Ancient Camunian petroglyph standing stone - 3,000 BCE

I couldn't find much information about this standing stone. Apparently it was carved and erected by the ancient Camunni tribe somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd millennium BCE. Evidently it was relocated to a museum, which appears to be the Teglio Antiquarium Tellinum (Archaeological Museum). The location was said to be Cornal, Val Camonica; although it wasn't clear as to whether or not this was the original location, or the location of the museum itself. It may be a very small village or more of a type of place name in the old language. The flat square stone, resembling an Odinic runestone, was described as an "idol statue with graffiti."


I feel a bit cheated, since this a beautiful very ancient artifact, and I want to know more about it. The "graffiti" looks something like a labyrinth, which was an important symbol to the Camunni. It may be of something else, although it's not clear. It does look very interesting and meaningful. It's at least as thought provoking as one image of an ancient Camunnian warrior doing battle with a Spartan-like helmet, sword, and shield. Remember, the Camunni weren't afraid to do battle with the Romans.

[Petroglyph standing stone in case the above link doesn't hold]


1937 National Socialist expedition to Val Camonica

The Ahnenerbe was an institute in Nazi Germany purposed to research the archaeological and cultural history of the Aryan race. Founded on July 1, 1935, by Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré, the Ahnenerbe later conducted experiments and launched expeditions in an attempt to prove that mythological Nordic populations had once ruled the world.

In 1937, the Ahnenerbe sent the archaeologist Franz Altheim and his wife, the photographer Erika Trautmann, to Val Camonica, to study prehistoric rock inscriptions. The two returned to Germany claiming that they had found traces of Nordic runes on the rocks, supposedly confirming that ancient Rome was originally founded by Nordic incomers.

Wikipedia displays the following image as an example of Camunic runes in Val Camonica. What is interesting is that--despite the fact that the Camunni were an Alpine/proto-European people, and not Teutonic--the ancient Camunic alphabet is made up of some symbols which appear to be of Teutonic origin. For example, the Life rune and the Death rune (see letter "Z"). Although some of the Norse runes actually have their origin in the Italian peninsula, those two particular runes are of Norse origin. Also, there's a type of "double-Life rune" as well (see letter "S).

If you compare the runes from the Camunic alphabet above to the Teutonic/Odinic runes, clearly some are the same. For the record, the Camunic alphabet is from the first century BCE in the Val Camonica and the Valtellina. Although it can be confusing, some of these ancient symbols moved around; perhaps via the old trading routes. Although I believe that the National Socialists got the eastern Teutonic origins--including very ancient symbology--largely correct; the idea of "Teutonic Romans" was an embarrassing falsehood. 

The Romans would seem to have been primarily a shorter, heavy-boned Alpine type with true-Mediterranean admixture. This is why the old statues didn't particularly appear to be Mediterranean; for example, with Roman noses. I use the term "Alpine" loosely, since I'm referring to a more widespread stock 3,000 years ago.

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