Incisioni Rupestri English
News 16-2018 - VALTELLINESE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE - Rock Engravings in Val d'Arigna - Author Stefano Pruneri 
On June 29, 2018 a reconnaissance was carried out by the writer
in Val d'Arigna (pic.1), in the municipality of Ponte in Valtellina (SO),
to document an engraved boulder found by Arch. Gianmario Bonfadini of Sondrio
on the eastern side of the valley (pic.2) upstream of the locality Baite Moretti
(1,456 m s.l.m.), near the path that goes up to Campei
and from here to the Pesciola Pass (1,806 m s.l.m.) (1).
The tabular boulder, which emerges among the rhododendrons to the limit
of a stainwooded has quadrangular shape and orientation
from NE to SO (max length: 0.67 m, width: 0.61 m, h visible: 0.15 / 0.21 m).
Its upper surface, slightly inclined towards O, appears
completely covered with incisions (pics 3-4-5) made with a
graffito, only partially hidden by lichens: numerous threadlike signs
they form a dense network within which they stand out, next to some
linear furrows wider and deeper, different quadrangular motifs, cross-shaped
and stelliforms enclosed within circles (in some cases enhanced by
micro-cells engraved at the ends of their temples), as well as some
'leafy' elements; other filiform incisions are partially visible
at the eastern flank of the boulder.
The above types are compared, limiting the analysis to the slope
gold-bico near Val d'Arigna, with the incisions of the cliff
history of Le Biorche in Piateda (2) and with those of Paiosa (Boffetto)
above Sazzo (3), the latter found under a thick layer of plaster
in the Oratory of San Rocco and chronologically ascribed to the Middle Ages.
In addition, several concentrations have been identified near the boulder
of curvilinear stones (pic. 6), interpreted as remains
of dry wall structures referable to a large enclosure of shape
quadrangular, whose trend has been identified during the reading phase
and interpretation of the zenithal aerial photographs of the area (pic. 7).
This enclosure, along the perimeter of which are visible at least two anomalies of shape
quadrangular (remains of huts, stall?), reaches a maximum length
from NE to SO of 90 m, for a width of about 71 m; it can be interpreted preliminary as bàrech,
used for cattle, while his exact chronology must still be determined.
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(1) We thank Arch. Gianmario Bonfadini for the precious information
and for active participation in the recognition phase.
(2) PIERLUIGI ANNIBALDI, MARIO GIOVANNI SIMONELLI, Le Biorche (Piateda): historiated cliff,
in Notiziario of the Valtellinese Archaeological Institute, n. 9, 2011, pp. 1-10.
(3) idem, pp. 115-116.
Texts and photos property of author of this article.