Italian rock art

During the study and survey of the engraved elements inside Diana cave (Mulazzo - MS, loc. Canossa) some engraved lines were found at the base of natural openings overlooking the Magra valley. These signs, 30 to 40 cm long and reciprocally oblique, are distributed in groups of 5 to 6. One of the Authors has observed that the lines appear to be aligned with places where statue-stelae have been found (Sorano, Groppoli, Gigliana, Malgrate, Filetto, Mocrone, Venelia, Treschietto). This research on the visibility of sites indicates the intention of those using the cave of controlling over the territory in pre-protohistoric times. But this doesn’t exclude other possible uses related to
commercial, productive or ritual activities. The authors take into consideration the above-mentioned sites in context of the published archaeological data, the mineral resources, and the geographic data (roads, trails and waterways). The lines in the Diana cave appear to be not only physical but also ideological directrixes which continue beyond the Parma Apennines between Mount Sillara and Mount Aquila. For this purpose, the research is restricted to the Magra valley, from Pontremoli to the Taverone valley, up to the Parma Apennines’ ridge and the Tuscan-Aemilian Appennines.

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