Italian edition of La Brújula Verde reportsthat the highest prehistoric petroglyphs in Europe are located in the Lombardy region, in the Italian Alps. Scientists came to this conclusion after studying a find made back in 2017.
Superintendence of Archaeology/Lombardy Region
A series of petroglyphs found at Pizzo Tresero provide new clues about the presence of ancient man in the highlands.
It is reported that the petroglyphs at the foot of the Pizzo Tresero glacier were first accidentally noticed by a tourist traveling through the Stelvio National Park in Lombardy. The cave paintings are located at an altitude of over 3,000 meters above sea level, making them the highest prehistoric images ever found in Europe.
Since their discovery, the team has documented 11 glyphs that include geometric and spiral patterns, human figures in prayer-like poses, and an animal they believe may represent a horse. describes find Archaeology magazine.
Based on the style of the petroglyphs, scientists determined that artists carved them into the rock at various times during the Middle Bronze Age, approximately between 3,600 and 3,200 years ago.”
At the same time, researchers suggest that initially there could have been even more drawings. But they were erased by centuries of erosion and glacier movement. However, modern technologies make it possible to find rock paintings that have been erased over time and are not visible to the naked eye.
A series of petroglyphs found at Pizzo Tresero also provide new clues about the presence of ancient man in the highlands. Moreover, the study of petroglyphs unexpectedly led to another interesting discovery.
In November 2024, a 280-million-year-old fossilized ecosystem dating back to the Paleozoic era was discovered. It is so well preserved that scientists call it a “window to the past,” both biologically and archaeologically.
The territory of Russia is also extremely rich in petroglyphs, and the geography of their location is very wide: from Altai to Karelia. And the age of the drawings of ancient artists varies from 4.5 to 40 thousand years. Scientists call the places where the drawings were found scribblings.
“In Russia, the most famous drawings of ancient man are located in Karelia, on the shores of Lake Onega,” reports the Kultura.RF portal. “Here you can see petroglyphs – images carved on stones. There are more than a thousand petroglyphs on the eastern coast of the lake and the islands.”
Scientists estimate their age at approximately 5-6 thousand years, that is, the drawings were created in the Neolithic era. These images were created by different people and at different times, as evidenced by the fact that the rock paintings are scattered over an area of 20 kilometers.
The petroglyphs of the Urals are also widely known, where more than 70 writings are documented in the valleys of the Vishera, Neiva, Iset, Belaya, Tura and Tagil rivers. The most famous are the prehistoric drawings in the Kapova and Ingatievskaya caves.
The walls there are covered with images of elk and deer, less often bears, snakes, ducks and geese are found, and recently even images of camels have been discovered. In addition, Russian scientists have found that artists in the Urals created their works in much harsher conditions than Europeans, since they had to work in sub-zero temperatures.
This is probably why the paint composition of European and Ural artists differed. If in Europe craftsmen used pure natural pigments, mainly ocher, then in the Urals ocher was mixed with animal fat.
Source: rodina-history.ru
