Palaeolithic Rock Art of the Italian Peninsula

International audienceThis volume aims to be the first step towards a systematic review of the Palaeolithic rock art in the Italian Peninsula, placing it within a wider debate involving the European continent and Mediterranean region in a wide sense, and offering a valid support for further research in this field. The first report about the presence of Palaeolithic rock art in Italy was published for the first time in 1905. The first recognised figures were a zoomorph and a geometric sign found on the walls of the Romanelli cave (Castro, Puglia region). Despite this premature discovery that occurred more or less simultaneously with the numerous ones in France and Spain, for c. fifty years the Romanelli cave had been the only Palaeolithic rock art site known in Italy. It was not until 1949 that more Palaeolithic rock art was discovered. This was when Francesca Minellono and Paolo Graziosi entered into the Cala del Genovese cave on Levanzo island in Sicily and found an incredible heritage of prehistoric paintings and engravings with a long chronology, whose most ancient phase go back to the end of Pleistocene. Soon after this discovery, up until the Eighties, the majority of the Italian upper Palaeolithic rock art sites were discovered: Luine, the Balzi Rossi caves, the Romito shelter and the Paglicci cave. In the Thirties, based on the limited data available from the Romanelli, Parpallò and La Pileta caves, Graziosi started developing the idea of a unique artistic trend that emerged between Italy and southern Spain that he later defined as the “Mediterranean artistic province”. This idea has been maintained for decades by other archaeologists though, later discoveries, both in Italy and in Europe, were demonstrating how fragile and inconsistent this theory was. As such, despite a changing frame, with important new research from European and non-European contexts, thanks to the application of chronometric methods, the analysis of pigments and the publication of consistent reviews of sites used by Graziosi himself to develop his theory, the research on the Italian rock art appeared to be stuck on the concept of the “Mediterranean artistic province”, being outside of the international debate. Therefore, the need to thoroughly revise this part of Italian heritage had become pressing in order to recontextualise what is found along the Italian Peninsula, considering the new data and the possibility of using new methodologies of documentation. To do this, some key-questions were asked from which to start to reset any further research, keeping new paths of investigation open that will involve other disciplines. A systematic approach was used to answer the following question:• Where are the sites?• What is their figurative and non-figurative palimpsest?• When was each site painted and/or engraved? In other words, what is their chronology?• What kind of relationships exist among the different sites?• What is the context into which the rock art evidence is set?• What kind of relationships may have existed between rock art and landscape?• What was the role of the Italian boot during upper Palaeolithic, based on the rock art evidence?• Can we establish any graphic differences or similarities with other Palaeolithic rock art sites? If yes, where and when do they occur?Eleven sites were selected as main review cases, according to their richness and significance from a bibliographic point of view: the Balzi Rossi (Florestano, Blanc-Cardini and Caviglione caves - Ventimiglia, Imperia), Bàsura cave (Toirano, Savona), Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Savona), Luine open air rock art sites (Rocks No. 6 and 34 - Darfo-Boario Terme, Brescia), Fumane cave (Fumane, Verona), Romito shelter (Papasidero, Cosenza), Paglicci cave (Rignano Garganico, Foggia) and the Romanelli cave (Castro, Lecce).Thanks to the fieldwork, the research on the painted and engraved walls and rocks of these sites has been thoroughly overhauled. This step has permitted new evidence to be found, the understanding of the technology of rock art creation, and defining the relationships of the superimpositions among the graphic units so as to sketch a relative chronology for the graphic activity. Moreover, the study of each context led to elaborate the best documentation strategy, evaluate any extra analysis, when and where possible, and define the preservation status of both the sites and the rock art. As an example, 3D photogrammetry was used to document inaccessible, or hardly visible rock art panels; in the Paglicci cave samples of calcite covering red pigments were collected to provide the first chronometric U/Th dating of a Palaeolithic rock art site in the Italian Peninsula; a geological survey was carried out to definitively distinguish between the glacial striations on the rocks and the anthropic marks on the Luine rocks. For easier reference, within this volume each site is described separately, introducing all the relevant aspects for the understanding of the parietal evidence: the geology, the archaeology of the site, the history of research and the preservation analysis, before getting to the final discussion. The new methodological proposal allowed for the introduction, for the first time in a systematic approach, a series of analysis and variables in the study of this Palaeolithic rock art in the Italian Peninsula: an approach which goes beyond the mere morphological and typological analysis of the figures. In this way, the review of known sites allowed for the reorganisation of all the available data to open up future avenues for investigation. Acknowledging that this prehistoric discipline is mainly a science of time, great importance has been paid to the chronological interpretations. The analysis of the palimpsests of the single panels and the stylistic comparisons assisted in better defining the timeline, though with a significant amount of uncertainty due to the lack of direct data that could further strengthen the final proposal. Undoubtedly, for some sites it was possible to recognise different phases of artistic activity: LUINE.034, Romito shelter, Caviglione, Paglicci and the Romanelli caves. However, the chronological references that can be established are only terminus ante quem o post quem that do not exclude any earlier or later art production: a fact that must be a stimulus to progress and to find new strategies to fill these gaps. To better define the time period parameters, the work focuses on those potentially diagnostic figures, above all the zoomorphic ones. Most of them must be linked to the late Epigravettian. Concerning the other graphic units, they suffer a higher degree of chronological uncertainty and can be dated to earlier periods as well. Together with the time variability, space plays another key-role. As such, considering the spatial distribution of the sites along the Italian Peninsula it is possible to note how the majority of them are highly exposed, situated fully in the open-air, or under a shelter overhang. Only three are in a cave. This is a crucial point to remember when approaching the deterioration processes that affect the rock art, i.e., the taphonomy of rock art. Moreover, it highlights how much information has been lost over time. The considerable level of exposure of both the sites and the painted or engraved surfaces has surely influenced the preservation of the rock art, providing us with an extremely partial view of this Italian heritage. Indeed, we cannot exclude that there were more paintings or engraving than we see today, but the processes of degradation affected their conservation. When viewing the use of the territory across the peninsula as a whole, there is still a large gap on the Adriatic coast, as the main concentration of rock art sites is situated on the Thyrrenian side, where we find 6 out of 10 of the sites studied. In general, the thematic and stylistic variability that emerges from the review of the rock art of the Italian Peninsula demonstrates strong links with several areas that go beyond those geographical limits determined by Graziosi. The combination of the two variables, time and space, re-establishes the image of a rock art created within long chronologies with stylistic variations and that has experienced numerous contact points with other contexts. Therefore, the Italian Peninsula cannot be conceived of as a dead-end anymore within the wider context of the Palaeolithic rock art of the Euro-Mediterranean region, but it fits perfectly within the framework into which human and cultural dynamics are expressed: a sort of bridgehead towards the areas around the Mediterranean basin and further away, reaching Britany and Belgium in the north, Azerbaijan in the east, Egypt in the south and Portugal in the west