For 10,000 Years, Valcamonica Rock Art Shows Italy's Societal Evolution
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For 10,000 Years, Valcamonica Rock Art Shows Italy's Societal Evolution

Some of the world’s earliest-known graffiti artists in Italy carved into rock tens of thousands of images from the mundane to the mystical, recording scenes from the twilight of the Stone Age to the dawn of civilization. A Walk Amongst the Petroglyphs of Galicia: Prehistoric Designs Trace Life and Times of Bronze Age Europeans 4,000-Year-Old Rock Art From Unknown Culture Uncovered in Venezuela The artists who carved the Valcamonica rock art depicted animals, scenes of hunting and fishing, weapons and tools, war, magic, buildings, agriculture, and human and divine figures. The people left a rich heritage of petroglyphs in Lombardy from which scholars are learning about the ways of life, economies, beliefs and societies of people in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Iron and Roman ages. In 1979, UNESCO declared the Camonica Valley petroglyphs a World Heritage site, the first such site in Italy. Estimates of the number of rock carvings range from 140,000 to 300,000. The people of the valley are called Camunians or Camuni. The UNESCO website on Valcamonica says pre-Camunian and Camunian artists carved drawings along both sides of the 75km (46 mi) valley. The images depict a chronological sequence of prehistoric subjects, from hunting-gathering to later agricultural scenes, navigation, duels, religion, and geometric-symbolic petroglyphs. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient WritingsNewsAncient PlacesEuropeRead Later