Birds and bovids: new parietal engravings at the Romanelli Cave, Apulia (original) (raw)
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The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi - new studies on the Ice Age cave art of Sicily
The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi on the island of Levanzo off Sicily’s western coast contains one of the most important records of Late Glacial rock art in the Mediterranean region. The animal and human engravings stem from the Late Epigravettian period and are characterized by a naturalistic style, stylistic parallels can be found on the island of Sicily and in southern Italy. More than fifty years after the original documentation, a field campaign by an Italian-German team was carried out in June 2012 as a first step to investigate the Palaeolithic engravings with modern methods and to modify and complement it where necessary. The systematic approach and the use of 3D scanning technology make the documentation of rock art more detailed, objective and efficient. Consequently the new study has succeeded in identifying various animals with much more detail and also in detecting several new, previously unknown figures. With the identification of four new bovid images the aurochs is now the most prominent animal in the pictorial composition of the cave (13 x), followed by equids (12 x) and cervids (8 x). This dominance of bovids is thought to have a meaning beyond the environmental context: the aurochs was the largest and strongest animal of the Late Glacial to early Holocene of Sicily and represented a dangerous prey at that time. Strong animals had a prominent role in Upper Palaeolithic cave art, and it is probably not a coincidence that in the Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi the aurochs seems to be represented only by depictions of adult individuals, while three of the eight cervid images can be identified as young animals.
Unusually for a Palaeolithic cave, the Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi on the island of Levanzo, off the west coast of Sicily, Italy, has yielded evidence of both parietal and mobiliary art. Developments in dating techniques since the excavations of the 1950s now allow the age of the mobiliary art— an engraved aurochs—to be determined. At the same time, stylistic comparison of the parietal art at Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi with other broadly contemporaneous sites that demonstrate well-documented cave art allows a relative chronology to be proposed. The two methods taken together enable a direct chronological comparison to be made between the production of parietal and mobiliary art at this important cave site.
The cave of Isturitz is one of the most important archaeological sites of the prehistory of Western Europe. Human occupations followed each other in the cavity from at least the Middle Paleolithic to the Roman age. In 1913, Passermard started archaeological excavations there, and a calcite pillar was discovered next to the original entrance that was sculpted with a dozen of animal representations. In this excavation, the Magdalenian levels yielded a considerable quantity of portable art objects. In the last few years, several workers have resumed the study of those pieces. Since 2011, we have created a research team for the study of the parietal figures of the cave, as well as other elements, for example the objects embedded in the walls. We present here our first results, which improve in the understanding of the artistic activities of Upper Palaeolithic peoples by shedding light at the art analyzed in Isturitz.
The Cave of Isturitz (West Pyrenees, France): One Century of Research in Paleolithic Parietal Art
Arts, 2013
The cave of Isturitz is one of the most important archaeological sites of the prehistory of Western Europe. Human occupations followed each other in the cavity from at least the Middle Paleolithic to the Roman age. In 1913, Passermard started archaeological excavations there, and a calcite pillar was discovered next to the original entrance that was sculpted with a dozen of animal representations. In this excavation, the Magdalenian levels yielded a considerable quantity of portable art objects. In the last few years, several workers have resumed the study of those pieces. Since 2011, we have created a research team for the study of the parietal figures of the cave, as well as other elements, for example the objects embedded in the walls. We present here our first results, which improve in the understanding of the artistic activities of Upper Palaeolithic peoples by shedding light at the art analyzed in Isturitz.
Palaeolithic cave art in Italy: from the iconography of signs to the underlying symbols
2010
Palaeolithic cave art in Italy is present in various sites located in the peninsula and in the Mediterranean islands. The iconography encompass different types of signs carved and painted on rock surfaces, usually inside dark caves and not in the open air. The signs represent naturalistic figures and geometric or abstract forms. In this paper a hermeneutic hypothesis is proposed, starting from the consideration that the signs at present visible are the residuum of a more complex phenomenon, a "total social fact" (Mauss) proper to the Prehistoric world, comprising noticeably prayers, gestures, discourse, dances, sounds and music - realities of course which leave no fossil traces! In particular the ceremonies organically linked to rock 'art' cannot be seen to-day but thanks to hermeneutical horizons it is possible to plausibly (in homage to the Plato's Cave) high light and throw into relief the silhouettes figuring on the stage of Prehistoric Man.
The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi – New studies on the Ice Age cave art on Sicily (Full)
Die Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi auf der Insel Levanzo vor der Westküste Siziliens repräsentiert ein ganz bedeutendes Beispiel spätglazialer Felskunst des Mittelmeerraumes. Die hier entdeckten Gravuren von Tieren und Menschen datieren in das späte Epigravettien (Spätpaläolithikum) und zeichnen sich durch einen naturalistischen Stil aus, der seine Parallelen in Sizilien und Süditalien findet. Mehr als fünfzig Jahre nach der ersten Dokumentation führte ein italienisch-deutsches Wissenschaftlerteam neue Feldforschungen zur Aufnahme und Vermessung der Darstellungen durch. Mittels moderner Methoden wurden die paläolithischen Gravuren erneut untersucht, um die Erstdokumentation zu ergänzen und gegebenenfalls zu korrigieren. Der hier verfolgte methodische Ansatz unter Verwendung dreidimensionaler Scanverfahren erlaubte eine detailliertere und effiziente Dokumentation der Felsbilder. So gelang es, zahlreiche Tiere mit einer wesentlich höheren Detailgenauigkeit zu dokumentieren sowie vormals unerkannte Darstellungen zu identifizieren. Die Entdeckung vier neuer Boviden ermöglicht es, den Auerochsen mit insgesamt dreizehn Darstellungen als das bedeutendste Tier in der Bildkomposition der Höhle herauszustellen. Es folgen zwölf Equiden und acht Cerviden. Die Dominanz der Boviden findet ihre Erklärung möglicherweise jenseits des ökologischen Kontextes, denn in Sizilien stellten Auerochsen im Spätglazial und frühen Holozän die größten und stärksten Tiere dar und waren bei der Jagd eine für den Jäger gefährliche Beute. In der Höhlenkunst des Jungpaläolithikums nahmen mächtige Tiere eine dominierende Rolle ein, so dass es wahrscheinlich auch kein Zufall ist, dass in der Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi ausschließlich erwachsene Auerochsen abgebildet wurden, während bei den Cerviden drei von acht Tieren als Jungtiere angesprochen werden können.
REVISTA ARKEOGAZTE / ARKEOGAZTE ALDIZKARIA N. 11., año 2021. urtea 11. Monográfico: D. Sigari, S. Garcês (Eds), Los animales en el arte prehistórico Monografikoa: Animaliak historiaurreko artean, 2021
This work examines animals’ representations of the post-Palaeolithic rock art that can be found on walls of caves and shelters located in the Italian peninsula, along the Apennine ridge, and in the main islands. The rare represented animals are Neolithic cervids in hunting scenes and very schematic figures of quadrupeds, few birds and fishes, datable between Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Representations of anthropomorphic and abstract figures are dominant. Images of horses and riders, dogs and cervids, depicted more realistically and in motion, can be surely related to the Iron Age. After an analysis of evidence identified from Liguria to Sicily and the islands, attention is directed to the opposition of this lack of images in rock art, which are often located in places with a high symbolic and sacral value in addition to their function of controlling routes and territories, to the abundant frequency of domestic and wild animals’ remains observable in several cave and outdoor sites surely related to cults and ritual offers. The sacred significance of deers, bulls (represented with protomes), canids, horses, can be observed too: as their presence in many mythologies and in Christian symbologies demonstrate, their symbolic meaning has been perpetuated until historical periods
2018
To cite this article: Sardella R., Mazzini I., Giustini F, Mecozzi B., Brilli M., Iurino D.A., Lembo G., Muttillo B., Massussi M., Sigari D., Tucci S. & Voltaggio M. (2018)-Grotta Romanelli (Southern Italy, Apulia): legacies and issues in excavating a key site for the Pleistocene of the Mediterranean. Riv. It. Paleontol. Strat., 124(2): 247-264. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia (Research in Paleontology and Stratigraphy) vol. 124(2): 247-264. July 2018 Abstract. Grotta Romanelli, located on the Adriatic coast of southern Apulia (Italy), is considered a key site for the Mediterranean Pleistocene for its archaeological and palaeontological contents. The site, discovered in 1874, was re-evaluated only in 1900, when P. E. Stasi realised that it contained the first evidence of the Palaeolithic in Italy. Starting in 1914, G.A. Blanc led a pioneering excavation campaign, for the first-time using scientific methods applied to systematic palaeontological and stratigraphical studies. Blanc proposed a stratigraphic framework for the cave. Different dating methods (C 14 and U/Th) were used to temporally constrain the deposits. The extensive studies of the cave and its contents were mostly published in journals with limited distribution and access, until the end of the 1970s, when the site became forgotten. In 2015, with the permission of the authorities, a new excavation campaign began, led by a team from Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with IGAG CNR and other research institutions. The research team had to deal with the consequences of more than 40 years of inactivity in the field and the combined effect of erosion and legal, as well as illegal, excavations. In this paper, we provide a database of all the information published during the first 70 years of excavations and highlight the outstanding problems and contradictions between the chronological and geomorphological evidence, the features of the faunal assemblages and the limestone artefacts.
Expanding the horizons of Palaeolithic rock art: the site of Romualdova Pećina
Antiquity
Rock art is key for understanding European Palaeolithic societies. Long thought to have been restricted to Southwest Europe, recent discoveries on the Balkan Peninsula have expanded significantly the geographic distribution of Upper Palaeolithic figurative rock art, calling into question the idea of its limited distribution. This article presents the first example of figurative cave art discovered in the Balkan region, at Romualdova Pećina ('Romuald's Cave') in Croatia, discussing its chronology and relevance in the context of recent research in Pleistocene art.