ROCK ENGRAVINGS
CETO - CIMBERGO - PASPARDO
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| The regional reserve of ROCK ENGRAVINGS CETO - CIMBERGO - PASPARDO |
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The rock engravings: signs, images, symboles, on large surfaces of sandstone are the main historical
and archaeological aspect of the area comune of Ceto. These were engraved by the people who
lived in Vallecamonica and let us reconstruct, almost with certainty, the material and intellectual life
of these ancient peoples.
The researches done by the Camunian Centre of Prehistoric Studes, made it possible to identify the
periods characterized of remarkable changes, the cultural influences and the local innovations, wich
changed substantially the way of life and the styles of the engravings.
A part of the district of Ceto (Foppe di Nadro, Dòs Cuì, Zurla) is an area protected and equipped for
sight-seeing: the Regional reserve of the engravings of Ceto - Cimbergo - Paspardo, founded in 1983
and nowadays managed by the Association "AMICI dei CAMUNI". The Association offers
promotion, protection and maintenance services and organizes individual and group visits in the
whole Reserve.
The acces to the Reserve is in Nadro, where the arcaeologic Museum, with its exhibition rooms and
laboratories of experimental archaeology, can be seen as the starting point of the visit to the whole
area. Coming from the Museum you take the medieval road which, in times past, joined the medieval
suburb with other villages at the foot of the mountains, and you arrive at the entrance of the park in
"Foppe di Nadro". Here you can visit a village of huts rebuilt, in recent times, as those belonging to
the iron age.
This ancient road has been built on a prehistoric path and quite surely on the tracing of the
"Valeriana way" of the roman age. All around you can find the sign of the millenarian human
presence: remains of terrace, cultivations, megalithic walls, maybe a prehistoric fortified village.
The studies say that the images engraved on these rocks were made over a period of 6.000 years:
from the neolithic period to the higt middle-age. So we can find near heach other or superimposed
intellectual and grafic images of very different cultures wich have preserved the engraving tradition
as propitiatory rite, means of communication or religious expression.
These figures are different both for the type of subjects and for the style of execution which is
extremely schematic in the neolithic and very realistic in the images of the iron age. For example, in
the first period there isn't any representation of man and the animals are dominant, in the following
periods the human figure is constantly protagonist of the scenes.
In short, the engravings in the Reserve and in particular in area of "Foppe di Nadro" belong to five
cultural stages: the Neolithic period (from 5.500 to 3.200 B.C.: the engravings made by the first
farmers) shows many scenes of sun cult, coupling, praying men, etc. These rapresentation are
important because we have direct evidence of these cult, always linked to the nature, rocks n° 1 - 2 -
27 - 35. A monumental composition on the rock n° 30 belongs to the Calcolithic period (from 3.200
to 2.500 B.C.: introduction of metallurgie).
A lot of images of arms like daggers, axes and halberds on rock n° 4 - 22 - 23 belong to the Bronze
age (from 2.500 to 1.000 B.C.), when in the camunian society new roles and activities such as trade
and handicraft appear. Many well-made figures full of details in fight scenes, hunting, agricoltural
and dailylife scenes, magic and religious symbols,inscriptions in north- etruscan alphabet and in latin
belonging to the Iron age (from 1.000 to 16 B.C.) can be seen on rocks n° 1 - 5 - 6 - 24 - 27 - 36.
The Middle-age (about 1.000 A.C.) is documented by a rich symbology, almost entirely christian
religious.
In the Reserve some prehistoric structures have been discovered: in a natural shelter under a vertical
rocky wall some objects found in desultory repairs and material of a funeral outfit have been
discovered. Now, a part of these objects (Mesolithic period VI millenium B.C.) is preserved in the
Museum of the Reserve, in Nadro of Ceto.