Valcamonica Rock Art

Introduction

The 75-km-long Valcamonica (Camonica Valley) in the Italian Alps includes over 300,000 rock engravings spanning 10,000 years, from the Epipaleolithic period to the Middle Ages. The valley is at the crossing of the Alps from Italy to Central Europe where both ideas and people passed through. This area has been studied for 50 years by the same team, enabling scholars to explore the meaning of stylistic and thematic changes from period to period. Changes in the way of thinking, in the economy, and in the social organization contribute to our understanding of the formative period of the European society.

Valcamonica was declared by UNESCO as being of “World Cultural Heritage” in 1979. It was the first rock art site in the world to obtain such nomination and the first Italian site to become part of the World Heritage list. Valcamonica is also renowned for the new research approach applied, focusing on the use of rock art as a means of historical reconstruction, producing...