Shepherds Who Write: Pastoral graffiti in the uplands of Europe from prehistory to the modern age

Description

In a number of significant sites of the vast ancient pasturelands of the Old World, generations of wandering shepherds have left their testimony in the form of graffiti drafted on the rocks, sometimes in their tens of thousands, over a period of hundreds of years from ancient to modern times. The phenomenon is a conspicuous one, and has considerable significance for two reasons. On the one hand, the study of such pastoral graffiti may convey fresh ethnoarchaeological information as to the circumstances of the pastoral activities and the pastoral economy of the past. On the other hand, these signs, which can be often fully alphabetic as well as drawing upon ancient symbolic repertoires, can be of some aid in the interpretation of rock art as a whole genre of human expression, and projected back, in their significance and their modes of appearance, the earliest times of prehistory. front cover Of Related Interest Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface Introduction. Shepherds who write. A new frontier for ethnoarchaeology Bibliography 1. Petroglyphs and graffiti in the Syunik highlands/Armenia – summer pasture for thousands of years 1.1. Rock art and geology in the Syunik high steppe 1.2. Depictions, distribution and presumable age of the petroglyphs 1.3. Transhumance and highland pastoralism during the course of time 1.4. Traces of shepherds and flocks/herds in Syunik 1.5. Trying the big picture: Land use, exploitation and rock art as a part of the pastoral life Acknowledgements Bibliography 2. Caves and shepherds’ engravings on the Majella mountains 2.1. The places of the engravings 2.2. Interpreting the engravings 2.3. A particular representation Bibliography 3. Trial of the distribution of the shepherds’ writings in the Mont Bego region (Tende, Alpes-Maritimes, France) 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Description 3.3. Postulate 3.4. Methodology 3.5. The distribution of historical and pastoral engravings 3.6. Conclusion Bibliography 4. Moving beyond the Bego God 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Presentation of the site 4.2.1. Geographical, geological and geomorphological contexts 4.2.2. Archaeological furniture and palaeoenvironmental data 4.2.3. Corpus and chrono-cultural attributions of prehistoric engravings 4.3. Historiography 4.3.1. Hypothesis no. 1: ex-voto and/or a sacred ‘stone-book’? 4.3.2. Hypothesis no. 2: pasture boundaries and/or pastoral path markings? 4.3.3. Hypothesis no. 3: the marks of male rites of passage? 4.4. Critical analysis 4.4.1. Recording methodology 4.4.2. Use of the chrono-cultural context and apprehension of diachrony 4.4.3. The qualitative, the quantitative, and comparisons proposal 4.5. Discussion 4.5.1. The pastoral function of the site 4.5.2. Engraving in modern alpine pastoral universe 4.5.3. Back to the hypothesis of male rites of passage 4.6. Conclusion Acknowledgments Bibliography 5. Igniting fire under mobile conditions and other Late Neolithic–Bronze Age shepherding traces 5.1. Introduction Acknowledgements Bibliography 6. Rock art in relation to pastoral villages in medium and high-altitude sites, in Valcamonica and in the Alps 6.1. Introduction 6.2. The relationship between man and environment was economic but was, most importantly, religious 6.3. The expressions of man in the Alps 6.4. Institutionalised ‘language’ and ‘minor manifestations’ 6.5. Conclusions Bibliography 7. Pastoral Graffiti in the Val Grande National Park and in the areas of Natural Parks of Ossola Valley. Results of a first mapping 7.1. Geography and environment of the mapped areas 7.2. Inscribed surfaces and techniques 7.3. Conclusions Bibliography 8. Pastoralism and quarrying: possible typological divergences in the production of historical rock art in accordance with the sites intended use 8.1. Camuna historic rock art 8.2. The function of historical etchings 8.3. The Camuni sites 8.3.1 Campanine di Cimbergo 8.3.2 The Monticolo di Darfo 8.3.3 Archaeological area of Pisogne and Piancamuno 8.3.4 Other minor sites 8.4 ‘Schematic’ and ‘figurative’ rock art: a reading proposal Bibliography 9. Beyond cup-marks: Writings, engravings and ethnography in Val Malenco: a first glimpse (Sondrio, Italy) 9.1. Introduction 9.2. Geography of Val Malenco 9.3. Settlements: Contrade and Quadre 9.4. Mines, lathes and rock engravings 9.5. Writings and engraved signs within the Contrade 9.5.1. Monograms, dates and crosses in the Contrade 9.5.2. Devotion 9.5.3. Mountain pastures, woods and property rights 9.5.4. Cup-marks 9.5.5. Other engravings 9.6. Writings on a soapstone oven: a unicum 9.7. The Ca’: a permanence? 9.8. Horns on barns: ancient protection for hay and crops 9.9. Conclusions Bibliography 10. Ethnoarchaeology of pastoralism in Valcamonica high pastures 10.1. Introduction (JB, MM) 10.2. The area of study (JB) 10.3. Methodology (JB) 10.4. Results (JB) 10.4.1 The structures 10.4.1.1. Bait 10.4.1.2. Enclosures 10.4.1.3. Shelters 10.4.1.4. Stone mounds 10.4.1.5. Other structures 10.4.1.6. Chronology 10.4.2. Transformation of the landscape and resource exploitation (JB) 10.5. Spatial analyses (JB) 10.6. Pastoralism and rock art (JB) 10.7. Comparison with the pastoral structures in the Lessini highlands (MM) 10.7.1. The areas of study 10.7.2. Breeders’ houses 10.7.3. Shelters 10.7.4. Enclosures 10.8. Final remarks (JB, MM) Bibliography 11. Pastoralism without writing? The case of Monti Lessini 11.1. Introduction 11.2. The Lessini highlands: a pastoral world without graffiti 11.3. The Illasi high valley: graffiti from a marginal landscape 11.4. The Agno-Leogra ridge: graffiti from a minery district 11.5. Discussion Bibliography 12. Compass-made circle engravings from Giau Pass and Mondeval (S. Vito di Cadore, Dolomites, Veneto region, NE Italy) 12.1. The project and the area 12.2. The method 12.2.1. Historical data collection 12.2.2. Survey strategy and methods 12.2.3. Total archaeology and multiscale approach 12.2.4. Data management and elaboration 12.3. Results: human activities in the uplands 12.3.1. The circles and other engravings 12.3.2. Compass-made circle engravings 12.3.3. Circles iconography 12.3.4. Locational patterns and the landscape around the circles 12.4. Analogues 12.5. Discussion 12.6. Conclusions Acknowledgements Bibliography 13. A painted mountain: the figurative rock art of the shepherds of the Fiemme Valley 13.1. The writings of the shepherds 13.2. The writings database 13.3. Writings and drawings 13.4. The symbols of the valley floor 13.5. The symbols of the mountain 13.5.1. The animals 13.5.2. The domestic animals 13.5.3. The wild animals 13.5.4. The deer 13.5.5. The fantastic animals 13.6. Discussion: an interpretative model 13.7. Conclusion Bibliography 14. A sign for every shepherd, for every shepherd a family: The signs of the house in the inscriptions of the shepherds of Mount Cornón in Val di Fiemme 14.1. Introduction about the writings 14.2. Process 14.3. Discussion of data 14.4. Conclusions 14.4.1. Successive steps Bibliography 15. The symbol of the cross on the rocks of Mount Cornón in the Fiemme Valley 15.1. Introduction 15.1.1. The context of the writings 15.1.2. Writings and religion 15.2. The symbol of the cross 15.2.1. Chronology of the symbol 15.2.2. Spatial distribution 15.2.3. Position of the cross in the writings 15.3. The Christogram 15.3.1. Chronology of the symbol 15.3.2. Position of the Christogram in the writings 15.3.3. Typology 15.3.4. Symbol and sentences 15.4. The Sacred Heart 15.4.1. Chronology of the symbol 15.4.2. Position of the Sacred Heart in the writings 15.4.3. Typology 15.5. The Monogram of Mary 15.5.1. Chronology of the symbol 15.5.2. Typology 15.5.3. Symbol and sentences 15.6. Other representations of the cult 15.6.1. Objects 15.6.2. Churches 15.7. Conclusions: the religion of the shepherds Acknowledgements Bibliography 16. The mountain and the cross as centre of the maso 16.1. Written landscape, milèsimi and calvari 16.2. Where? Zooming into the various spatial scales 16.3. When? Long term and singular events 16.4. What? Origins, shapes and ‘behaviour’ of the symbol 16.5. Who? Between autonomous builders and specialists 16.6. Why? Improvised answers Acknowledgements Bibliography Back cover