page_title: Rock Drawings in Valcamonica
section_title: Copper Age
hierarchical_section_title: Rock Drawings in Valcamonica / The historiated cycle: themes and periodization / Copper Age
caption_attribution_description: English: Scene of deer hunting. R. 12, Parco archeologico comunale di Seradina-Bedolina, Capo di Ponte, Val Camonica Italiano: Scena di caccia al cervo. R. 12, Parco archeologico comunale di Seradina-Bedolina, Capo di Ponte, Val Camonica
context_page_description: The rock drawings in Valcamonica are located in the Province of Brescia, Italy, and constitute the largest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world. The collection was recognized by Unesco in 1979 and was Italy's first recognized World Heritage Site. Unesco has formally recognized more than 140,000 figures and symbols, but new discoveries have increased the number of catalogued incisions to between 200,000 and 300,000. The petroglyphs are spread on all surfaces of the valley, but concentrated in the areas of Darfo Boario Terme, Capo di Ponte, Nadro, Cimbergo and Paspardo.
context_section_description: During the Copper Age (or Chalcolithic period, the 3rd millennium BC approximately-3300-2500 BC), new symbols appeared, documenting the emergence of the wheel, the wagon and the first forms of metallurgy. Alpine rock art began to develop in this period. Rocks were stained with celestial symbols, animals, weapons, depictions of plowing, chains of human-beings and other signs. Although the anthropomorphic figures were primitive at first, later these images were even more intense and more complicated by adding weapons, astral disks and rectangular that symbolize the world in addition to simple figures.  These monuments, preserved mainly in the Archaeological Park of National Massi Cemmo and in that of Asinino-Anvòia (Ossimo), indicate a ritual function linked to the veneration of ancestors.
caption: Deer-hunting scene
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