Rock Drawings in Valcamonica

Val Camonica is a valley in the lower Alpine regions of Lombardy. It is home to the greatest complex of rock drawings in sub-Alpine Italy, with approximately 250,000 petroglyphs drawn by members of the Camunni tribe on hundreds of exposed rocks dating from about 8000 BC; cosmological, figurative, and cartographic motifs are featured, in some locations forming monumental hunting and ritual `scenes´. The best-known drawings were first discovered in 1909 by Walter Laeng, a Brescian geographer.

Neolithic age . WHS Hotspot .

Reviews

David Berlanda (Italy / Czech Republic):
I have been once in Valcamonica, where are a prehistoric complex, realized in a period of 8000 years, extended in a 70 km long area and not yet completely explored, of 2400 rocks with 140000 engraved symbols and figures, that evoke scenes of navigation, dance, war, agriculture and magic.
I have been to the sites of Foppe di Nadro, near Ceto, in the Regional Park of the Rock Drawings of Ceto, Cimbergo and Paspardo, and to the National Park of the Rock Drawings of Naquane, founded in 1955 near Capo di Ponte as the most important in Valcamonica, 30 ha large. In Naquane are 104 engraved rocks going from the Neolithic period to the early Christian age. The most important rocks are: the Big Rock 1, the most important in the valley, with about 1000 drawings with a labyrinth, armed men, sun symbols, cult objects, foots, birds, shovels, carts, warriors, riders, priests and scenes of hunting of deers, war, weaving and women's initiations from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age, the Rock 47, with a cart with wheels drawn by ox, fighting warriors, shovels and mythological figures, the rock 50 with armed men, riders, cart constructers, boats, birds, inscriptions, foots, temples, buildings, shovels, sun symbols and scenes from the Iron Age of a sun cult, the rock 35, with a small village, a smith, a runner with a plumed headdress, scenes of duels between armed men, the rock 32 with a female initiation scene from the Eneolithic Age, the rock 44 with axes, deers, warriors and shovels, the rock 6 with lances, the rock 99 with a Latin inscription and scenes of duels, the rocks 70 to 75 with huts, sun symbols, temples and an ancient god, the rock 23 with a cart with four wheels, the rock 60 with a rose and the rock 57 with deers and a plough. In Foppe di Nadro the most important rocks are: the rock 1 with scenes of a sun cult with prayers, armed men, duellists and medieval crosses, the rocks 4, 22 and 23 with halberds, daggers, axes, symbols and scenes of dancing and ploughing, the rock 6 with huts, stars, foots, duellists, warriors and symbols, the rock 24, with huts, dances, flautists, duellists, warriors, animals and symbols, the rocks 26 and 27 with duellists, warriors, riders, prayers, huts, temples, idols, dogs, inscription and symbols, the rock 35 with stars and the rock 36 with a bowman.
This site is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen because of the beauty and the antiquity of the drawings. It’s absolutely worth to be visited (it’s quite hard to get to the valley and you must walk a lot in woods for visit many drawings) because it is the most important complex of rock art in the world and justifies the inscription.
Photo: Naquane – Big Rock 1
Date posted: March 2006
Paul Tanner (UK):
Having already visited the Scandinavian WHS Rock art sites at Tanum and Alta we didn’t want to miss the Italian site at Valcamonica during a visit to N Italy (though we still have to visit Coa Valley in Portuagl). We found information about it somewhat lacking/muddled however. The UNESCO Web site was (as usual – why don’t they have better directions/location details!) singularly uninformative about exactly where the site was and its “link” to http://www.rupestre.net/ seemed of more use to specialists/ “rock art buffs” than to passing tourists! We eventually traced the site to an area north of Brescia concentrated around the town of Capo di Ponte.
It was clear also that there were several/numerous sites in the area so we just drove there and took our chances.

On arrival in the Capo di Ponte area the first signposts led us to a museum “The Regional Reserve of Ceto-Cimbergo-Paspardo” at Nadro. On closer investigation this appeared to be a joint venture with a tour company called Kernunos Viaggi who wanted to take/guide us (at a cost!) to various nearby locations as per the museum title.

We gave up on this and followed another sign which took us to the nearby entrance of the “Parco Archeologico Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri di Naquane”. We found the views of the rock art at this site adequate for our purposes – though no doubt if we had given the area a whole day then trips to other locations would have yielded some interest (but we wanted to get to the Opera at Verona that evening!)

At Naquane you can follow various short footpaths among a series of rocky outcrops and, in an hour or so, see a reasonable variety of inscriptions. Unfortunately we don’t speak Italian and the site was not well presented for speakers of other European languages – we could only buy a guide in Italian for instance.

The guide has rock art locations numbered from 1 to 103 (but many numbers are missing) – and perhaps 15/20 of these are worth spending time at – some of the numbered sites on the guide map also proved rather difficult to trace on the ground!. Ladders and platforms are provided to enable one to see awkwardly positioned carvings. Unlike the carvings at Tanum and Alta these are not highlighted by dye and, depending on the light at the time, some can be quite difficult to make out.

The Valcamonica area is said to have around 140000 carvings done over a period of 8000 years from Neolithic to Iron Age (but over 80% are Iron Age i.e. from 800BC). Those at Alta (around 5000) are estimated as having been done from 4200BC to 500 BC (or even later) and those at Tanum (around 1500) from 1800 - 500BC i.e. primarily Bronze Age.

Comparisons on such matters are invidious but we felt that the Valcamonica site was the least rewarding of the 3. It could have been so much better presented considering that they charge an entrance fee.
 


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