Alpine Votive Fires and Antiquities at Rocca, Trentino Exhibit
The votive fires, found on both sides of the Alps and affecting Veneto, Tyrol, Engadine, Bavaria, and Salzburg, offer a kind of Alpine “koine” cult that Ferdinandeum di Innsbruck has been highlighting to scholars and archaeology enthusiasts for a couple of years through an exhibition. After traveling through German-speaking countries, it has now arrived in Trentino, in the halls of the Rocca.
From the late Bronze Age until the Roman era, these sites of worship provide a large collection of artifacts, including charred bones, ashes, human remains, weapons, and small bronze figurines. It is believed that the destruction of primary goods (such as food, the votive offering of animals) or prestige items (like a sword or a vase) could have served as a means for individuals or emerging elites within proto-tribes to reaffirm their roles, especially in the absence of a strictly established social hierarchy.
The Artifacts and Archaeological Evidence
Regarding the Rocca exhibition, the material includes the sword found in Arco and a group of spindle whorls discovered at San Giacomo, where some farmers were attempting to plant a vine. The original set of testimonies is supplemented by additional evidence rooted in and justified by the territory, such as the stele statues from Arco and the material from excavations at the San Martino site in Campi.
In the first case, it is more probable that these figures represent heroes rather than deities; in the second, the period involved is later than the core of the exhibition. The continuity of the worship site over the centuries, from the Roman age to the 1600s, remains equally compelling. Documents attest to the precarious condition of the small church, which in 1758 the Bishop of Trento ordered to be razed to the ground (and excavations have uncovered balustrade transennatures dating back to the 9th century).
Current Activities and Project
Throughout this summer, the Civic Museum of Riva, in collaboration with the Provincial Cultural Heritage Service, will offer a series of guided tours of the documentation center set up in the Tenenese hamlet of Pranzo and of the archaeological site of San Martino.
From the first decade of July until August 15th, a new excavation campaign at San Martino is scheduled. In the fall, until November, educational activities will be carried out in schools.