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Name      
Italia    Valchiusella - Pera dij Cros EuroPreArt - European Prehistoric Art

Italy map
Keywords: Chalcolithic, Anthropomorph, Bronze Age, Crosses, dominant
Institution: Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana - Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Footsteps of Man)  http://rupestre.net/orme
Original
record
by
Orme dell'Uomo - Footsteps of Man, Valcamonica - Italy Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana - Italy
 
Location
Specific feedbackSpecific feedback

Country:

Italia

Locality:

Traversella, Pian Cravì

Region:

Piemonte

Area:

Valchiusella

 

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The engraved rock covered by the plastic tracing sheets (photo A. Arcà - GRCM 1995 )
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Copyright. No commercial use of EuroPreArt content is allowed. Specific © for pictures and drawings is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution.
Disclaim. The EuroPreArt project fully endorses the most recent documentation policies. It must be outlined the absolute forbidding of any disruptive method and the necessity of a total respect for archaeological sites. It is also to be noticed that no substances shall be applied to rock art for recording purposes. Some pictures of the EuroPreArt records are related to past recording techniques and may not fully match these policies. They are an historical documentation. Please refer to local archaeological official authorities for any recording purpose. Please take a look also over EuroPreArt guidelines.
 
Environment & Surface

Altitude:

1620 m
Open-air   Shelter   Cave Portable   Megalithic

Geography:
Wide panorama, cableway from the alpage. Dominant, pasture, on a steep slope South - east exposed, facing rocky slopes and waterfalls. Isolated bushes of alders, hazel-nuts,

Proximity:

Close to the path and to a stream, abandoned alpine hut downside.

Geology:

Isolated engraved rock, gneiss-schist with veins of quartz and green rock.

Surface:

Rough, convex, concave surface. Inclination from 15º to 35º, microflora and patina, cracks, yellows and browns lichens

Dimensions:
Length 12.30 m.  Width 10.00 m.

 

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Art        

Description:

Engravings   Paintings   Painted engravings   High or low-relief   Sculpture
Traversella Municipality (TO-I), along the "Path of the Souls", local name Pera dij Cros (The Rock of the Crosses), Engravings executed by percussion, abrasion. Huge boulder with flat-irregular-convex upper surface. Shape oval. Engravings are concentrated along the middle upper part, oriented along the greater axis, pointed towards the overhanging waterfall and mountains tops. Under the rock there is a small shelter. Wide glacial striation north-south oriented (which is the direction of the valley). The boulder slided down before the last ice-age. The anthropomorphic figures are 12-35 cm high, with an average of 15-20. They have been executed by pecking, than smoothed. Peripheral traces of middle-size pecking. The engravings have been executed in the part of the surface devoid of green-rock veins, but also, partially, in the quartz. Many anthropomorphic figures are sexuated, male and female, some times with a narrow channel starting from a little cup-mark between the legs. In 3-4 cases the arms are engraved in an arch-shape, while legs are always positioned like a triangle. In some cases the feet (outside oriented) and also the fingers can be noticed. The head is round and marked by a little deeper cup-mark. A large cup-mark has diameter of 7 cm. The figures with arms in an arch-shape are exiles and show a lower deepness. The male sex is indicated from a line between the legs, the female one by a little cup-mark. Many figures have a typical enlargement of the body like a fiasco.

Figures:
total number 113
2 schematic anthropomorphs with lowered arms, 35 schematic anthropomorphs with horizontal arms, legs positioned like a triangle, 3 schematic anthropomorphs with raised arms rises, 3 isolated cup-marks, 17 incomplete anthropomorphs, 8 cruciforms with same size arms, 4 cruciforms with different size arms, 42 unclassifiable segments or pseudo cup-marks 29 peckings made with metallic instrument

Chronology:

Palaeolithic   Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic   Neolithic   Copper Age   Bronze Age   Iron Age   Roman   Middle Age   Modern   Unknown
The anthropomorphic figures can be compared to the ones of the remedellian phase of the Copper Age (Valcamonica, stick body and triangle position legs, 2700-2400 B.C.) or to the ones of the end of the Bronze Age (Valcamonica, so called "praying figures", with triangle position legs, 1200-900 B.C.).

Notes:

It is possible to see the engravings only with natural grazing light (early in the morning). According to local sources (cited in the book "Valchiusella Archaeologica") the crosses would represent the Salassi warriors died during the battle with the Romans. The glacial striations represent a confirmation of the possibility of a long conservation of the engravings.
 
Bibliography        





European total bibliography, by EuroPreArt partnersTotal (Europe)
Italia EuroPreArt general bibliography, by Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana - <a href=http://rupestre.net/orme>Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Footsteps of Man)</a>General (country)
Specific Valchiusella -  <i>Pera dij Cros</i> bibliography, by Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana - <a href=http://rupestre.net/orme>Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Footsteps of Man)</a>Specific (site)
Rock Art Studies: A Bibliographic worldwide Database (external link). Compiled by Leigh Marymor. Copyright (C) 2001-2002 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley Bibliographic
Rock Art
Database

 

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Conservation        

Status:

Public   Private   Park   Classified site

Risk:

The engravings are subjected to repeated vandal chalking and graffiti.

Conservation:

Good   Quite good   Mediocre   Bad

Intervention:

Originally the engraved surface was partially covered by ground and grass, which were removed when discovered (1970). The rock has been completely recorded (contact tracing, grazing light pictures) by Footsteps of Man in 1995. More info (Italian version) at http://rupestre.net/archiv and http://rupestre.net/alps.

 

By          

Compiler:

A. Arcà 2001

Institution:

Gruppo Ricerche Cultura Montana - Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Footsteps of Man)  http://rupestre.net/orme
 
         Record n. 493 / 807
No commercial use is allowed. Specific © is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution  
 
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NEW: Alpine rock paintings
enter the Balma dei Cervi Virtual Museum and surf the Virtual Tour: spherical pano-views,
hi-def flat photos and tracings


EuroPreArt, European Prehistoric Art, is a web-based archaeological project funded by the European Union which aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art.
It is proposed by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT, Portugal), CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Italy - Europe), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón (España), Université de Liège (Belgique), Gotland University College (Sverige), University College Dublin (Eire), Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Italia), Study Centre and Museum of Prehistoric Art of Pinerolo (Italia), The European Centre for Prehistoric Research in the Alto Ribatejo (Portugal), ArqueoJovem - a youth NGO (Portugal).
Instituto Politécnico de Tomar - Portugal CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage, Ravello - Italy CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid - Spain Orme dell'Uomo - Footsteps of Man, Valcamonica - Italy Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón, Extremadura -Spain Liège University - Belgium Gotland University - Sweden University College Dublin - Ireland CeSMAP - Centro Studi e Museo d'Arte Preistorica. Pinerolo, Italy Arqueo Jovem

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