PARCO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DEI MASSI DI CEMMO

The rich heritage of rock art in Valle Camonica was inscribed in 1979, as the first Italian site, on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List. The Massi di Cemmo National Archaeological Park is located in a glacial valley at the foot of a high and impressive rock face. It is the first site of Camuna rock art reported in 1909 by the geographer Gualtiero Laeng for the presence of two extraordinary painted boulders dating back to the 3rd millennium BC depicting animal figures, weapons, anthropomorphic figures, ploughing scenes and transport on a four-wheeled cart. Recent archaeological excavations, which began when the park was being set up and are still in progress, have brought to light, around the boulders, a megalithic sanctuary in which the sacred space is bordered by a walled enclosure and marked by ornate stelae. The sanctuary, founded in the Copper Age on pre-existing levels of Mesolithic and Neolithic frequentation, lasted with progressive renovations that kept some of the stelae from the 3rd millennium B.C. in use, until the late Roman age (late 4th-early 2nd millennium B.C.; 1st millennium B.C. 4th/V century A.D.), when it was decommissioned by the Christians, who built the Pieve di San Siro near the pagan place of worship and ceremonial.