Mont Bégo
| Mont Bégo | ||
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 Mont Bégo, in the foreground rock art in Fontanalba |
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| height | 2872 m | |
| location | Department Alpes-Maritimes , France | |
| Mountains | Maritime Alps | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 4 '19 " N , 7 ° 27' 5" E | |
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| Normal way | Hiking trail from Refuge des Merveilles over the south ridge | |
The 2872 meter high Mont Bégo (also Monte Bego ) in the Alpes-Maritimes ( Maritime Alps or Sea Alps ) near Saint Dalmas-de-Tende is a mountain near the Italian border in France . With around 35,000 individual images, the region that surrounds it is, next to Valcamonica in Italy, the largest closed archaeological site of rock art in the southern half of Europe.
Due to its exposed location, it is a panoramic mountain, from the summit of which you can look over the Mediterranean Sea to the mountains of Corsica when the weather is clear . It is a ski touring destination in winter and spring.
History of the Mont-Bégo region
Main article: Vallée des Merveilles
The Mont Bégo has been climbed by people since the Bronze Age , who began around 2000 BC. Images carved into the rock, which are of the highest scientific importance today. The pictures come from a time when people had already switched to agriculture and livestock for thousands of years . They can be found at an altitude of between 2300 and 2500 meters on the banks of Lac Long Supérieur. Due to the weather conditions, they are buried under snow eight months a year.
Names such as Val d'Enfer (Valley of Infernos), Cime du Diable (Summit of the Devil), Vallée des Merveilles (Valley of Miracles) or , show that the area is a region that has long been tainted with many myths la Valmasque (Valley of the Sorceress or Valley of the Witch, from the Provencal la Masca ). Herodotus referred to the inhabitants of southern France and northern Italy who left drawings on Mont Bégo as Ligurians . Their inscriptions were also found on the mountain. Later, Christian signs were added alongside the anthropomorphic representations of the Bronze Age.
Between 1927 and 1942, Carlo Conti of the Archaeological Authority of Piedmont (the mountain belonged to Italy until 1947) mapped and cataloged the rock art. In addition, he found pottery from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the Gias del Ciar ( Shepherd's Farm of the Mice) . The pictures, which have their own style, show u. a .:
- anthropomorphic figures - adoring or holding symbols up, plowing (partly ithyphallic )
- Devices - daggers (halberds), yokes , crooks, plows , sickles , wagons
- Houses or fields, web-like structures
- Symbols - eye motifs, concentric circles, wheel symbols, spirals, bull horns
- Animals - oxen in front of the plow, as single, double or quadruple teams (usually shown from above) goats or ibex
- Weapons - knives
Since 1967, the team headed by Professor Henry de Lumley , who is also the scientific director of the Musée des Merveilles in Tende , has been researching the finds.
The sites of rock carvings and the Fontanalba valley (White Spring) are located in the inner, specially protected zone of the Mercantour National Park . The rock carvings are protected by national park guards. Only certain hiking routes are freely accessible to the public in the Vallée des Merveilles and Fontanalba, others can be visited on guided tours.
Mont Bégo
literature
- Henry de Lumley , Lucien Clergue: Fascinant Mont Bego. Montagne sacrée de l'âge du Cuivre et de l'âge du Bronze ancien . Edisud, Aix-en-Provence 2002, ISBN 2-7449-0346-9 .