Rock Art at Bedolina
Bedolina is famous mainly for the 'Rock of the Map' even though a lot of nearby rocks display on a large scale the same subject.
The area is relatively small and stretches on the small glacial terrace overlooking Seradina and the Capo di Ponte village beneath.
What the 'Maps' Are
The carved 'maps' (or topographic composition) are made of an ensemble of quadrangular and oval elements almost always on a background of well ordered lines of small cup-marks (small semi-spherical hollows, like dots, with a diameter of few centimetres) and united among them by zigzagging lines to create extensive and variegated geometries.
The Traditional Interpretation
Since they were found those figures have been considered like the representation of the surrounding areas and thus, with this perspective in mind, they should depict schematically the worked fields, paths or streams, housings, fortified or terraced areas and so on.
The aim of these intricated figures should be to connect the sacredness of the land and its repartition, so that by engraving it on the rocks would be a way to grant the favour of the deities , avoiding bloody conflicts among the different communities living and working on these lands.
A New Thrilling Discover...
This interpretation gets richer and at the same time more complicated today thanks to what has been found during the preparation for the Park opening (September 2005). A new, big rock all engraved just a few metres west from the Map.
The rock, with more than 50 square metres of decorated surface is, as for now, the biggest in the area and second only to the rock n.12 in Seradina I. Hundreds of figures (warriors, animals, etc.) are mixed with a wide range of geometrical elements similar to the ones found on the Map nearby to create an intricated image.
Since the surface is not overlooking the valley beneath, but it is a little bit in the back and quite hidden, now the scholars are faced with a new puzzle: what do these intricated geometrical composition really represent?