Paper short abstract:

From female stelae of the Copper Age to Latin inscriptions dedicated to the Goddess Isis under Roman rule in Valcamonica, Italy, an evolving prehistoric artistic tradition seems to indicate the presence of a local cult of fertility that spans more than 3000 years.

Paper long abstract:

The echoes of a local pre-Indo-European religion reverberated for millennia in the remote alpine valley of Valcamonica, the site of one of the world's greatest collection of Rock Drawings, located just north of Lake Iseo, in northern Italy. Recurrent contents were worshipped with new expressions in a continuous iconographic line from the Copper Age until the Roman Age. The most ancient alpine rock art engravings and stelae of Valcamonica find many similarities with the traditional iconography of Isis, the main honoured deity on the Latin Inscriptions of Cividate Camuno, the administrative centre of Valcamonica under Roman rule. In the 17th century, some local sources still recall the strong veneration of Isis in Valcamonica before Christianisation. In this context, Isis Regina - Great Mother, cosmic principle, goddess of fertility and healing - could be the Roman interpretation of a prehistoric female deity of fertility. Aesthetic forms and styles changed through time, but the social value of a local devotion to a goddess of fertility persisted. The solar disc of Isis could have inspired the syncretism in Valcamonica, where we find great evidence of an ancestral worship of the Sun. The female stelae in Valcamonica's rock art will be analysed taking also into account as comparative materials prehistoric figurative expressions of religious beliefs in other parts of Europe, like the Baltic States and Scandinavia, where the cult of Sun is linked to female deities of fertility and regeneration.