps of Man" of Valcamonica (1).
The prominent area in the region is the Susa Valley. Here, especially during the last four years, some rocks engraved with spirals, meanders, labyrinths, weapons, crosses and human figures were discovered (2)(3)(4) .
The meander and spiral phase precedes the weapons and warriors period, and can be dated, due to the sumperimpositions, to the Bronze Age.
The axes are quite easily comparable with the so-called hellebardenaxt and datable to a period beetwen the 3rd cent. BC and the 1st cent. AD (5).
In this area rock paintings are also known. We could observe a group
of paintings depicted in white representing warriors, riders and zoomorphs
(6).
The weaponry usually consists of bows
and arrows, and in an oval shield.
To better understand the chronology of the paintings it is important to study the style of the figures, called geometrical and bi-triangular.
This shape it is strictly connected with the iconography of the human figure in the Greek Geometric style of the 9th-8th cent. BC. From here this fashion spread to east and to west. We also find it in the south of France, in the painted pottery of Pegue (Drome), that is common between the 6th and the 5th cent. BC (7). So this style in rock art can be dated to a period between the 7th and the 5th cent. BC.
In Piedmont again a rock painted was found in the Alpe Veglia at the Balm 'dla Vardaiola, a rock shelter with a single painting resambling a deer figure that was attributed to the Neolithic (8).
An area of great interest in the western Alps is the Haute Maurienne,
in France. The major site in this area is Aussois.
Discovered in 1977, the site has been recently studied by F. Ballet and
P. Raffaelli (9).
They have brought to light hundreds of figures, engraved on marble rocks
polished by the glaciers, chronologically distributed between the end of
the Bronze Age and the contemporary ages.
The figures attributed to the prehistory present meanders and spirals,
warriors depicted in the bi-triangular style, hunting scenes where the
animal hunted most of the time is the ibex, chariots, topographical representations,
weapons (axes), footprints.
We can find many points of comparison to the Camunnian Iron Age rock
art.
Another site recently discovered by A. Arcà of the "Footsteps of
Man" is called "The Rock
of the Ibexes" at Lanslevillard, where once again the animal hunted
is the ibex. The scene is dated to the 5th cent. BC.Probably ibex hunting
has a meaning that can be compared to that of the deer (10)(11)
In Val Grana some schematic anthropomorphic figures were found on two limeschist rocks (12). On these rocks we can find schematic anthropomorphs represented by open arms, sometimes a dot in the middle of the legs, to symbolize the female sex, and two dots near the bust as to represent the breast. Some authors have suggested a Bronze Age chronology for the Val Grana figures (13), but comparisons can be made with the anthropomorphic figures of the Copper Age in Valcamonica. These figures are not the only ones in the all Western Alpine Range that can be compared with the camunnian engravings attributed to the Copper Age: we must remember the newly discovered daggers of the remedellian type engraved in the Ubaye Valley (France) where some neolithic paintings also appear, in one case overlapped by a dagger (14)(15).
The rock art of Albedosa Valley was discovered by a local enthusiast, R. Amisano, and studied in 1995 by the team of the "Footsteps of Man". The most important rock is called Saingiu dei Strie (Rock of the Witches), where footprints, snakes, cup-marks and crosses are engraved, probably starting from the Iron Age.
G.M. Cametti and P. Meirano of the Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana of Turin, a very active association in Piedmont, in July 1995 discovered a group of rock engravings in Valcenischia, west of Turin. On limestone rocks warriors figures and squares are engraved. Some of the warriors have a rectangular body, and are comparable with the armed figures of the last phase of camunnian Iron Age rock art.
But now we must talk of one of most famous rupestrian areas in the Western Alps: the Mt. Bego, whose petroglyphical complex has been completely and newly studied by the French team of H. De Lumley (16). The area has been divided in 23 zones that contain 3,639 rocks engraved and a total of 32,382 petroglyphs engraved on sandstone of different and beautiful colours.
The typology of the figures is not as wide as in Valcamonica rock art:
there are weapons and artefacts (axes, daggers, halberds and scythes), anthropomorphs, geometric figures (spirals and topographical), horns figures, ploughs and ploughing scenes.
The zoomorphic figures with horns (also called bucranes) are certainly
the most numerous, often depicting ploughing.
Among the weapons, daggers and halberds are numerous, but only few
axes are represented.
The halberds
and the daggers have been recognized to be very similar to the Copper and
Old Bronze Age types; the study of the weapons within the figures with
horns or the topographical representations has given indications for these
too, which De Lumley put in the Copper Age and in the Old Bronze Age (2,500-1,700
BC).De Lumley has also given attention to the interpretation of rock art:
the Mt. Bego is a sacred mountain where the figures engraved are the result
of a symbolic language written by human groups that had an economic pastoral
way of life (16)(17)
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Pictures (from top, by Andrea Arcà - Orme dell'Uomo):
The Settled Ground in the "Topographic" Engravings of the Alpine Arc
The stylistic affinities
While each group of Alpine valleys has particular characteristics, analysis of the total allows one to see in each period of prehistory substantial affinities which demonstrate a great wealth of iconographic, stylistic and cultural contacts and exchanges.
The prehistoric rupestrian engravings of the Alpine arc show a close "blood relationship", which is demonstrated when comparing even very distant areas.
This is seen most clearly in analysis of the statues-stelae, of the monumental compositions and of the engraved menhirs: three different aspects of an only one great iconographic phenomenon of the Copper age, which saw in the knife with triangular blade and half-moon shaped grip (a so-called "Remedellian" type) a kind of "fossil guide" diffused from the rocks of the Western Alps (Ubaye (1), Aosta (2), Vallese (3) to those of the central-eastern Alps (Valtellina (4), Valcamonica (5), Trentino (6) as far as the northern Apennine (Lunigiana (7).
In the ancient Bronze age one cannot miss the close affinities between the composition of axes of the Aosta Valley (Valtournenche (8), of Valcamonica (Foppe di Nadro (9), Luine (10) and of the eastern bank of Lake Garda (Castelletto (11).
In the first Iron age there are clear similarities between the duelling and hunting scenes (deer-steinbock) of Valcamonica and of the Valleys of Moncenisio.
Moreover, for each similarity in style there is a corresponding similarity in content. Thus, it is not a matter of assuming an a priori scientific validity purely on the basis of the "style" of figurative engravings. Taken in isolation, such characteristics could deceive. However, when they are supported by symbols of objects, such as weapons or tools, that are found in datable archaeological deposits, or by the presence of superimpositions they become a valid parameter for assessing chronologies.
From Valcamonica to Bego
By topographic engravings one referes to repeated geometric modules, regularly
delimited and subdivided, bordered by perimetric lines, which bring to
mind the representation of a settlement. On the other hand words like "plot
of ground", cadastral "particle", and "lot" have in common an original
concept of subdivision and delimitation of the territory.
Whoever should aim at finding points of contact between the two greatest "poles" of Alpine Rock Art would find a fertile battle-ground in the so-called topographic engravings.
To the first important scholar of the rock art of Mt. Bego, C. Bicknell, one owes the original hypotheses regarding such engravings. On page 65 of the Guide to Prehistoric Rock Engravings of the Italian Maritime Alps (1913) we can read in fact:
In this passage C. Bicknell refers to a certain kind of figure present
in the Fontanalba sector. These are characterized by rectangular nuclei
that are totally pecked, surrounded by curved lines and filled by dots
in an orderly arrangement. Even today whoever observed a gias from
above (gias in the local piedmontese dialect, from the Latin giacere,
the seasonal refuge for cows and sheep) would have to agree with what Bicknell
said.
Identical engravings can be found in many sites of Valcamonica. Some of these are inserted between the II and III styles identified by Anati with a chronology attributed to the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 2nd millennium B. C.
However, Anati does not appear to have focussed specific attention on this phenomenon. The topographic figure with rectangular double base present on Bagnolo I is not indicated as such (12) and the topographic composition of the Rock of the Spirits (Paspardo Games Park) is interpreted as a mythological anthropomorphic figure (13). Moreover, in the list of typological codes , the topographic engravings are present with eight typologies.
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