Meaning in the Later Prehistoric Rock-Engravings of Mont Bégo, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Abstract

The later prehistoric rock-engravings of Mont Bégo, in the Maritime Alps on the French–Italian border, provide a rare possibility of grasping the meaning of a group in prehistoric art. Two elements in their limited repertoire of forms are daggers and halberds, which also occur as physical objects or as images in the contemporary sites of adjacent north Italy; their contexts show they are, in that area, associated with the status of adult males in society. That same interpretation is applied to the Mont Bégo figures, and this is found congruent with other motifs — especially ploughs and cattle — in the repertoire. It may explain also the other common motif, a geometrical form interpreted as a map of a prehistoric farmstead, by associating it with plough agriculture and land division. The insights developed from the study for what ‘meaning’ amounts to in the study of prehistory are set down.

Exploring gender in prehistoric Italy

“…In the art of Mont Bego, which is probably copper and early bronze age in date, and in representations in Valcamonica and Valtellina, probably of the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages, we find male figures, shown with a penis, associated with weapons, both daggers and halberds (Barfield and Chippindale, 1997). In the art of Mont Bego, which is probably copper and early bronze age in date, and in representations in Valcamonica and Valtellina, probably of the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages, we find male figures, shown with a penis, associated with weapons, both daggers and halberds (Barfield and Chippindale, 1997).…”

“…11). By contrast, the rock art sites represent exclusively male arenas, perhaps associated with male initiation rites, paralleling the use of caves for this purpose in the peninsula during the Neolithic and Copper Age (Barfield and Chippindale, 1997). The symbolism found in the rock art clearly overlaps with that found on the statue-menhirs and statue-stelae, but there are also important differences.…”

“…In one splendid example -on the stele of Caven 2 in the Valtellina -a male figure is shown waving a halberd, the handle of which appears as the continuation of the erect penis, emphasizing the connection between weapons and masculinity. Alpine rock art: engravings on Mont Bego (after Barfield and Chippindale, 1997). 11).…”

Archaeology, Property, and Prehistory

“…Although rarely considered systematically, these constructions format the landscape in ways that are easily recognized and remembered. Naming and more permanently marking features in the landscape with rock art socializes space with specific historical narratives and social functions (Barfield & Chippindale 1997, Bradley 1998a). Stone mounds, sometimes in lines, defined field boundaries among the Maya (Restall 1997).…”

New Perspectives on the Chronology and Meaning of Mont Bégo Rock Art (Alpes-Maritimes, France)

“…Despite the fact that Mont Bégo's archaeological potential is promising, archaeological excavations have been neglected in favour of a debate about possible interpretations of the rock art. Hypotheses advanced include: markers of pastoral paths (Barral & Simone 1990;, Indo-European myths (Masson 1993), cult of the Bull god (Lumley 1995), place of initiation (Barfield & Chippindale 1997), astronomical observatory (Jègues-Wolkiewez 1997;Magail 2001), proto-writing (Lumley & Échassoux 2011), etc. Of these interpretations, few are refutable and exclusive; in others words, research on Mont Bégo's rock art has tended more to an enumeration of the possible than an investigation of the probable (Bradley 1997;Chenorkian 1995).…”