The database has been prepared by the Camunian Centre of Prehistory Studies in order to digitalize, manage and make it possible to consult on the internet all the data and records of the archives of the Camunian Centre in Capo di Ponte concerning world rock art.

To consult it, browse the website of the Camunian Centre of Prehistory Studies: www.ccsp.it

The project has collected and catalogued – the processing of the data is still going on – documents related to the earliest iconographic manifestations produced by Man, whose discovery and gathering is the result of hundreds of archaeological expeditions led by Professor Anati and by the CCSP archaeologists all over the world.

The materials (including photographic, cartographic, etc.) are provided with consultation sheets.

As of today, it is possible to consult the data related to the prehistoric rock art of Valcamonica: photos, colour slides,

photographic prints, digital photos, blueprints, hundreds of reports and maps of the rock art sites in Valcamonica.

The database has been created in order to answer to different purposes of use, which range from the simple “tourist” aim to the information needed for research and advanced study. It is possible to access the material in multiple ways: there is the simple consultation with no filter, but also the possibility to use the archive in gradually more sophisticated levels, according to the needs of the user and under the authorization of the CCSP. We conceived the access to the archive as a set of stairs: starting from the lowest step, it is possible to consult with total freedom all of the sheets with photos and reliefs, then at a higher level – including the data with geographical reference, etc. – it is necessary to register, and finally the last step will also allow to add new data online.

The Project – which took off in 2008 – is part of the regional operative project POR Programma Operativo Regionale FESR 2007-2013 Asse IV “Natural and cultural heritage protection and improvement” – Project identification code 1133 – area integrated project, named “Along the ridge: itineraries across nature and culture for the integrated development of Valcamonica”

Following the exhibition • P • I • T • O • T • I • Digital rock art from ancient Europe, the “3D PITOTI” project – which has been supported and partially financed by the European Union – is an innovative and experimental work aimed at the advanced documentation of rock art and at the realization of three-dimensional models of the engraved images. The three-dimensional representation is a well-known technology already widely used in many fields of production. In Valcamonica, it has found an additional innovative employment in the rock art field.

Our partners in this new venture are the University of Nottingham (UK), St. Pölten
University of Applied Sciences (Austria), Cambridge University (UK), Bauhaus University of Weimar (Germany), Graz University of Technology (Austria) and ArcTron 3D GmbH (Germany). Our team is composed of archaeologists, IT experts and pedagogues, who will work to the interdisciplinary project over the next three years.

The project will allow to see, analyze, study and handle the Valcamonica rock engravings also in their three-dimensional aspect. It will make possible to create 3D computer models of the territory, the rocks and of each grapheme, which will permit, among others, to shift images in the space and to get closer to them in order to observe and study the details. Also, we will be able to physically turn the computer models into 3D, so that we will have genuine “plastic models” of the surveyed and scanned areas which can be used in teaching, museum exhibitions or just shown to the public audience.

The scanner surveys will be completed by aerial shooting of the environment which surrounds the engravings, in order to provide the rock with the correct setting within the landscape where it is placed.

Further news will soon follow.