Rock Engravings National Park of Naquane

Established in 1955, this was the first Italian archaeological park. It serves to protect and make available for public visits one of the most important groups of rocks with prehistoric and proto-historical engravings in Valle Camonica and is the focal point of the network of rock art parks that has grown up since the 1970s.
The park covers an area of over 14 hectares in Naquane locality, on the eastern side of Valle Camonica, at an altitude of between 400 and 600 m.
It contains 104 engraved rocks, in a setting dominated by chestnut, fir, beech and hornbeam, and crossed by the ancient road between Paspardo and Nadro.

On the extensive surfaces of the outcropping purple-grey coloured Permian sandstone (“Verrucano Lombardo”), smoothed and shaped by glaciers, the valley’s ancient inhabitants engraved images - both figurative and symbolic - related to their everyday lives and their spiritual world.
The engravings were executed by striking the rock surface with a hammerstone (percussion technique) or, less frequently, by making grooves with a pointed tool (linear engraving).
Most of the Naquane engravings date from the Neolithic (5th millennium BC) to the Iron Age (1st millennium BC). The phenomenon was particularly common during the latter period, when the valley was inhabited by the Camunni, although historical-era engravings, Roman and modern, are also present.
The road leading to the park passes by the sites of Dos de l’Arca and Le Sante, finds from which may be seen in the Capo di Ponte museum (MUPRE).

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