Le incisioni rupestri di Manzano, loc. Rampion (Trento): segnalazione e analisi preliminare del complesso iconografico

Rock engravings at Manzano-Rampion (Trento): report and preliminary analysis of the iconographic complex. Abstract: In the southernmost part of the figurative area of Bondone-Monte Stivo (Pedergnana, Cavulli 2021), in Val di Gresta just below the village of Manzano, at an altitude of 610 m, there is a vertical limestone wall, oriented to ESE, characterized by a reddish-yellow patina, localized signs of superficial soot and naturally sheltered by the slightly overhanging rocks. The documentation of the rock has seen contact drawings, frottage, topographic surveys, photography and photogrammetry for the creation of 3D models, orthophotos and contour lines. The reliefs were overlayered by georeferencing and the final interpretation, therefore the vectorization, followed a careful analysis of the different surveys of the signs. This was especially true for those figures of dubious interpretation, for all the overlaying relations and, in particular, for the graffiti technique which is the most difficult to identify. The quite articulated wall is heavily tapped by the hammer and marked by the graffiti of metal tools, as well as being marked by pencil annotations. The figures represented on the vertical rock walls can be mostly referred to a period from Late Middle Ages to Modern Age: cruciforms, circles, writings, dates; peculiar to these rocks are instead the zoomorphic, phytomorphic, billhooks, lattice, meandering and phi or schematic shapes are in common with other sites. The motifs such as the so-called shield-shaped ones (symmetrical figures with respect to the vertical axis, with an oval in the centre and curling decorations both in the lower and upper lateral parts), the anthropomorphic ones (with a headdress or a long feather) characterize and distinguish the site. As already seen for the Pianaùra and Nago-Corno sites, the overlapping of some distinct figures and executive techniques allow the recognition of different historiative phases and/or the hands of different authors. The hammer marks (fine, large and medium) play with the chromatic contrast created by the removal of the superficial yellowish-red patina. Taking advantage of the same chromatic contrast, the graffiti technique is also common and easy to read. The theme of the graffitied ships is certainly peculiar of the site, with pointed prows and squared sterns. It is probably the description of Venetian galleys or frigates of the fifteenth century which were transported by land from the Adige Valley to Lake Garda; the so-called galeas per montes. Rampion, together with Pianaùra, is the largest and most articulated engraved complex in the region with a variety of representations and references that deserves to be studied in its meaning, chronology and stratification of signs.