Riparo delle Formiche Rosse
Rock art paintings
Umbria – Santa Anatolia di Narco (Perugia)
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Riparo delle Formiche Rosse rock art site
| Paintings | 11 in black colour |
| Engravings | 1 cruciforms in the surroundings of the decorated rock shelter |
| Site dimensions | 5m lenght, 5m depth, 2.5m height |
| Site orientation | South-West |
| Site altitude a.s.l. | 685m |
This site is a small fissure in the limestone cliffs of Mount Coscerno (1.684m) in the Valnerina area. The site has a triangular plan of approximately 5m length and 5m depth. There is no archaeological evidence of human occupation, except for rock art. The shelter is located near the important cross-connection itinerary that goes from the Valnerina valley toward Monteleone di Spoleto where in 1902 the famous bronze parade chariot – now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of New York – was accidentally discovered in a tomb covered by a tumulus. This itinerary is known since medieval time, but it probably follows an older route of Pre-Roman origin. The rock shelter is located halfway up the south-western slopes of the mountain relief, whose summit was occupied in pre-Roman and Roman times by an hillfort. At the foot of the cliff the Valcasana valley, a narrow river valley between Mount Coscerno and Mount Eremita, is occupied by an ephemeral lake that seasononally dries up into a small karst depression. In the short distance near the town of Scheggino, a notable spring flows on the Nera river valley. This spring is located close to the remains of pre-Roman necropolis dated to the 7th-6th century BC.
On the other side of Valcasana, along the slopes of Mount Eremita, there is another rock shelter with engravings, but research has not yet thoroughly investigated this art complex.
Find out more sites of this region in our database
Riparo delle Formiche Rosse rock art figures
Eleven black paintings have been identified in the rock shelter so far. The spatial arrangement of the rock art figures is very interesting as it seems to suggest a sort of spatial organization of the internal space: the tree-like anthropomorphic motifs are depicted on the vertical walls on both sides of the triangular fissure while two schematic anthropomorphic paintings were depicted in black colour at the vertex of the site, on the ground and in the innermost point of the rock shelter. One of the anthropomorphic figure is incomplete while the other one shows a T-shaped face and feet depicted like the claws of a bird.
Other T-shaped figures had been found in the Italian peninsula at Riparo dello Schioppo, Riparo di Grotti, and Grotta Pazienza. In these examples, which show close analogies with the so-called ídolos oculados found in the European iconographic repertoire of the Copper Age, both in rock art and on other supports. In this figure, the head or face is depicted with an arched segment with the ends facing downward, this segment is cut in the middle by a straight vertical segment. The figure is sometimes completed with the indication of eyes. This pattern recall, in a very schematic way, the combination of eyebrows and nose. Some of these anthropomorphic figures with T-shaped heads are depicted holding a curved object in their hands (possibly hatchets or sickles)./span>
References
2012
L'arte rupestre preistorica e protostorica dell'Umbria Journal Article
In: Preistoria Alpina, Museo Tridentino Scienze Naturali, vol. 46, no. II, pp. 155-163, 2012.
2007
L'arte rupestre in Italia centrale : Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo Book
Ali&no, Perugia, 2007, ISBN: 9788887594997.