Every scene on this rock has its own interest.  This area of Rock 5 seems to specialise in Canid images.  Dogs can be recognised in Valcamonica rock art by their curled, upright tails & their extended bodies with short legs.  Wolves are depicted with a very similar canine appearance but have downward-pointing tails (see the Cemmo boulders, which have the two depictions close on the same panel).  Here on Rock 5, there are two separate packs of hounds.

My favourite figure on the rock is the very simply-drawn matchstick man warrior to the left of centre. His arms, legs and body are fundamentally just a star shape, but the addition of a basic head and a rudimentary sword & shield, plus the subtle shaping of his limbs embue him with a strong, evocative warrior stance.  Simple but very effective and artistic (to my eye anyway!).  I couldn't guess at the period, as I have not seen anything else like him elsewhere, but I would instinctively place him perhaps in the Late Bronze Age.

Valcamonica, Bedolina Rock 5 (5)

Another nice, little cameo on Rock 28.  This time a deer-hunting scene.  Two Iron-Age hunters have cornered a stag.  One plunges a spear into its side - his other hand wielding a sword.  A second hunter, not very well defined on the 3D model, stands in front of the stag holding a sword and a shield.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (2)

This portion of Rock 6 at Luine demonstates the huge timespan of the tradition of rock engraving in Valcamonica.  There are the faint lines of Epipaleolithic animal carvings; these heavily overlain by possibly Neolithic/Bronze Age cup marks & occasional rings, and 1st Century BC alphabetic inscriptions, Roman age numerals and finally, a possibly Christian era cross (refer to the annotations on the model).  This represents nearly 9000 years of human creative activity on and around this site.

Valcamonica, Luine - Rock 6 (4)

This Camunian Rose with a dancing figure below very famous image in Valcamonica rock art.  I have two excellent Valcamonica rock art guide books and both of their covers display photos of this pairing.  There are many other engravings round about them, but these two stand out due to their quality, clarity and execution.

The Camunian Rose is a very good example of the quatrefoil type.  The dancing figure below holds a sword in his right hand and a small shield in his left.  He wears a decorated helmet or headdress.  He's impeccably carved, and is of the Naturalistic style of Iron Age figure - 500-300 BC.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 24 (3)

Cemmo 11/19.  Stele in MUPRE museum, Capo di Ponte. Chalcolithic (3rd millennium BC).

Valcamonica - MUPRE, Cemmo 11/19 Stele

This figure of a dancing warrior is remarkably similar to its counterpart on Rock 24, and also two figures on another rock at Zurla, on the steep slope running down from the southern end of the Naquane rock Art Park towards Capo Di Ponte.

As is the case for all of these figures, this one holds a sword in his right hand and a small shield in his left.  He wears a decorated helmet or headdress, and exhibits an amimated, dance-like posture.  He dates from the Iron Age 'Naturalistic' period (500-300 BC), designated IV 3 in the Valcamonica chronology.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (1)

Rock 6 at Foppe di Nadro has a glacier-smoothed surface and, with around one thousand figures, is one of the most densely engraved rocks in this area.  The figures mostly date from the middle to late Iron Age.

It is possible to see all the classical themes of the Camunian rock cycle: footprints (single, coupled and some with internal decoration), human figures (warriors predominating), buildings, weapons, animals and a number of geometric symbols (such as the five-pointed star).

The small section of this rock surface represented in the 3D model presnts one of the most well-known scenes of Valcamonica rock art: two pairs of fighters.  These are of the Naturalistic Period (around 500-300 BC). The fighters are realistically represented in a dynamic posture. One couple fighting with short swords, shields and crested helms, the other engaged in a boxing match.

The group of figures below are in a simpler, more geometric form.  They look cruder but are later, around 1st century BC.

Valcamonica - Foppe di Nadro, Rock 6

Cemmo 17, 13, 7 & 23.  Stelae in MUPRE museum, Capo di Ponte. Chalcolithic (3rd millennium BC).

Valcamonica - MUPRE, Cemmo 17-13-7-23 Stelae

A huge, compass-drawn, incised circle, which is adjacent to the area shown & described in detail in model - Luine -Rock 6 (5).

Valcamonica, Luine - Rock 6 (6)

Cemmo 21.  Stele in MUPRE museum, Capo di Ponte. Chalcolithic (3rd millennium BC).

Valcamonica - MUPRE, Cemmo 21 Stele

An inscription in the 'Camunian' or 'Sondrio' alphabet, an alpine variant of a northern Etruscan alphabet.  The inscription should be read from right to left - transcribed 'ZAZIAU.'  This  shows the typical tree-shaped 'Z' sign and the flipped 'A' sign.  The introduction of writing in Valcamonica can be placed around the fifth century BC.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 23 (1)

This smooth, inclined surface is known as the 'Camunian Rose Rock' because of the high concentration of this symbol carved upon its surface.  Two forms of this forms of this motif can be seen here. The 'irregular' or 'meandering' type, which forms almost a maze -like congloration of, what might be thought of as. wrongly-shaped figures.  To the left of the model is the second form present - the 'swastika' form.  The latter represents one of the most accomplished and classic types of Camunian Rose.

Valcamonica, Luine - Rock 30

To me, a really great thing about Valcamonica rock art is that there is a chronology - it is dateable.  The styles of the figures can be fitted in to defined periods.  An immense amount of research over many years has gone into achieving this. Importantly, a huge volume of detailed, patient analyses of superimpositions has confidently revealed the relative chronologies of the different typology groups of the human figures & their associated weaponry can give reasonably certain absolute dates by comparison with firmly dated examples from excavation sites. 

Here I noted three distinctive figures of differing types, close to each other on Rock 24.  On the annotations I have given my own assessment of their typologies & given a date for each figure - which I accept, may be incorrect.  It is great fun & very rewarding trying to do this and building knowledge & experience in the process (well, if like me you like that sort of thing!).

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 24 (2)

Rock 5 is covered with many carvings, but these are clustered within a number of discrete areas which are separated by the natural folds and undulations of the surface.  Here, there is a nice group of duelling, square-bodied warrior dated to the Late Iron-Age.

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (2)

Another small scence from Rock 28.  This one is of an armed figure mounted upon a stag, dating from the Middle/Late Iron-Age.  The figure holds a sword and possibly a shield.  This is the only known mounted stag figure in Foppe di Nadro, in contrast to the nearby National Park of Naquane, which displays a number of mounted deer engravings.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (3)

This rock was long known by local inhabitants as the 'Puppet Stone' in reference to the carvings upon it.  The main facing containing most of the engravings is badly damaged, especially the lower part, which remained underground for a long time.

To date over 150 engravings have been identified, including many animals, a dagger and a ploughing scene.  The animals include; stags with large antlers, fawns, chamois with short, hooked horns, ibex with backward-fgacing horns and swine (wild boars & pigs).  The canids, depicted in groups with downward-pointing tails, are interpreted as a pack of wolves.  The cattle, without horns or tails, may represent young oxen or cows grazing.

The presence of daggers which closely resemble finds from the graveyard of Remedello Sotto, dates most of the figures to 2900-2500 BC.  A few animals depicted in a dynamic style, similar to that of figures on the Cemmo 3 & 4 stelae, may be attributed to the Bell Beaker Culture (2500-2200 BC).

Valcamonica, Massi di Cemmo - Boulder 1

Located about 15m south of Cemmo 1, this boulder has an engraved northern face.  The surface has flaked in a few places, with a loss of engravings along the right edge and central part.  Two triangular gaps at the bottom divide the rock into three portions.

The figures include animals (ibex, fawns and canids, including packs of wolves and a dog, depicted with its tail up), weapons (an axe, a halberd and several daggers), human figures, a ploughing scene and a cart.  

No superimposition of decorations has been observed on Cemmo 2, and the engravings, made with a small, are homogeneous.

The two most interesting figures are engraved on the western portion: a cart with four, disc-shaped wheels and a plough.  Both of these are pulled by pairs of oxen with long, curved horns.  The Copper Age ploughs engraved on boulders are of the 'ard' variety, well adapted to mountain soils.  

The uniform style of the entire engraved surface may be dated to 2900-2500 BC by the presence of Remedello-type daggers.

Valcamonica, Massi di Cemmo - Boulder 2

Several different periods of armed figure here.  The central, larger, square-bodied warrior wielding a sword & shield would appear to be the most recent (Late Iron Age).  He clearly overlies the orant-like armed figure above, and at right angle, to him, which is much earlier - Late Bronze Age period III D. aound 1200-800 BC.

There are two separate deer hunting scenes to either side of this model, again oriented at right angles to each other.  The figures are different from those mentioned above, and I would place them as being of an intermediate date between those two - the Schematic period of the Early Iron Age, period IV 1 (900-600BC).

(Note that the above dating is my own interpretation, and whilst it might not be spot on, I am confident of the relative chronology of the three types of figures represented here.)

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (3)

Despite the number 101 painted on the rock, this is actually Rock 104 (according to the signage). 

Apart from the Camunian Rose  & a fewother  indistinct motifs, towards the bottom right of the panel, this rock would not look out of place in one of the rock art areas of the British Isles.  It's upper surface is covered in cupmarks, a handful of which have single rings.  It is really out of character here at Luine in comparison with the other rocks in the Luine park.

There are also a couple of square-bodied human figure, of around fourth to first centuries BC, roughly contemporary with the Camunian Rose.

Valcamonica, Luine - Rock 101

The group of about thirty buildings on this rock is called ' The Village.' It is attributable to the Iron Age, 1st millennium BC.  Many sites in Valcamonica exhibit houses like these, usually in groups.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 24 (1)

This is the second 3D model of the 'Great Animal' on Rock 6 at Luine.  The other (Model Luine - Rock 6 (1)), was made from photos taken in July 2025 when viewing conditions were not at all ideal due to the strong overhead sun.  The photos on this model were taken on my second visit in November 2025, when the sun was less intense and striking the carved surfaces at a more oblique angle.  

Rock 6 has over 50 square metres of widely differing carvings from many periods.  The Great Animal is The earliest of the carvings here, and one of the earliest in Valcamonica.  The figure is generally agreed to be an elk, wounded by thrown weapons.  It is thought to date at the latest from the sixth millennium BC - elks became extinct in Valcamonica around this time.  Its collar must be considered a later 'add-on.' There are six other, much less well defined, epipaleolithic animal figures identified on Rock 6 but this example is the most visible.  The other animal figures are mostly elks but one or two may be goats.

Valcamonica, Luine - 'Great Animal' Rock 6 (3)

More figures on this very interesting rock surface.  The prominent square-bodied figure appears to have a diagonal cros pecked across his body, which would place him in the Decadent period IV 5 - the last phase of Iron Age rock carving in Valcamonica (100 BC - 100 AD).

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (4)

One of the best known sites of the Paspardo area. This small Chalcolithic (Copper Age) carving is, unusually, on a small section of a vertical rock face - unusual because it displays a design type that is more typically found on the stelae of this period (third millennium BC).

The panel is known as the Rock of the Five Daggers, although the daggers, in the area above the wavey lines, have unfortunately not resolved themselves in this 3D model (I would have needed a tall set of stepladders to get level with the surface!).  The two halberds (diagnostic of the period) and the deer to their right however, do show quite well.

Valcamonica, Capitello Due Pini - Plas (1)

A smaller surface in relation to the many very large carved rocks at Foppe di Nadro.  The rock has been extensively smoothed by glacial action.

The engravings here represent two phases of carving.  The first phast presents engravings from the Neolithic Age (4th millennium BC), with 28 praying figures, of which several can be seen here on the 3D model.  They have both schematic and curved arms.  These are contemporary with the circle motifs with a dot in the centre and two figures recognisable as halberds.

The second phase starts from the Middle IronAge and the panel is densely engraved with figures of warriors wielding swords, shields & spears.

The rock also displays some historic phase motifs, with filiforms of lines, half-circles and grids and some Medieval crosses.

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