Arcà Andrea, 2004. The topographic engravings of the alpine rock-art: fields, settlements and agricultural landscapes

The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Paper published in: ChiPPindale C. – nash G. (eds.), 2004. Pictures in place: the igured landscapes of Rock-Art, Cambridge, pp. 318-349 (chapter15) The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art: ields, settlements and agricultural landscapes Andrea Arcà Le Orme dell’Uomo [email protected] Images of landscape in Alpine rock-art Rock-art in the landscape – or landscape in rockart? As it is important to ind the rules that guide the execution of the engraved panel in some particular sites, in the same way it should be interesting to open the chapter of landscape depiction on the rock-art surfaces. It is possible to group these depictions into a class of so-called ‘topographic engravings’: even if we can try to recognize some details of the surrounding landscape, this does not mean that they were engraved as maps, in order to depict real elements or to show the way to reach them. As they were surely executed by local people, there would be no sense in showing ways and paths that they knew well. Probably the only point they have in common with real maps is the (imaginary) perspective view from, of a landscape as seen from above. I will deal with the Alpine situation, giving an overview of the most important rock-art, particularly focusing on Valcamonica and Mount Bego, which are by far the most representative, both in number and in quality. Here, it is possible to deine a detailed chronology, which is important to achieve a better understanding of the corresponding economy and culture. Relationships among engravings, Alpine territory and mountain culture are considered as mainly relevant; interpretations suggested by contemporary landscapes, his paper derives from previous contributions (Arcà 998; 999), while presenting a more detailed analysis of the entire Alpine situation. exposed by relating topographic tracings to pictures of mountain slopes, are positively stimulating. While speaking about landscapes, it is important to specify not only what is shown, but also where. The position of the engraved panels could play an important role, in a passive way – from where is it possible to see the engraved rock? – or in an active one – what is it possible to see from the engraved rock? The irst case seems to have poor importance: not one of the most important surfaces is situated on a particularly prominent rock outcrop. On the contrary, in many cases there is instead a large view over a surrounding panorama, often positioned below. It means that the surfaces have been chosen in order to see from them (or to dream/remember) and not for the surfaces to be seen from afar. As we know, prehistoric rock-art is never merely descriptive: each motif, each sign, bears a deep signiicance, not always immediately intelligible. In the case of the Alpine topographic engravings, we must consider that although it is in many cases possible from the engraved rocks to have a direct look over a wide panorama, and so over the (supposed) depicted landscape, in other cases the engraved patterns seems to pertain to distant areas, lower in altitude. In this sense the meaning should be metaphoric. The most important point is that the depictions are never related to natural landscapes or panoramas; no mountains, no rivers, no trees are depicted. But With the exception of the Rocio Clapìer rock, examined below, where anyway the depiction of natural landscape elements is conjectural. - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.1. alpine topographic engravings: overview of chronology and form. they are always inspired by human modiications of the slopes, so by a kind of huge hand-made territorial object (and project). This modiication is mostly produced by agricultural settlement, although showing some features related to village elements. This interpretative key allows us to speak about agricultural landscapes, clearly showing an Alpine farmer-shepherd economy starting from the Neolithic. Valcamonica and Mount Bego, the major regions for the topographic igures, are the two largest zones of Alpine rock-art. Valcamonica, an elongated valley on the south-facing Italian slopes of the main The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Alpine chain, has many occurrences of rock-engravings, amounting to many tens of thousands of igures; and there are numerous engravings also in the adjacent Val Valtellina. Mount Bego, in the French Maritime western Alps far to its west and south, is a single mountain, its summit nearing 3000 metres, with some 30,000 engravings scattered in distinct areas of its high valleys. Deinition: the ‘topographic engravings’ In the Alps, topographic engravings refer to repeated geometric modules, regularly delimited and subdivided, which bring to mind the representation of a settlement, in the form of built-on or cultivated adjoining plots of ground (Fig. 15.1, right). The different modules are commonly found associated on the same surfaces and repeated many times, making plausible their belonging together in the same and unique thematic class of rock-engraving motifs. The same modules are represented in variant forms: either completely pecked or demarcated by a contour-line; they show various shapes, irregular, rectangular or rounded. The most common is a rectangle with a double base-line and one or more vertical lines as inner partitions. Other rectangles are engraved to make subdivided grids. Very common also are ‘dotpatterns’ or ‘macaroni-patterns’, in which dots or elongated marks are regularly distributed as if to ill a ‘fenced’ area. Vast completely pecked rectangular areas are also frequent. The compositions are in some cases ‘protected’ by a single perimeter line, like a defensive wall. Another distinctive type of topographic pattern has square modules and an orthogonal distribution of the dots; this other type is dated to the Iron Age, a period decisively later than that of the irst type. To the irst important scholar of the Mount Bego rock-art, Clarence Bicknell (Bicknell 1913), one owes the original hypotheses regarding such engravings. He thought they were depicting ‘ploughs with oxen, or probably rooing’. Particularly in one area (the ‘XIX zone’3) of Fontanalba, Mount Bego, we can ind rectangular areas that are totally pecked. These ‘nuclei’ to a igure are surrounded by curved lines and deined areas. The areas are illed by dots laid out in an orderly arrangement (Fig. 15.2). Even today whoever observes a gias from above – gias, in researchers divide the areas of rock-engravings at Mount Bego into numbered zones. here are two main areas of engravings on the mountain, Val Fontanalba to the east, and the Meraviglie-Arpetto group of valleys to the west and south; each main area is divided between several zones. See chippindale (pages 05-0 above) for an account of the distribution of the engraved igures and the deinition of these zones around Mount Bego the local piedmontese dialect, is the seasonal mountain refuge for cows and sheep, built of stone – would have to agree with Bicknell. Whoever in any Alpine valley observes from the opposite side in spring a newly-ploughed ield must see the geometric shape which stands out as brown against the green of the surrounding grass. Also in Valcamonica a topographic interpretation was suggested. Already in 1934, Battaglia (Battaglia 1934) described a rock at Bedolina as a depiction of ields and fences and dated it to the Iron Age. The rock, one of the most famous Valcamonica engravings, is today known as the ‘Bedolina map’. Outside Valcamonica a topographic interpretation was suggested for the cup-marked Rocio Clapìer (Chisone Valley, western Alps, TO, Italy) (Borgna 1980: 226–235), also called the ‘lithic map of Rocio Clapìer’. This rock is covered by little cup-marks, often set in lines. It is a clear example of a dominating rock which has been made an art site. The author presents comparisons with the (real) topographic map of the area, and suggests the possibility of recognizing perfectly various natural and human landscape features – springs, ridges, woods, villages – in this rock-art assemblage. Distribution: topographic engravings in the Alpine arc Mount Bego and Valcamonica, these two most important poles of Alpine rock-art, are also the most important sites for the study of the topographic engravings. They show in the early phases a striking similarity. Valcamonica In Valcamonica the distribution of these early topographic engravings is probably larger than is that for the better-known engravings of the immediately subsequent periods, for example, Copper Age menhirs and boulders (Remedello and BellBeaker) or weapons compositions of the early and middle Bronze Age. We can cite (in alphabetical order) the zones of Bagnolo, Bedolina, Costa Peta, Dos Cuì, Dos dell’Arca, Foppe di Nadro, Luine, Ossimo, Paspardo Dos Sottolajolo, Paspardo town, Pia’ d’Ort, Pian Camuno, Pie’, Seradina, Sonico, Vite, at various frequencies of occurrence; with between 1 and 30 topographic compositions in each area. There are consequently hundreds of the ‘modules’ which comprise the topographic igures. It is possible to ind very simple compositions – of only one or few modules – and more complex ones constructed of various geometric modules, ordered dots, perimeter lines. A irst phase of irregular completely pecked - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.2. ‘Geometric igures, huts and fences’, Fontanalba, Mount Bego. From Bicknell (1913), the early publication which explored the distinctive forms of the topographic engravings. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - marks – ‘maculae’– is also present; this precedes those compiled from the ‘modules’. We must distinguish between the early phase of all these Neolithic–Eneolithic topographics and the later topographics from the Iron Age. The chronology in both cases is well testiied by analysis of superimpositions. Although the irst class of the topographics to be much noticed in Valcamonica, the Iron Age topographics are rare; they are present only at two sites, Bedolina and Pia’ d’Ort. mounT Bego In the Mount Bego area the topographic engravings have been put within the class of geometric igures, comprising also concentric circles and spirals. Geometric igures of all types at Mount Bego represent 15.8% of the signiicant engravings (Lumley et al. 1995). We must distinguish between the two different main areas at Mount Bego: Fontanalba and the Valle delle Meraviglie4. Compositions of pecked rectangles accompanied by ordered dots or ‘macaroni’ in areas protected by curved lines are very common in the Fontanalba, particularly its zone XIX. This characteristic pattern is very similar, if not identical, to that in Valcamonica, so constituting a kind of ‘common module’. In the Fontanalba it is often organized in very large compositions. One of these surfaces was named by Bicknell ‘The Monte Bego village’,5 here recognizing the depiction of a settlement. This case is quite important: the engraved surface lies in the higher part of the valley, where the surrounding panorama is a completely rocky landscape6. Such a village being an impossibility so high on the mountain, this is a depiction of elements not directly to be seen. The Fontanalba topographics constitute the most ancient phase, as testiied by various superimpositions on the ‘Three Hundred Rock’, another of the valley’s surfaces. In the other Bego valley, the Valle delle Meraviglie, that ‘common module’ is quite absent, while on the contrary simple or complex grids are very fre- [the present author uses Italian names, such as ‘Valle delle Meraviglie’, whereas other contributors to the present book use the French ‘Vallée des Merveilles’: the other place-names difer - if at all - only by a letter or two between the languages. For the mountain itself, the present author uses the English ‘Mount Bego’ whereas the others use the French ‘Mont Bego’. Eds.] 5 Before the systematic numbering of zones, rocks and individual igures in the complete inventory of its rock-art, irst organised by c. conti, charged by the Italian Archaeology Superintendence from 97 to 9 , many Mount Bego rocks were given informal names, as the ‘hree Hundred rock’ for its so numerous igures. hese names persist alongside the inventory numbering, and exist in English, Italian and French forms. Figure 5. (p. 07) is taken in the region of ‘Mount Bego village’ and shows well its rocky settings. quent. It seems possible to recognize the depiction of stone-terracing on slopes or of stone enclosures for herds, like the ones described by Geist at Fontan Cime de Causéga (Geist 1995), on the southern slope of the Mount Bego massif. These stone enclosures – clearly related to a shepherd economy – accomplish a double job, also freeing the slope from stones and increasing surface of pasture. Amongst the grids it is also possible to distinguish some superimpositions. On the rock of the ‘False Sorcerer’ (ZIV GII R11A) a grid is superimposed by three triangular blade daggers and by a horned igure. On the rock of the ‘Anthropomorph with Zigzag Arms’8 (ZIV GIII R16D), a grid is superimposed by an anthropomorphic igure. So grids on Mount Bego seem also to belong to the most ancient phases, a chronology corresponding once more with that in Valcamonica. Grids are present in Valcamonica also, mostly at Luine (Anati 1982) and Vite. WesTeRn alps: ponTe RauT, Val pellice, RocheR du châTeau, sion Speaking about grids, a striking similarity can be found in the white rock-paintings of Ponte Raut (Pons 1938; Seglie & Ricchiardi 1988; Arcà 1995), Germanasca Valley (western Alps, TO, Italy). Popularly known as Rocio ‘dla Fantino (‘Rock of the Fairy’), they present a complex grid with square and rectangular boxes, a rectangle and a crossed shield (Fig. 15.3). They were made on a vertical surface over a rock-shelter, placed on a steep slope, densely terraced with stone walls. Two more rock-paintings in the western Alps present some elements which can be interpreted as topographic. Not far from the area of the ‘Rock of the Fairy’, in the Pellice valley (TO, Italy) a notable red-painted surface has been recently discovered (Nisbet 1994). Three rectangular grids with vertical lines are accompanied by schematic anthropomorphic igures, both in rows and isolated,9 sometimes reversed (Fig. 15.4). The rock-shelter is situated in the lower part 7 In the systematic numbering, the zones are divided into groups, the groups into individual rocks, and individual igures on each rock are individually numbered. ‘Z IV G II r A’ is Zone IV Group II rock A. One celebrated igure and surface in the Arpetto region is fancifully called ‘Le Sorcier’ (‘he Sorcerer’; Italian ‘Il Mago’) as it makes the shape of a grotesque human face; so another igure not far away and with some similarity which could be mistaken for the ‘Sorcerer’ is called the ‘Le Faux Sorcier’ (‘he False Sorcerer’). 8 ‘L’Anthropomorphe aux Bras en Zigzag’. 9 he individual igures have been distinguished through a photo-enhancing digital treatment. - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.3. Comparison between Ponte Raut paintings (above and left) and Mount Bego net- or grid-like geometrical igures (in French, reticulés) (lower right). The Bego igures from De Lumley et al. (1995). Fig. 15.4. Val Pellice paintings: grids and row of human igures. Digitally enhanced photograph (left) and preliminary photographic tracing (right). The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.5. Dosso Giroldo: topographic engravings. of a south-facing slope, dominating the underlying plain of the valley bottom, now showing the shapes of close cultivated ields. An archaeological dig at the base of the shelter could reveal the presence (or the absence) of possibly related material, while an AMS examination of the pigment could deliver interesting dating results. In a comparison with Valcamonica, it is possible to recognize two known elements there: the topographic grids of Vite and the ‘shield-shaped’ igures of Luine. While these two igures have been interpreted in different ways – the irst one in a topographic sense and the second in relation to early- and middle-Bronze-Age weapons, and so like a wooden shield – this is a very particular subject, not yet exhaustively treated. It shows similarities with the topographics of the northern area of Valcamonica and with those of Valtellina. It also means that the shield-shaped igures could be put into the class of the topographic engravings – interpreting the relation with the Bronze Age weapons as merely casual, and so belonging to previous phases.10 Another important situation is presented at the Rocher du Château (Haute Maurienne, France: Nelh 1989; Fossati 1995). Along the huge vertical panel, where seven deer have been painted, are also open red grids and double-base rectangles painted in white-yellow. The red grids seem to have been painted with ingers, while the white-yellow igures show a thicker pigment. Both the Val Pellice and Rocher du Château paintings, like others in the western Alps (Ubaye, Rocca di Cavour: Gambari 1992), show a clear relationship with Mediterranean elements found in the paintings of Provence (France, Abri des Essartènes, Gorges de la Véroncle: Hameau 1989) and of Andalusia (Spain: Paloma I–III–IV and Los Penascales shelters). 0 his fact is also testiied by a superimposition on Luine rock 5, where a shield-shaped igure is covered by an axe. his is the famous, and not yet clear, case of ‘schematic art’, stylistically dated by Iberian scholars in a long time-range from the Final The case of the Rocio Clapìer has been already cited. If the topographic interpretation is correct, then the alignments of little cup-marks could correspond with the analogous alignments of round dots in the Valcamonica maps, either Copper Age or Iron Age in date. At Chemin des Collines, Sion (Switzerland), a series of menhirs surrounded a necropolis of slab tombs of the Chamblandes type (middle Neolithic, Cortaillod period, 3900–3200 BC). On one of these menhirs is a completely irregular pecked area (Blain 1975), analogous to the maculae of Valcamonica. Not far away, at the Crête des Barmes site (St Léonard: Courboud 1986) a cup-marked lat surface shows a few rectangular illed areas, possibly interpretable as topographic elements. ValTellina One of the most important areas for the topographics is the Valtellina (central Alps, Italy, SO). Five sites can be cited: Tresivio; Dosso Giroldo, near the Rupe Magna (Grosio); Val di Tej near Grosotto; Caven near Teglio; San Giovanni near Teglio. All the sites are situated on south-east-facing slopes, with surfaces polished by the glaciers and with a large panoramic view over the plane bottom of the valley. At Tresivio 1 sector E (Sansoni et al. 1999), rectangular pecked areas seem to be very faint and superimposed by early- and middle-Bronze-Age axes. At Dosso Giroldo (Fig. 15.5) the engraved rocks were discovered and partially recorded by D. Pace in the 1970s (Pace 1972). At least three rocks show topographics. The most important, the ‘Rock of the Warriors’, shows a series of completely pecked rectangles and outlined rectangles with a central dot. A unique igure is composed of ive elongated rectangles, which seem to depict the shape of strip ields, ields of a type still existing today on the lat valley loor below. Topographics are clearly superimposed by standing warriors of the First Iron Age. On the Val di Tej rocks, recently recorded,13 is a rectangle with an oval-shaped upper part illed by aligned and completely pecked inner rectangles. Neolithic till the Iron Age (Breuil & Burkitt 99; Acosta 98; Beltrán Martínez 98). A Bronze Age date is preferred, hypothesizing a starting point for the art tradition in coincidence with the arrival from the east of metal-working peoples. he identiication of some topographic elements could bring a new element of interest into the schematic art. S. Gavaldo proposes an early- to middle-Bronze-Age date for the topographics of Tresivio, pointing to the uniformity of all the igures. he pecked topographic elements are anyway present only in one sector, and probably (I have not seen the rock, only the tracing) superimposed by the axes. Footsteps of Man (Orme dell’Uomo) 997, unpublished. - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.6. Caven: topographic engravings. Tracings and photographs, with (lower right) panoramic view from the engraved surface over the valley bottom. That same kind of design, clearer and better executed, is present at Teglio14 where there are some 30 modules. One can ind rectangles with the upper part oval-shaped (and with 3–7 inner rectangles), squares, in some cases concentric, illed squares and grids (Fig. 15.6). The engraved surface is not far from the discovery site of the famous Copper Age stelae of Teglio. A similar pattern occurs on rock 1B of S. Giovanni di Teglio (Gavaldo 1999). Some of these modules curiously make one think of certain symbols of the shield-escutcheon (idole-écusson) type on the Breton megalithic structures, e.g. at Mane-er-Hroeck, Locmariaquer (Briard 1990) or of the stelae of Collado de Sejos (Spain, Bueno Ramirez et al. 1985), which hypothetically could have a topographic value. The same pattern occurs in the upper part of the Valcamonica, at Discovered in 975 by Mr.and Mrs.De Piazzi, recorded by Footsteps of Man (Orme dell’Uomo) 997, partially published (Pace Simonelli Valmadre 985; Arcà et al. 999) Sonico, not far from Valtellina. The same rectangle with an oval-shaped upper part also pertains to the shield-shaped igures of Luine (above, page 324-5) which are superimposed by Bronze Age axes), and to the igures of sector AL of the Rupe Magna (Arcà et al. 1995). These last are dated to the Copper Age. iRon age TopogRaphics: aussois Topographics of later, Iron Age phases show different modules, although once more with contoured rectangles and alignments of dots. The rectangles are indeed squares (rather than being decidedly wider than high), the dots are differently distributed, and some zigzag or meandering lines join like paths the separated units. The main site is surely Aussois (Fig. 15.7), in the French Haute Maurienne Valley (Ballet & Raffaelli 1991; 1993; 1996). Its Iron Age date is testiied by comparison with analogous Valcamonica engravings and by superimpositions. A similar en- The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.7. Aussois: dotted rectangles and outgoing ‘paths’ (zone 9,11). These are now protected underground. graving is present on one rock of the recently discovered site of the high Valcenischia (western Alps, TO, Italy: Arcà et al. 1996; in press). TuVa RepuBlic: a RemoTe coincidence A very curious comparison must be added.15 The same Valcamonica and Fontanalba ‘common module’ 5 hanks to a recent suggestion of Prof. Burchard Brentjes. (Fig. 15.8) is present at a very distant site, located in the Ulug-Khema valley (the valley of the big river) at Mugur-Sargol (Devlet 1976), in the Upper Yenisei– Tuva Republic between Mongolia and Siberia (Fig. 15.8c). In that region vast areas are devoted to the cultivation of cereals and to stock-raising. A merely casual coincidence is statistically most improbable, as the resemblance is so close. Are similar motifs present in many other (and less distant) areas? 0 - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.8. The ‘common module’ in and beyond the Alps. (a) Mount Bego: Fontanalba zone XIX. From De Lumley et al. (1995). (b) Valcamonica: Vite rock 3. (c) Tuva republic (Russia), Mugur Sargol. From Devlet (1976) Fig. 15.9. Borno I boulder face B, Valcamonica. Ploughing scene, animals, Remedello daggers and foliated lint halberd of IIIA1 style (Remedello 2 Copper age), drawn in black, are superimposed on topographic engravings, drawn in grey. Chronology In trying to set a chronological frame, it is possible to deine two distinct and distant phases. The irst is related to a Neolithic to early-Copper-Age range (Valcamonica and Mount Bego), and the second to the Iron Age (Valcamonica and Haute Maurienne). All the phases are well testiied by superimpositions, demonstrating a good parallelism between the western Alps and the central Alps (Arcà 1995). This coincidence should be related – if not to the pertinence to the same culture – at least to a derivation from the same roots, and to the presence of analogous agricultural practices and of commercial contacts. Neolithic-Copper Age topographics: Valcamonica Studying the superimpositions makes it evident that the topographics of Valcamonica are covered by Copper-Age igures: they are older. As no other type of igure is so stratiied, they must constitute the most ancient phase of Valcamonica Post-Palae- The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.10. External walls with perimeter line. (a) Leceja, Portugal: Copper Age external wall. From Cardoso (1997) (b) Los Millares, Spain: Copper Age external wall. From Renfrew (1973). (c) Vite rock 20, Valcamonica: perimeter line with ‘eyelets’. olithic rock-art.16 There are three main cases (Fossati 1994a): on the Borno I boulder face B (Frontini 1994), where illed rectangles with double base, maculae and alignments of dots are superimposed by Remedello daggers and ploughing scenes (Fig. 15.9), at Bagnolo 2, where a double base rectangle is covered by a sun igure and at Ossimo 8, where a series of orderly arranged dots are superimposed he igures of humans in a distinctive posture said to be one of adoration or prayer – orants in French, oranti in Italian, prayers in English – are ascribed to the Neolithic in the Anati’s chronology (Anati 97). A revised view (Ferrario 99; 99; Fossati 99) now shifts them to the Bronze Age (Arcà in press). No igure of a prayer is covered by copper-Age engravings. he rare igures of large animals, in the Anati chronology (97) ascribed to an Epi-Palaeolithic. 7 he Borno I boulder is one of the many movable stones, rather than areas of ixed bedrock, which are a major element in the Alpine rockart traditions. hese statue-stelae are identiied and numbered by their locality: so Borno I is the irst of the series in the Borno locality; Borno I boulder face A is the irst of the engraved surfaces on it. by a ploughing scene. In the irst and in the second case, the topographics are under a igure of phase iiiia, the Remedello,18 in the second under a igure of phase IIIA2, Bell-Beaker. Topographics are also superimposed by Bronze Age rayed circles at Luine rock 44 (Anati 1989: 260) and by First Iron Age warriors at Vite rock 13 (Arcà 1992). So topographical engravings have been executed starting from a more ancient period than the iiia phase (Remedello period), i.e. before 2900 BC; they should correspond to a Remedello 1 period.19 We can ind igures that superimpose topographics, but we cannot ind igures superimposed by topographics,20 except the ‘macu8 I.e. to the irst phase of III style, full copper Age, as described by De Marinis (99a), and dated to 900–500 Bc (De Marinis 997), corresponding to the remedello archaeological period. 9 First copper Age, 00–900 Bc (De Marinis 997). 0 citing a superimposition on the rock of Foppe di Nadro S. Gavaldo (Sansoni - Gavaldo - Gastaldi 999, p. ) individuates some dots of a topographic composition covering a dagger Bronze Age - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.11. Buildings and grids compared. (above) box-building structures (aceramic Neolithic to early Copper Age) at Mergarh, Pakistan. Drawing from Samzum (1987). (below) grids on Vite rock 13, Valcamonica. lae’; we have a terminus ante quem but not a post quem. We can say that topographics belong to a irst Copper-Age phase, but we cannot exclude a more ancient, Neolithic date-range. The same fact is also demonstrated by comparisons: the ‘village-maps’ of Vite present ‘eyelets’ (semicircles divided by vertical intaglio, Fig. 15.10c) in the perimeter lines very similar to those of the Camunian and Valtellina Chalcolithic stele (Vangione 1 and 2, Valgella 3, Borno 1 face D, Borno 6, Ossimo 3). The same eyelets can be compared with, and interpreted as, the bastions of the external stone-walls in some early Copper Age settlements (and fortresses or monuments) like Castelo Velho do Freixo da Numão (Portugal) or Leceia (Portugal: Cardoso 1997; Fig. 15.10a), Los Millares (Spain: Fig. 15.10b) and Chalandriani (Greece). The grids recall strongl some cellplan structures (Brentjes 1998) of the Anatolian and Indus Valley early Neolithic (Fig. 15.11a, b), with a 7th–4th millennium BC range. dated. he dagger indeed is very similar to the daggers of Vite rock , where also maps are present, and shows a diferent handle but the same triangular blade of the remedellian kind daggers, with whom it could be more probably related (A. Fossati pers. com.). After a inal Neolithic settlement, at Leceia during the First copper Age 870–00 Bc) there is the planning and the builiding of the defensive stone wall with bastions. Drawing of the outside wall in renfrew (97). As regards archaeological inds, a greenstone axe associated with fragments of coarse ceramics was excavated in 1993 at Vite (Arcà et al. 1996); it can be dated to the middle Neolithic or to the early phases of the Chalcolithic. The axe was found near an engraved rock (VIT36) with topographic igures; it appears to have been left there intentionally. For the map-related engravings, the Vite23 area (comune of Paspardo) seems one of the most interesting. A new research zone (Arcà 1995), it has been studied by ‘Footsteps of Man’ for eight recent summer seasons. It lies on the left slope of Valcamonica, facing west, in a 700–800m range of elevation. From many places, some with topographic engravings, it is possible to have a wide panoramic view, particularly over the bottom of the valley about 400–500m below, and over the opposite right slope. On the opposite slope, the site of Le Crus is particularly rich in topographic engravings (7 rocks, 20 sectors). The Vite slope is quite steep, so uncomfortable to work – whether for rock-art study or other ways. Its land has been abandoned during the last 40 years: this is probably the reason it has not been studied in the past. More than 50 rocks (30 with topographics), have been completely traced; these remain mainly unpublished. ‘Vite’ means grape-vine, cultivated in the area till few decades ago. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.12. Vite rock 13, Valcamonica: tracing and photograph taken with grazing light. The warrior igure (Iron Age IV2 style), draw in grey superimposes the topographic composition, drawn in black. Fig. 15.13. Vite rock 29, Valcamonica: panoramic view from the surface, photograph taken with grazing light, and tracing.. - Andrea Arcà The irst phase of topographic engravings at Vite is made up of ‘maculae’, totally pecked pseudo-rectangular areas on which double-based rectangular and alignments of pecked dots are sometimes superimposed (VIT6, VIT29). Other morphological elements are: contoured igures illed with dots (the ‘common module’, VIT3, VIT20); contoured oval igures (VIT8), often with a central point; grid rectangles (VIT13); illed rectangles and perimeter lines with eyelets (VIT20, VIT21). The same shapes are found in the zone of Dos dell’Arca, an hillock of the valley loor below. The peculiarity of the Vite area is the presence of some complex compositions (VIT13, VIT20, VIT29) which could recall a human settlement, like a ‘village-map’ (Fig. 15.12, Fig. 15.13). Perimeter lines are quite common, while in one case (VIT20) four concentric rounded squares seems to depict a defensive unit. It remains to decide whether we should refer the Vite engravings to the Neolithic or to the early Copper Age. For the moment, this aspect is strictly related to the interpretation of the igures. In fact, we can interpret them both as cultivated ields and as villagemaps. The interesting idea is to try to merge them into the deinition of an ‘agricultural settlement’, a complex structure of a human landscape with a series of ields organized as a village and protected by a common enclosure. Following the agricultural interpretation makes a Neolithic date-range possible on Mount Bego, where early Neolithic pottery is well represented (e.g. at Gias del Ciari). On some more complex villagemaps, such as those at Vite, perimeter walls and bastions indicate a protected settlement, more probably dating to the early Copper Age. It is quite probable that we are dealing with a long time-range, where different phases are to be better deined. The possibility of some very ancient origin is testiied by the comparison with the oldest Neolithic elements of the Anatolia and the Indus Valley. ampliied recently, concentrates the Bego engravings in a Chalcolithic to early-Bronze-Age time-range (2500–1700 BC), in which a greater antiquity for the Fontanalba area igures is suggested than for those of the Meraviglie. The Fontanalba igures of the compound geometric type are identical to the pre-Remedello topographics of Valcamonica. Archaeological excavations at the Gias del Ciari shelter (Conti 1942) revealed a human presence on Mount Bego from the Cardial early Neolithic to the Chalcolithic and the early Bronze Age. So one can hypothesise here, as well, a pre-Remedello engraving phase (Neolithic or early Copper Age), originating in the 4th millennium. This anticipates by many centuries the beginning of engraving at Mount Bego, which is for following phases otherwise dated by the depiction of metal objects largely of Bronze Age form. It seems that both Valcamonica and Mount Bego engravings are well preserved. Damage is mostly caused by exfoliation of the external layer of the rock, badly affected by repeated natural temperature changes and freezing. In the Mount Bego area, exfoliation is greater than in Valcamonica. But where the engraved dots survive the conservation is very good, particularly on vertical surfaces. In Valcamonica we can clearly discern Copper-Age igures at the dot-bydot scale, which have been executed with very ine pecking. In the same way we can discern superimpositions: it is often clear when a igure superimposes another, because the weft of its dots is different, mostly in the edges, where it is deeper. On Mount Bego, the situation is not so clear. The good preservation of the igures is due to an optical effect: pecked areas are still paler than the unpecked surface. If we look closely at the engraved dots, we ind them smoothed as if they were made in butter: the appearance is similar to a partially-melted polystyrene surface. It means that the edges (the ridges between each pecked hole) have been smoothed by weathering, as if sand-blasted (G. Bresso pers. comm.). Where this is the case, recognizing superimpositions is obviously more problematic. Neolithic to Copper-Age topographics: Mount Bego Sequence in the Mount Bego igures: topographics and plough-teams Henry de Lumley’s great team-work (De Lumley et al. 1995) interprets the topographic engravings, in accordance with Bicknell, as the ‘symbol’ of the cultivated ields or the enclosures for animals, with the inilling by dots symbolizing the fertilizing rain. De Lumley’s general interpretation of the Bego engravings is based on a theory of the expression of the divine. In this context, the topographic engravings appear to represent both an earth divinity and a female divinity at the same time (the Goddess Mother, the God Earth). De Lumley’s chronology, Here, perhaps, we can ind the reason why it is so hard to deine a chronological sequence in the Mount Bego rock-art. The evidence of subsequent engraving phases seems poor. Also the conventions used in making record tracings does not make it possible to distinguish superimpositions; there is a risk of compressing into a restricted chronological and interpretative frame motifs that actually belong to very distant periods. So we might ask ourselves: were the different Bego subjects executed at the same time? The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.14. Fontanalba, Mount Bego: the ‘300 Rock’ (ZXIX GIV R21a)฀topographic composition, oxen, and ploughing scenes. - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.15. Fontanalba, Mount Bego: the ‘300 Rock’ ploughing scene covers a ‘path’ of a topographic composition. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.16. Fontanalba, the rock of the ‘Three Hundreds’: horned igure covering a ‘path’ of a topographic composition: photograph, tracing, and close-up photograph. Or does each distinctive type mark a different period, as it does in Valcamonica? From their similarity we can argue for the Mount Bego topographics having the same antiquity as those in Valcamonica; can we validate this by studying superimpositions? The best place on Mount Bego to do this is the Fontanalba zone XIX, and particularly the ‘300 Rock’, as it was called by Clarence Bicknell (also called the ‘Rock of the 26 ploughing scenes’; registered as ZXIX GIV R21a). The entire tracing has been published in the Le Grandiose et le sacré (De Lumley et al. 1995). This rock is a large, reddish, lat surface, at an elevation more than 2200 m above the sea level; it is in the middle of a rocky slope facing south-east, where the topographic engravings appears to be more concentrated (Fig. 15.14). The central–upper part of the inclined surface has been illed by an aligned series of completely pecked large rectangles, joined and surrounded by ‘path-lines’. In some cases, they are accompanied by rectangular nuclei that are totally pecked, surrounded by curved lines and illed by dots in an orderly arrangement. A large series of ploughing scenes (the ‘26 ploughing scenes’ that give a name to the rock) occupies most of the right side of the surface, from the upper to the lower part of the rock, all of the plough-teams facing upwards. These are yoked oxen, depicted with square body and zig-zagging horns, guided by one or two ploughmen, in the characteristic style of the small Mount Bego anthropomorphic igures (Fig. 15.15). A constellation of single oxen igures (body, horns and tails mainly depicted) seems to ill all the unengraved spaces, while only six weapons (halberds, ive of them each held by a man) have been carved in a restricted left part. All the igures, except the human ones, seem to be depicted as if seen from above. The ‘300 Rock’ is one of the most richly engraved on Mount Bego.24 Looking at the whole tracing, it seems clear that the igures have not been executed at It is by not the largest in terms of the number of engravings. the same time. Although the ploughing scenes it well with the topographic engravings, many surrounding rocks have been pecked only with geometric igures; here the absence of ploughing scenes demonstrates that the two subjects do not constitute an association. The ‘clean’ module in its complex form as a composition of rectangular areas, line-paths and arranged dots can be found on many surrounding rocks. Another point arises from the arrangement of the igures on the surface, which clearly ‘suffocate’ one another: this cannot be the consequence of one-off, single-theme execution, nor should it be interpreted as such. A result of this crowding is a series of superimpositions; 26 can be counted. In 16 cases, it is not possible to be certain: the rock is too eroded, or the pecking is too smoothed, or there is a simple contact without superimposition. But in six cases (three of them ploughing scenes), we can ind that the body, horns or tail of the oxen cut the line-paths or the pecked rectangles of the larger geometric-topographic composition (Fig. 15.16). The same fact is shown also by two other examples. A ploughman is depicted in an uncommon position, not on the usual of with the plough, but placed so as to avoid a (previously pecked) rectangle. And in the case of a harrow, the heads and the horns of oxen pulling it have been engraved over a pecked rectangle, as the published tracing shows (De Lumley et al. 1995: 125, upper left), where it would not be possible to trace the entire igure if it were not superimposed on the topographic. In four other cases, oxen or ploughing scenes cover topographic engravings, even if in an uncertainly visible way, again due to erosion. One apparently demonstrates the contrary: a ploughing scene in the lower right part appears cut by a ‘path-line’. The line is clearly visible inside the body of the left ox and so seems to cover it. But on looking closely at the edges, we ind that the ploughing scene is deeper; what we can see of the line is only the deeper part, - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.17. Iron Age topographics, Valcamonica. (a) Le Crus: rock 39A. By Gavaldo (1995). (b) Bedolina: dotted square. (c) Bedolina: complex igure in a recent tracing. From Turconi (1997). as happens when an overimposed pecking does not completely obliterate the previous igure. This preliminary examination suggests at least two engraving phases, the irst constituted by complex topographic compositions, the second by ploughing scenes and oxen. It remains uncertain whether we must assign all the oxen to the second phase or only some. Oxen in the plough-teams are of the ‘squarehorned’ and ‘multi-segmented’ type, and perhaps all oxen of that from should belong to the later phase. Valcamonica and Mount Bego igures: plough-teams In Valcamonica, we can ind only two rocks with a series of plough-teams, the Dos Cuì rock with 13 ploughing scenes and Foppe di Nadro rock 22. As in Fontanalba, topographic engravings (large maculae) also appear in these Valcamonica rocks, clearly unrelated to the ploughing scenes. These ploughingscenes can be compared with the analogous scenes on the Bagnolo II and Borno I boulders, dated to the Remedello Copper Age. The co-existence of Remedello-type daggers on the same surface, both in Foppe di Nadro and Dos Cuì, conirm that dating. The scene is normally seen from the side. The pair of oxen are depicted with curved horns, yoked at the neck. The plough-man has stick legs and arms, with a slightly enlarged body, as in the typical Mount Bego igures. Another style of ploughing scene is related to the Bell-beaker Copper Age phase: the body of the ploughman shows a typical triangular body shape. A last case can be found in a rock at Campanine, where we notice the absence of the ploughman. Ploughing scenes appear again in the First Iron Age, different as the plough is drawn by horses. The result of this preliminary analysis of the Fontanalba superimpositions on the ‘300 Rock’ clearly matches the Valcamonica situation. It demonstrates that on Mount Bego topographic engravings were executed prior to the ploughing scenes, with a second parallelism constituted by the ploughing scenes, again in the early phases. Comparison with Valcamonica suggests similar dates for Mount Bego, the Neolithic to irst Copper Age for the topographics, the Copper Age for the ploughing scenes. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - dot surrounded by a ring recurs repeatedly. At Aussois the dotted squares often reserve an internal part un-dotted, as indicating a particular kind of cultivation technique. All the Iron-Age maps show a more complex web of lines, like paths, joining the modules, which are more distant from each other. They probably indicate more scattered farm units. Fig. 15.18. Aussois, zone 9: dotted square of a topographic igure of the late type covers a First Iron Age warrior with bi-triangular body, in a digitally grey enhanced photograph. The main part of the warrior igure is adjacent to the topographic square, without their touching. Notice, however, the long pole or spear held horizontally about the waist of the igure, which is superimposed by the square. Iron Age topographics: Bedolina (Valcamonica) and Aussois (Haute Maurienne) Iron Age engraved maps are rare. Two are in Valcamonica, rock 39A at Le Crus (Fig. 15.17a) and the Bedolina map (Fig. 15.17b, 17c); the third is in the Haute Maurienne valley (France), at Aussois, some 350 km away (Ballet & Raffaelli 1993; 1996). Curiously, the chronology of all three cases is well testiied by the superimpositions. At Bedolina, the famous ‘map of Bedolina’ – already placed in the last phase of style III, i.e. the late Bronze Age (Anati 1976) and recently studied by C. Turconi (1997a; 1997b) – the topographical representation covers irst-IronAge warriors (Arcà 1996), and it is covered by lateIron-Age huts. The same occurs at Le Crus (Gavaldo 1995), where many warriors are covered by a topographical grids. At Aussois a square illed by orderly arranged dots covers a bi-triangular igure of a FirstIron-Age warrior holding a spear (Fig. 15.18). The warrior resembles igures depicted on Iron Age Italic pottery (Sala Consilina. 6th century BC), clearly related to the First Iron Age’s (8th century BC) Greek Geometric style. At Aussois at least eight rocks can be counted, with contoured squares, often internally dotted. In one case there is a circle, again dotted. From many squares runs out a zigzagging line. In all these cases it is possible to suggest a Middle-Iron-Age date. In comparing the older topographic igures with the Iron Age ones, we ind stylistic difference. In the Bedolina map, the geometric modules are square instead of rectangular. They are always contoured and never totally pecked, and the alignments of dots are much more precise. A central Outlined geometric shapes and series of illing dots are still present in the Iron Age compositions, probably having a similar meaning, despite so long a separation in time. This distance represents a veritable interruption, as for the moment there is no evidence of topographical compositions from the Bronze25 and First Iron ages. In this way Iron Age topographics – completely unaware of the ‘ancestors’ two millennia and more older, already almost completely weathered and so quite invisible – should represent similar, although evolved, agricultural patterns. This unconscious repetition might be useful to our ‘contemporary’ interpretation process. It might also relate to a second phase of mountain-slope settlement, possibly favoured by newly changed climatic conditions or by the exploitation of new areas. The cereal and the granary – key words which seem to emerge from this interpretation of the ancient topographics – also apply to the Iron Age, where not only maps are present, but also igures of buildings or huts. The Iron Age depictions of Camunian wooden huts shows them often narrow, too narrow to be comfortable as houses, in some cases built over a single pillar. The ethnographical Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Volkskunde (Bruneck, BZ, Italy) gives an overview on the different kinds of Tyrolean Alpine buildings,26 starting from the 13th century AD. The closest resemblance with Valcamonica engraved ‘huts’ is with a wooden granary. Interpretation WhaT is depicTed? The presence of different elements and shapes in the topographics has already been reported. How is one to assign a function to each ‘object’ and a meaning to the entire iconographic complex? If all the particular functions comply with a general model, that interpretation might be appropriate. I suggest distinguishing four different elements, or ‘objects’: 5 Unless one recognizes as topographic the concentric circle patterns, like those at carschenna (Switzerland), and common in the rock-art of Galicia and Scotland. he same wheels that we ind sometimes engraved at the extremities of the roofs to the camunian huts, interpreted as solar symbols, are still now hung as cast-of cart-wheels on the wooden façades. 0 - Andrea Arcà Also evident is the impossibility of depicting in this way animals like cows or sheep, which cannot be trained to stay scattered in regular rows and columns. So we are treating fruit-trees or stooks. The second suggestion seems more appropriate, stooks being the small stacks into which individual sheaves of hay or cereal stalks are gathered when they have been cut. Are they hay stooks or cereal stooks (Fig. 15.20)? The irst solution is related to the livestock, the second to food-raising. While a mountain landscape dominated by hay-ields and sheaves is surely more common and reaches higher altitudes, the theme of cereals should be more important and strictly connected to the survival of the community. Fig. 15.19. Fields and maps: (above) Tyrol mountain ields and (below) Foppe di Nadro rock 23, Valcamonica. Object 1 rectangular, square or round well deined geometric areas (see ‘areas’ in Fig. 15.1), completely pecked or simply contoured; Object 2 alignments or arrays of dots (‘dottings’ in Fig. 15.1); Object 3 square or rounded grids (‘grids’ in Fig. 15.1); Object 4 perimeter lines (‘other’ in Fig. 15.1), with eyelets or not. Object 1 bears in its own deinition the idea of ‘measuring the earth’, the meaning of the Greek word γεωµετρια (geometry). A shape and a measure is applied to human-modiied earth, i.e. to a ield, cultivated and previously delimited. Some of these geometric areas can be interpreted as houses, particularly the double-base or subdivided pecked or contoured rectangles; but it seems more suitable to read these as ields, larger and more evident subjects in a mountain landscape (Fig. 15.19). At Mount Bego, Object 1 is present as fully pecked areas, while in Valcamonica it exists also as contoured and subdivided areas. Object 2 might constitute the core of the problem. It is evident that it represents many identical units. Object 3 is quite problematic. In Valcamonica it occurs at a small size on a few rocks (e.g. VIT 13), larger in the area of Luine, always orthogonal. On Mount Bego it is mostly found in the Meraviglie area, with large modules variously and often irregularly subdivided. The tiny Valcamonica grids might be compared with some structures to dry and store cereals, like the vertical wooden ones called in the alps Histe, Casné, Rascàn, Raschéna, Arfa (Arcà 1999) in various German or Latin dialects. But the most relevant comparison (Fig. 15.11), irstly suggested by B. Brentjes (1998), is to be made with the grid mud-brick or box-building structures of Mehrgarh (Indus Valley, Baluchistan, Pakistan: Jarrige & Quivron 1995/6) periods IB, ii28 and iii29 (samzun 1987) and with the cell-buildings of Çayönü Tepesi (southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, Schirmer 1988). These kind of rectangular buildings, made of rammed earth (pisé), solved the function of drying and storing cereals (barley and wheat) (Owen 1998), so indicating crop surpluses. They should have been built with wooden or wattle-and-daub upper parts. They appear at Mehrgar30 in the early phases of the aceramic Neolithic, lasting till the early Copper Age (phase III), when their architecture is more elaborated. At Çayönü Tepesi too they too are present in an aceramic Neolithic culture. Both sites show evidence of early copper working (hooks and awls, 7000 BC),31 by heating and hammering. The recognition of some granary depictions in Alpine rock-art, with shapes so strictly connected to architecture of the most ancient worldwide agricultural sites, offers a strong validation to the Neolithic to early-Copper-Age chronol7 8 9 0 Aceramic Neolithic 7000–000 Bc. Neolithic 000–500 Bc. Early copper Age 500–800 Bc. Mehrgarh, situated at the foot of the Bolan Pass, point of passage between the Indus plain and the Iran and central Asia mountains, is one of the most ancient agricultural villages world-wide. richard cowen, http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~gel5/5cH. html . The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - Fig. 15.20. Shapes in the Alpine landscape and in the topographic igures. (above left) Tyrolean mountain ields and hay-stooks. From a Tappeiner – Lana BZ I – 1995 postcard. (above right) and (below right) Fontanalba zone XIX topographics, Mount Bego. (lower left) Haute Provence cereal-stooks. From Martel (1983). (lower centre) Vite rock 29, Valcamonica. ogy proposed and to the agricultural interpretation. In the Mount Bego area, as already suggested, there is in addition the possibility of comparing the grid igures with stone terracing on slopes or stone enclosures for the herds. Object 4, apparently incomprehensible and originally named a ‘bandoleer’,32 was suggested to be a topographic element by P. Frontini in 1994 (Frontini 1994), relating it to megalithic structures. It has a clear resemblance to the perimeter walls and bastions he ‘bandoleer’ element is also present on four copper-Age stelae in Valtellina (Poggiani Keller 989). of some Copper-Age settlements (Arcà 1998; 1999; Fig. 15.10), already cited above. A more striking resemblance can be found between the ‘bandoleer’ of Vite rock 21 and the Copper-Age structure of Boussargues in France (Coularou 1998). In the Boussargues structure (Fig. 15.21), a stone perimeter wall incorporates six round bastions or rooms and protects two oval–rectangular structures, with traces of food-storing and specialized activities. Four rocks at Vite (VIT 13, 20, 21 (Fig. 15.21b–c), 29) show a bandoleer or perimeter line. It should be interpreted as a protective wall or fence, not only a fortiication but a boundary to protect food-stocks or to enclose the herd. - Andrea Arcà Fig. 15.21. Bounded settlements and topographic igures. (above) and (lower right) the Boussargues Copper Age settlement, France. From Coularou (1998). (lower left) Vite rock 21, Valcamonica. The ThReshing-flooR and The sheaVes moon). The wheat was never mown when fully ripe: by that time, the ripe grains could come out or be more easily pecked by birds. Ripening was completed in the ield, binding the sheaves and building them into lines of stooks or stack as protection against rain, in the same way as is done with the hay. An image almost never seen in the summer ields of Europe nowadays is that of the reaping and then of the threshing of wheat. The modern combine harvester, both reaping and threshing machine, has replacing a manual job that was for millennia the focal point of each sowing-to-harvest cycle. The mowing day was carefully chosen (Comet 1992), paying attention to the weather (a shower could be very dangerous) and to the moon (it must be on the waning The inal job of separating the grain from the ears was done by beating them with lails or by walking on them with animals –cows testiied in ancient Egypt, or horses in typical Mediterranean techniques. A threshing-loor was necessary: it was prepared in an open and windy site, digging down a few centimetres and making a loor of a ground-clay mix, many times watered and trodden. The threshing-loor was the core of each farm unit, always close to the house. As All these functions suggested for Objects 1–4 clearly comply with a general model strictly related to a farmer-shepherd economy – a good base for appropriate interpretation. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - a recent suggestion (G. Bresso33 pers. comm.), one can interpret this module as the representation of a threshing-loor (the totally pecked area) with a path, surrounded by a regular distribution of stooks (the dots, ‘Object 2’) or sheaves of cereals, awaiting ripening and protected by enclosures. In the Mugur-Sargol engravings (Tuva, Russia), where we ind again the ‘common module’, the pecked nucleus seems to depict without doubt a house or, better, a granary with small store-rooms inside. This point, a strong key to conirm the ‘cereal’ interpretation, offers also a link with the Iron-Age engravings, two millennia younger, where again the houses in Valcamonica should be granaries, related to the agricultural cycle. Fig. 15.22. A public threshing loor at Sisteron (Hautes-Alpes), France. From Martel (1983). threshing needed the collaboration of many, it was also a communal activity carried out at a community threshing-loor (Fig. 15.22). All the steps of mowing and threshing were accompanied by ritual practices: a male or female name was given to the sheaves (depending on the kind of cereal, South Tyrol), a straw-puppet was made by the reaper irst accomplishing the job (Veneto region, Italy), the stooks were composed with the ‘magic’ number of 13 sheaves (Veneto region, Italy), a cock was eaten (Martel 1983: 72), a cross was ixed at the top when the building of the big sheaf close to the threshing-loor was accomplished (Romagna region, Italy; Haute-Provence, France). At the end of threshing, the wheat was offered to God during the midSeptember feast of the cart (Provence, France; south Italy). In the iconography of the calendars the summer months (particularly June) were traditionally represented by mowing images. Beginning in the Neolithic, cereals remained the basis of the human diet. Wheat, barley and millet were cultivated in the European Neolithic, while oats are testiied in the Roman period. In Europe rye, black corn and maize were introduced in the following period, beginning in the Middle Ages. The sequence of reaping then threshing and the leaving of the ears in the ields to ripen in aligned stooks is the same for all these cereals. The common repeated module in Mount Bego and Valcamonica rock-art shows a rectangular (or round) nucleus, totally pecked, surrounded by a curved line(s) and illed by dots (round or rectangular like ‘macaroni’) in an orderly arrangement. Thanks to In this way, Bicknell’s original suggestion, seeing in some Fontanalba engravings the representation of cattle inside the enclosures around the farm, should be corrected, in recognizing cultivated cereal ields. In the same way it could be important to consider the idea of interpreting the geometric compositions as the symbol of the Earth, of the Goddess Mother. It is indeed the Earth, but a man-worked earth. So which is the focus: the natural entity or the human labour? Topographic engravings: context and social meaning Topographic engravings in the Alpine area represent an important constant. In space, they enjoy a vast distribution. In time, they extend with an interruption from the Neolithic to the middle Iron Age. Following the suggested interpretation, topographic patterns represent the land, ploughed and settled. Linked to a process of settlement, they image concerns of the shepherd-farmer, in contrast to that of the warrior, so well represented by the very long sequence of weapons followed by duelling scenes in the Alpine engravings of the metal ages. The agriculture theme, of the land becoming possessed in a pioneering way, is a large subject. Barield & Chippindale (1997) have already identiied attitudes to land as a theme uniting the iconography of the Mount Bego engravings. The early date for topographics perfectly matches an economic and cultural era before the metal ages, in which land, breeding and agriculture evidently took the primary role in strategies of sustenance. Certain cereals, and in particular rye, are cultivated within the Alpine area up to relatively high altitudes, and how lint blades with use-wear traces from mowing were found in the Bego zone at over 2000 m altitude (in the Gias del Ciari). It is calculated that wheat can be cultivated An experienced Mount Bego guide. - Andrea Arcà in the southern Alps up 1200 m, and barley to 1600– 1900 m (Acerbo 1934: 15). In conclusion, the identiication is clear of agricultural patterns in the Alpine rock-art, almost as if executed to a ‘formula, diffused from the southern (Mount Bego) to the central Alps (Valcamonica). At high Mount Bego, these landscape elements have their origin in the lower slopes or plain – the farmed land – and so were not engraved in direct sight of it. These conditions make plausible a thesis which sees in the topographics an idealized and conceptual representation of one or more settled units or of farming land – landscape in human charge. These engravings can be interpreted as a topography of the human territory (the FIRST topography of territory, we must remember) depicted in an act of ownership or on the occasion of people’s irst occupation of an area, as in a foundation ritual.34 a second, more material interpretation – not distinct anyway from the irst – possibly relates to a kind of extensive marking of territory. Not necessarily a so conscious activity, it is still common in the Alpine pasture areas where it takes a modern form in marking with dates, initials, crosses. It requires a strict relation with the territory, a daily immersion in the landscape – a matter for shepherds, hunters, camping soldiers, pilgrims, travellers. Even if interpreted as an individual activity (and indeed it is), it always relects the important cultural aspects of the related period, or – better – the principal topics of the originating human group or clan, mainly young and male. This condition is quite evident in the contemporary phenomenon of urban grafiti, which condenses the self-assertion and often the thoughts and better the dreams of the (mostly male) youth. Thought, mind and dream could be key words to approach the core of this prehistoric problem.35 Topographic engravings reproduce agricultural landscapes, in some cases distant from the engraving place, relating to the Neolithic-Copper Age economy of the farmer-shepherd. The engraving place, at least at Mount Bego, is a highland summer pasture, and will have been in prehistoric times. It is still utilized by shepherds36 com- ing up from the bottom of the Roya valley or over the watershed from the Italian Piedmont plain some days of transhumance distant .37 The marking of the territory with the so important ‘common module’ could represent for the (young) shepherd, spending hard summer days with the stock in the highest pasture, the recalling of the most important part of his identity, that of the farmer, the one which represents ‘home’, and at the same time the pride of possessing a territory and the ability to survive in it, probably repeated each new summer. Translated into words, it would say, ‘I’m the shepherd. This is my land, like my home down in the valley.’ The identiication of the threshing-loor as a grain-related subject opens a wide door to a ritual interpretation. As the wheat is the food and the life, the act of engraving a related iconography in the high mountain at the foot of the sky would be a ‘virtual offering’ or a ‘good-fortune’ propitiation in a sort of private or public ritual on the natural ‘blackboards’ of these beautiful rocky places. Acknowledgements Angelo Fossati (Orme dell’Uomo) – chronology. Burchard Brentjes – Çayönü Tepesi , Mehrgarh and Tuva comparisons. Elena Marchi & Emanuela Tognoni (Orme dell’Uomo) – research and tracings). Giovanni Bresso (Fontanalba guide) – ‘agricultural’ suggestions. Orme dell’Uomo ieldwork participants – tracings. Paola Tirone & Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana – ethnographic literature. References aceRBo, g. 1934. L’economia dei cereali nell’Italia e nel mondo, evoluzione storica e consistenza attuale della produzione del consumo e del commercio, politica agraria e commerciale. Milano: Ulrico Hoepli. acosTa, p. 1968. La pintura rupestre esquematica en España. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca. anaTi, e. 1976. Evoluzione e stile nell’arte rupestre camuna. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro. anaTi, e. 1979. I Camuni, alle radici della civiltà europea. Milano: Jaca Book. anaTi, e. 1982. Luine: collina Sacra. Capo di Ponte: Edizione del Centro. Archivi 8. aRcà, a. 1992. La roccia 13 di Vite Paspardo, elementi per un archivio di archeologia rupestre, Appunti 19: 25–31. ritual ploughing was found at the lower level of the copper-Age megalithic complex at St Martin de corléans (AO, Italy; Mezzena 98). 5 A recent case would be that of the shepherds, probably with some sailor experience, engraving ships at high mountain sites – Vallée des Merveilles, Mount Bego (surface ZVII GI r7), and Les Oullas, Ubaye (France), at 00 m altitude. Interesting content can be found in the writings of contemporary Mount Bego shepherd writings (De Lumley 995: 98–99): ‘In this hell-site shepherds are all sufering like damned souls in the devil’s house’; ‘In 88 here there were 0 shepherds in July and the same in August’; ‘this year, 890, wind and misery reign here, hunger for the stock.’ 7 he interpretative idea of the ‘sacred mountain’, suggested both for Mount Bego (De Lumley et al. 995) and for Valcamonica (the ‘spirit of the mountain’: Priuli 979), might be contradicted by ield evidence: the areas of engraving quite perfectly match the distribution of suitable rock surfaces (mainly sandstone, or limestone, polished by the glaciers); and such extensive areas of engravings obviously refer to an extensive and economic use of the territory, in contrast to sanctuaries which are always situated in well-delimited and restricted sites. The topographic engravings of Alpine rock-art - aRcà, a. 1994. Vite, incisioni topograiche: prima fase dell’arte rupestre camuna, Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 2: 91–98, Bergamo: Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo. aRcà, a. 1995. La roccia della fata e i segni topograici nell’arte rupestre alpina, in Immagini dalla preistoria: incisioni e pitture rupestri: nuovi messaggi dalle rocce delle Alpi occidentali: 96–99. Boves: Corall. aRcà, a. 1996–7. The settled ground in the ‘topographic engravings’ of the Alpine arc, TRACCE On line Rock Art Bulletin 2–3–4–6, http://rupestre.net/tracce/topo4.html. aRcà, a. 1998. Settlements in topographic engravings of Copper Age in Valcamonica and Mt. Bego rock art, in Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences – Forlì 1996 4: 9–16. Forlì: A.B.A.C.O. aRcà, a. 1999. Fields and settlements in topographic engravings of the Copper Age in Valcamonica and Mt Bego rock art, in Philippe Della Casa (ed.), Prehistoric Alpine environment, society and economy: papers of the international colloquium PAESE ‘97 in Zurich: 71–79. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt. aRcà, a., g.m. cameTTi & p. meiRano. 1996. Gravures rupestres de l’Age du Fer en Valcenischia (Alpes Occidentales), International Newsletter on Rock Art 14: 7–9. aRcà, a., g.m. cameTTi & p. meiRano. 1999. Iron Age petroglyphs found in Valcenischia (Italy), in News 95 proceedings. Pinerolo: CeSMAP. aRcà, a., c. feRRaRio, a. fossaTi & m.g. RuggieRo. 1996. Paspardo, loc. ‘al de Plaha, in Ministero dei Beni Culturali ed Ambientali, Soprintendenza Archeologica della Lombardia, Le vie della pietra verde, l’industria litica levigata nella preistoria dell’Italia settentrionale: 256–258. Torino: Omega aRcá, a., a. fossaTi, e. maRchi & e. Tognoni. 1995. Rupe Magna, la roccia incisa più grande delle Alpi. Sondrio: Ministero dei Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Soprintendenza Archeologica della Lombardi, Consorzio per il Parco delle Incisioni Rupestri di Grosio. Quaderni del Parco 1. aRcá, a., a. fossaTi, e. maRchi & e. Tognoni. in press. Le ultime ricerche della Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell’Uomo sull’arte rupestre delle Alpi, in Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress of Rupestrian Archaeology. Milano: Civiche Raccolte Archeologiche e Numismatiche di Milano. BalleT, f. & p. Raffaelli. 1991. Gravures iguratives et abstraites des ages des métaux dans les Alpes de Savoie, in Le Mont Bego, une montagne sacrée de l’Age du Bronze, prétirage des actes du Colloque de Tende 5–11 juillet 1991 1: 162–191. BalleT, f. & p. Raffaelli. 1993. L’art rupestre de Maurienne. Chambéry: Mémoires et Documents de la Société Savoisienne d’Histoire et d’Archéologie 95. BalleT, f. & p. Raffaelli. 1996. Un exemple remarquable: Aussois, L’histoire en Savoie 31, numéro spécial. BaRfield, laWRence & chRisTopheR chippindale. 997. Meaning in the later prehistoric rock-engravings of Mount Bego, Alpes-Maritimes, France, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63: 103–28. BaTTaglia, R. 1934. Ricerche etnograiche sui petroglii della cerchia alpina, Studi etruschi 8: 11–48. BelTRán maRTínez, a. 1983. El problema de la cronología del arte rupestre esquemático español, Caesaraugusta, 39-40, Saragossa. Bicknell, c. 1913. A guide to the prehistoric rock-engravings in the Italian Maritime Alps. Bordighera: Giuseppe Bessone. (Italian translation: Guida alle incisioni rupestri preistoriche nelle Alpi Marittime Italiane. Bordighera: Istituto Internazionale delle Studi Liguri, 1972.) Blain, a. 1975. Des gravures sur les menhirs du Chemin des Collines à Sion, Valais, Suisse, Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici12: 154–156. BoRgna, c.g. 1980. L’arte rupestre preistorica nell’Europa Occidentale, Pinerolo, privately published. BRenTjes, B. 1998. Orientalizing motives in Alpine rock art, TRACCE On line Rock Art Bulletin 9, http://rupestre.net/ tracce/anatol.html. BReuil, h. & M.C. BuRkiTT 1929. Rock paintings of southern Andalusia: a description of a Neolithic and Copper Age art group. Oxford: Clarendon Press. BRiaRd, J. 1990. Dolmens et menhirs de Bretagne.Luçon: Jean-Paul Gisserot. Bueno RamiRez, p., piñon VaRela, f. & pRados ToRReiRa l. 1985. Excavaciones en el Collado de Sejos (Valle de Polaciones, Santander), Campaña de 1982, in Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, Madrid. caRdoso, j.l. 1997. O povoado de Leceia (Oeiras), sentinela do Tejo neo terceiro milénio a.C. Lisboa: Museo Nacional de Arcqueologia. comeT, g. 1992. Le paysan et son util, essai d’histoire technique des céréales. Roma: École Française de Rome. Collection de l’École Française de Rome 165. coulaRou, j. 1998. L’habitat calcolithique de Boussargues (France), in Castelletti L. - Pessina A. (ed.), Introduzione all’archeologia degli spazi domestici, atti del seminario, Como 4–5 novembre 1995: 57–62. Como: New Press Museo Civico Archeologico Giovio. couRBoud, p. 1986. Saint Léonard, Crête des Barmes, in Le Valais avant l’histoire, 14 000 av. J.-C.-47 apr. J.-C.: 286– 291. Sion: Musées Cantonaux de lumley, h. et al. 995. Le Grandiose et le sacré: gravures rupestres protohistoriques et historiques de la région du Mount Bego. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud. de maRinis, R.c. 1994a. La datazione dello stile IIIA, in Le pietre degli dei. Menhir e stele dell’età del Rame in Valcamonica e Valtellina. Bergamo: Centro Culturale Nicolò Rezzara de maRinis, R.c. 1994b. Problèmes de chronologie de l’art rupestre du Valcamonica, Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 2: 223–234, Bergamo: Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo. de maRinis, R.c. 1997. The Eneolithic cemetery of Remedello Sotto (BS), and the relative and absolute chronology af the Copper Age in northern Italy, Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 5: 33–51, Bergamo: Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo. deVleT, m.a. 1976. Petroglify Ulug Khema. Moscow. feRRaRio, c. 1992. Le igure di oranti schematici nell’arte rupestre della Valcamonica, Appunti 19: 41–43. feRRaRio, c. 1994. Nuove cronologie per gli oranti schematici dell’arte rupestre della Valcamonica, Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 2: 223–234. - Andrea Arcà fossaTi, a. 1992. Alcune rappresentazioni di oranti schematici armati del Bronzo Finale nell’arte rupestre della Valcamonica, Appunti 19: 45–50. fossaTi, a. 1994a. Le rappresentazioni topograiche, in Le pietre degli dei: menhir e stele dell’età del Rame in Valcamonica e Valtellina: 89–91. Bergamo: Centro Culturale Nicolò Rezzara fossaTi, a. 1994b. Le scene di aratura, in Le pietre degli dei: menhir e stele dell’età del Rame in Valcamonica e Valtellina: 131–133. Bergamo fossaTi, a. 1994c. Ossimo 8, in Le pietre degli dei: menhir e stele dell’età del Rame in Valcamonica e Valtellina: 189– 192. Bergamo: Centro Culturale Nicolò Rezzara fossaTi a. 1995. I Cervi al Castello, in Immagini dalla preistoria: incisioni e pitture ripestri: nuovi messaggi dalle rocce delle Alpi Occidentali: 117–123. Catalogo della mostra in occasione della XXXII Riunione Scientiica dell’Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria. Boves: Corall. fRonTini, p. 1994. Il masso Borno 1, Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 2: 67–77, Bergamo: Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo. gamBaRi, f.m. 1992. Le pitture rupestri della Rocca di Cavour (TO) e le inluenze mediterranee nell’arte rupestre dell’Italia nord-occidentale, in Atti della XXVII riunione scientiica, l’arte in Italia dal Paleolitico all’età del Bronzo: 399-410. Firenze: Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria. gaValdo, s. 1995. Le rafigurazioni topograiche, in U. Sansoni & S. Gavaldo, L’arte rupestre del Pia’ d’Ort, la vicenda di un santuario preistorico alpino: 162–168. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro. Archivi 10. gaValdo, s. 1999. Le rafigurazioni topograiche, in U. Sansoni, S. Gavaldo & C. Gastaldi, Simboli sulla roccia: l’arte rupestre della Valtellina centrale dalle armi del bronzo ai segni cristiani: 99–101. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro. Archivi 12. geisT h., 995. Fontan, Cime de Causéga, in Direction Régionale des Affairec Culturelles Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur Bilan Scientiique 1994: 91–93. Aix-en-Provence: Ministère de la Culture et de la Francophonie. hameau, p. 1989. Les Peintures postglaciares en Provence. Paris. Documents d’Archéologie Française 22. jaRRige, c., f. jaRRige & g. QuiVRon. 1995–6. Mehrgarh: ield reports 1974–1985: from Neolithic times to the Indus Civilization. Karachi: Department of Culture and Tourism, Government of Sindh. maRTel, p. 1983. Les Blés de l’été: l’été des paysans en HauteProvence, Les Alpes de Lumièere, 77/80, 82/83, Gap mezzena, f. 1982. La Valle d’Aosta nella preistoria e nella protostoria, in Archeologia in Valle d’Aosta: 14–50. Aosta: Regione Val d’Aosta. nehl, g. 1989. Aperçu sur l’art rupestre de l’Haute Maurienne, Les Cahiers du GERSAR 2: 13–18. Milly la Foret: Gersar. nisBeT, R. 1994. Alcuni aspetti dell’ambiente umano nelle Alpi Cozie fra quinto e quarto millennio BP, in P. Biagi & J. Nandris (eds.), Highland zone exploitation in southern Europe: 259-271. Brescia: Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali di Brescia. Monograie di natura Bresciana 20. oWen, B. 1998. Harappan civilization in the Indus valley, notes of Class 23 Anthropology 325 – Word Prehistory S ‘98, Sonoma State University, http://members.aol.com/ wph-c23.html. pace, d. 1972. Petroglii di Grosio, Milano, privately published, Tellina Opuscula, 2. pace, d., m.g. simonelli & l. ValmadRe. 1985. Escursione nell’antichità della Valtellina da Teglio a Grosio: 116–117. Tirano: Sistema bibliotecario di Tirano. piomBaRdi, d. 1989. Le igure di aratro nelle incisioni rupestri della Valcamonica, Appunti 8: 7–12. piomBaRdi, d. 1992. Cinque nuove scene di aratura nelle incisioni rupestri della Valcamonica, Appunti 19: 18–24. poggiani kelleR, R. 1989. Le stele dell’età del Rame, in Valtellina e mondo alpino nella preistoria: 40–46. Modena: Edizioni Panini pons, s. 1938. Preistoria Valdese: di un antico disegno a calcina della Valle Germanasca (Alpi Cozie) e di alcune ricerche afini, Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi 70: 3–17. pRiuli, a. 1979. Preistoria in Valle Camonica, itinerari illustrati dei siti e dell’arte rupestre. Capo di Ponte: Museo Didattico di Arte e Vita Preistorica. RenfReW, a. colin. 1973. Before civilization: the radiocarbon revolution and prehistoric Europe. London: Jonathan Cape. samzun, a. 1987. Die frühe Kupferzeit: Mehrgarh, Periode III, in Vergessene Städte am Indus: 74–80. Mainz: P. von Zabern sansoni, u., s. gaValdo & c. gasTaldi. 1999. Simboli sulla roccia, l’arte rupestre della Valtellina centrale dalle armi del bronzo ai segni cristiani. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro. Archivi 12. seglie, d. & p. RicchiaRdi. 1988. Pitture rupestri di Ponte Raut in Val Germanasca, Survey 3–4: 71–73. schiRmeR, W. 1988. Zu den Bauten des Çayönü Tepesi, Anatolica 15: 140–160. sluga, g. 1969. Le incisioni rupestri di Dos dell’Arca. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro. TuRconi, c. 1997a. The map of Bedolina in the context of the rock art of Valcamonica, TRACCE On line Rock Art Bulletin 9, http://www.rupestre.net/tracce/TURCONI.html. TuRconi, c. 1997b. La mappa di Bedolina nel quadro dell’arte rupestre della Valcamonica, in Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 5: 85–113. Bergamo: Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo.