The rock carvings of Bego. Research on the status and interpretations of protohistoric petroglyphs.
CNRS Editions| N° d'inventaire | 31212 |
| Format | 16.5 x 23 |
| Détails | 515 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2024 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782271149008 |
In the heart of Mercantour (Alpes-Maritimes), approximately 80 km north of Nice, the site of Mont Bego contains, between 1,900 and 2,935 m above sea level, one of the most remarkable cultural heritages of the Alpine arc.
More than 100,000 protohistoric engravings have been recorded there, including 40,000 figurative ones: the Sorcerer, the Tribal Chief, Christ and the Dancer are just a few of the masterpieces of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages (3300 to 1800 BC). Everywhere, horned heads appear, bovids from a vanished world, bow and axe bearers in a readily good-natured style, daggers, but also geometric motifs, reticulate patterns – watercourses, fields? –, series of cupules, whose organization and meaning remain enigmatic.
Are these petroglyphs graffiti, symbolic, pictographic, or already ideographic, or even syllabo-graphic inscriptions? Can we consider them as pre-writing, proto-writing, or already writing? What are their symbolic meanings, their ritual roles? What do they tell us about the economic concerns, cosmogonic myths, symbolic thought, and cultural traditions of the pastoral and agricultural peoples of the southern Alps in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC? These are questions that Henry de Lumley and his team, who have been studying the site for over fifty years, are attempting to answer by presenting and analyzing exceptional documentation here.
In the heart of Mercantour (Alpes-Maritimes), approximately 80 km north of Nice, the site of Mont Bego contains, between 1,900 and 2,935 m above sea level, one of the most remarkable cultural heritages of the Alpine arc.
More than 100,000 protohistoric engravings have been recorded there, including 40,000 figurative ones: the Sorcerer, the Tribal Chief, Christ and the Dancer are just a few of the masterpieces of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages (3300 to 1800 BC). Everywhere, horned heads appear, bovids from a vanished world, bow and axe bearers in a readily good-natured style, daggers, but also geometric motifs, reticulate patterns – watercourses, fields? –, series of cupules, whose organization and meaning remain enigmatic.
Are these petroglyphs graffiti, symbolic, pictographic, or already ideographic, or even syllabo-graphic inscriptions? Can we consider them as pre-writing, proto-writing, or already writing? What are their symbolic meanings, their ritual roles? What do they tell us about the economic concerns, cosmogonic myths, symbolic thought, and cultural traditions of the pastoral and agricultural peoples of the southern Alps in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC? These are questions that Henry de Lumley and his team, who have been studying the site for over fifty years, are attempting to answer by presenting and analyzing exceptional documentation here.