PAGE 1 Back StoneWatch The World of Petroglyphs · res lying on the ground with erected penis, or maybe just a case of a penis or an instrument belonging to a special ritual. The

StoneWatchThe World of Petroglyphs

Part 1 Grotto Addaura / Sicily / Italy

Fotos and text: Mario Berlussi

The World of Petroglyphs CD # 1-Copyright by StoneWatch 1998 PAGE 1

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Foothills of Monte Pellegrino, anwhere the Grotto Addaura islocated.

The three Addaura Grottoes

General view of the engravings


The Grotto Addaura

Till now just in a few of the sicilian caves and grottoes have been foundengravings or paintings. The best known engravings are those in theAddaura grotto, the minor known in the grottoes from Niscemi and thosenear Trapani and Termini-Imerese.

The Addaura Grotto with its famous late palaeolithic engravings ofhuman figures is situated only a few kilometres from Palermo, at the nor-thern slopes of Monte Pellegrino. For a sight-seeing one needs a licence,which can be achieved at the office of the Soprintendente alle Antichitanear the Museo Nazionale Archeologico in Palermo. Also for the two latePalaeolithic caves at Levanzo and Favignana a licence can be got there.

Only in one cave of the three Addaura grottoes have been found humanfigures. In comparison: At Levanzo and in the Grotto Geraci nearTermini-Imerese there can be seen human figures, which are designedwith black outline-painting.

The cave in the west at Addaura showed up some Palaeolithic finds andremains of dwarflike elephants from earlier strata.

The engravings had been discovered by chance. Americans had used thegrotto as an ammunition-deposit and in wartime they stored their bombsthere. When some of these exploded accidentally, the shock wave remo-ved some layers of a crust which had lain on the engravings. This cruststill covers most of the walls, but which is not expected to bear pictures.

Archaologically interesting strata have not been found, because the levelof the human activations once lay about three meters higher than the cur-rent level. Because the cave had been used through the times for manypurposes - place for settlement in prehistory, later as a shelter for herds-men and also for the mentioned ammunition-deposit -, one can supposethat the floor had been cleaned up many times and as a result the archae-ological strata all vanished.

The engravings are to be found at the walls in a height of about fourmeters and can only be watched from a platform.

The engravings, representing single figures, groups of humans and ani-mals, can be devided into three periods.

The first one, said to be the oldest, is characterized by simple, roughlydrawn human and animal figures, partly overlaid by deeper and morepowerful carved figures of humans and animals (mostly bovine).

The third and youngest period concerns three deeply engraved animals,which can be stylistically differentiated from the other animals represen-ted in the cave. The lines are more clearly and marked. This difference instyle makes it highly probable that the engravings belong to dependantsof different cultures. One of this engravings lays over one figure, belon-ging to a group of humans standing a bit aside and belonging to the firstperiod.

Most interesting in the sociological aspect are the figures of the secondperiod. They give us an imagination of the life of the people, which isvery rare in Palaeolithic art.

In a scene which is not easy to interpret, one sees a group of hunters and/or warriors. This could concern a ritual dance, with two ithyphallic man,lying partly on each other and looking in different directions.

At least eight other figures, wearing a kind of birdhead-mask, stand ordance around the two man on the floor. This scene may represent a rite ofinitiation, of penance or fertility. Under this group of figures a hunter ischasing a deer.

The style of the engravings is secure and sensual, full of vitality and move-ment. Very strange however is the absence of hands and feet at the humanfigures.

Trying to link these with other Palaeolithic paintings, one has to recogni-ze, that the first two groups are very similar to figures at Levanzo. Becausethere are shown human figures with raised arms, there have also been assu-med some relations to Northafrica. But those pictures are probably later.

This assumption is supported by comparison with very similar figures inGebel-el-Akhdar: one link of a chain connecting sites from Tunis toTripolis. They are said to belong to the 6. or 7. millenium B.C., and if theAddaura-engravings are really comparable in style and time, then couldthe oldest, more primitive engravings from there even belong to the veryearly Neolithic.

In other caves from Sicily groups of more simple engraved lines had beenfound, not appearing in Addaura. They could be related to the so-calledCapsien-traces, which were proven by C14-dating to belong to the 7. mil-lenium B.C. For instance the Grotta Racchio all'Isolidda (Trapani) showsanimalfigures as well as simple engraved lines, which most probably donot come from the same time.


These are antlers

Unfinished animal jumpingGrazing animal, antlers are nearly inthe same position as above

Incomplete ani-mal, without head

body

unfinished animal, head andforelegs are to be seen

If one move the animal without a head hori-zontal and put it against the animal without abody, both could match, the proportions arethe same.

The detail above, taken to coloured pie-ces, shows three views: antlers, humantorso and line pattern.


The single parts, taken to colored pieces, show animals on the leftand humans on the right side.

Foto 1. Dominating the scenery a man is standing on his left leg,holding a stick over his left shoulder. His left foot has been put bythe engraver near the neck of a deer standing at the right side of thepicture (see foto 3). Typical for the whole scenery is the birdlikehead and the hoodformed hairstyle.


Foto 2. This scene could concern a female person, becausethe posture is more feminine and more elegant comparedwith the man on foto 1. But it could also be a boy, who turnsaway from the general scene in a posture of pride.

Foto 3. Likely an engraving belonging to the 2. or 3. period, showing a youngdeer. On his back the foot from the figure of foto 1.


Foto 4. Right above one can see a female figure with a filled sack on its shoul-der. Clearly one can see the breast and stomach of a pregnant woman. Thisfigure belongs without doubt to the 2. period, because her characterization isdifferent compared to the other styles: this is recognizable mostly in the formof her head, which is not a birdhead. The two figures in the middle of the pic-ture are often said to belong to the 2. period, whereas the stylization is verycomparable to the figures of the 3. period. Should these two figures belong tothe 2. period, one has to suppose that the engravers have used the birdhead-figures for a long time. The two horses down at the left side belong to the 2.period.


Foto 5. This is the main scene of the engravings. Two male figu-res lying on the ground with erected penis, or maybe just a caseof a penis or an instrument belonging to a special ritual. The menpress themselves with both arms up from the ground, showing abowed back. Around them are standing other figures, some withraised arms, probably a posture of a dance, and other figures withtheir faces turned away. Very much could be interpreted into thisscene. Because of this the explanations only refer to the style ofengraving. Some of the figures again show the typical birdhead,the hoodlike hairstyling and the erected penis. All these are fromthe 3. period.


Foto 6. Expansion of the two figures lyingon the ground. Clearly one can see the two"cases for penises". But if one follows theline of the cases, this could also be a kindof piercing of the body. Then, if this caseis a wedge, so this wedge enters the bodyat the anus and reappears at the region ofthe penis.The upper figure has the typical birdhead,but here without the hoodhairstyling, thelower figure seems to have put a kind ofsack or bag over its head.


Foto 7 and 8. Enlargements of the engravings of the 2. period


Foto 9 and 10. Enlargements of the engravings of the 2. period


Foto 11. A bovine animal in a hard schematically style, to be seen on the general view below.

Foto 12. A bovine animal in anotherschematically style, on the general view

to be seen on the left side.


General view of the engravings


Engraving of the 2. period: horse (Equus asinus hydruntinus) Engraving of the 2. period

Probably further engravings of the 2. period.


Compared to engravings in the Grotto Niscemi.

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PAGE 1 Back StoneWatch The World of Petroglyphs · res lying on the ground with erected penis, or maybe just a case of a penis or an instrument belonging to a special ritual. The