Bringing History to Life - Riparo Dalmeri Rock Art

In the North West of Italy, archaeologists have been exploring a rock shelter that was used by early Europeans from 13 000 years ago. Up in the Alps is the rock shelter of Riparo Dalmeri. It’s a well-preserved location and all the garbage that humans leave behind them has been used to learn much about these ancient peoples. In particular, a habit of theirs brings them back to life and it’s easier to imagine them living their lives with similar superstitions to those we have today.



Scattered among the rocks and debris of the shelter floor are a collection of stones that have been painted with human and animal figures…



From the research team…


Well, we’ve all seen rock art before so what makes these any more special than the rest? Red ochre? Seen it all before. Animals? Seen that too.

What makes these stones special is that the majority of them were turned face down (pdf research paper) and placed amongst the debris field of the shelter’s floor. A tiny mark of the red paint was dabbed on the visible side so they could be recognised.



This could mean a great many things with the most tempting idea being that they represented some magical or ritual significance.

Whatever the painted objects meant, these hunters picked out their flat stones, made the paint, painted the stones and laid them face down. For me, the common humanity of these thoughts and actions brings us closer to our ancestors.



Links and sources

Official Riparo Dalmeri website

Source of the illustrations (unknown artist)

The discovery of a painted anthropomorphic figure at Riparo Dalmeri and new
insights into alpine Epigravettian art

Great thread

Mysterious stones

I'd say either toys or a hunting 'game', or a person with an artistic bent

Byrd should like this one given her speciality

reply to post by Kandinsky


interesting
sounds like a sigil
placing them face down allows the conscious mind to forget [and thus override lust of result]
the dab is to remind the artist-magician to not turn it over/ that it has been used

interesting as well are the human figures
curses?

got to go out but will be back later tonight.

S&F