At a glance

Valle Camonica incisioni rupestri (the most precisely Camonica zone Capo di Ponte Brescia Lombardia Italy 46.0260 N 10.3580 E UNESCO WHS 1979 reference 94: the scale (the 300,000+ individual figures on approximately 2,400 rocks distributed across 26 municipalities in the 70-km Valle Camonica (from Pisogne at the southern end to Edolo at the north); the largest concentration of prehistoric rock art in the world (comparison: the Tassili n’Ajjer in Algeria is the second largest); the carving technique (percussion carving: a stone tool struck against the rock surface to remove the dark weathering patina (desert varnish) and expose the lighter fresh stone below; the resulting marks are visible from a distance because the contrast between the pale freshly-exposed stone and the dark patinated surface; this technique is also called “pecking” or “incision”)); the time range (the carving sequence: the earliest recognized figures date from c.8000 BCE (Mesolithic: simple geometric shapes and abstract symbols); the Bronze Age (c.2000–800 BCE: the peak production period; approximately 70% of all known Valcamonica figures date from the Bronze Age; the figure types: warriors, plowing scenes, weapons caches, sun symbols, labyrinth symbols); the Iron Age (c.800–15 BCE: the Camunni culture in its historical period; the specific innovation: scenes involving horses become more common; the Camunian rose appears in large numbers); the Roman period (15 BCE–2nd century CE: after the Roman conquest, the carving tradition continued for 1–2 generations but declined rapidly as the Camunni were integrated into the imperial economy; the latest recognizable Roman-period carvings show gladiators and Roman weapons).