Parco Naturale Regionale di Bric Tana

The Rock Engravings in Biestro

The outer edge of the area interested by the presence of rock engravings seems to be in Biestro, on the summit of Bric Gazzaro, along a ridge pointed towards east-west and characterized by a sandstone outcrop made of very thin grain of compact texture. Here, the area of the rock engravings is delimited, at its ends, by two big cupels engraved in the platforms of the rocky bank; both have been carefully engraved and are deep and well finished. They were both covered by a thick soil stratum and were thus unknown.
On the summit of the ridge there is the most ambiguous element of the whole rock engraving area: the highest platform of the sandstone bank, covered with mould, is longitudinally streaked by a deep natural fissure; at its end, almost to close it, four big egg-shaped pebbles were vertically driven.
Westernmost, there is a platform of modest size on which there is a sequence of eleven engraved cupels arranged in a circle; the inner part of the circle delimited by the cupels is hollow and forms a sort of circular basin of about forty centimeters of diameter.

The Boulders of the Crosses

A second group of engravings is situated on the opposite ridge of Bric della Costa: here, close to a cart road following an ancient medieval itinerary linking Finalese to Cairo and Langhe, you can see the "boulder of the crosses": a sandstone platform which had been probably placed in a horizontal position; now, the platform is placed in a vertical position, slightly inclined towards the south, with the engraved surface facing the edge of the track.
The abrasion of the wheel hubs of the carts has considerably damaged the lower part of the boulder: for this reason, eventual engraved signs are here illegible; the engravings that have remained in the upper part are identified as Christian crosses, deeply engraved with a large-blade chisel or with a metal point scratching the rock several times.

The Boulder-Altar in loc. Colla

A further demonstration of the strong presence of rock engravings is represented by isolated engravings of small size we can find here and there; in some cases we can notice the presence of remains of late engravings aimed at exploiting the sandstone for practical uses: these engravings could therefore be misleading. However, the big engraved boulder placed not far from the small church of S. Anna and S. Lucia at Colla Pass seems to dispel any doubt: about one meter high, one meter and twenty centimeters wide, the upper flat surface of this boulder is characterized by a sequence of eleven deeply engraved cupels, whose diameter goes from six to eight centimeters. The arrangement of these cupels reveals that the authors knew cardinal points, since they have a radial arrangement and converge towards the center of the boulder; moreover, their arrangement recalls a formation on a chessboard.

The Menhirs in Millesimo

The presence of menhirs in Millesimo is known since a lot of time, but the acceptance of their identity has been questioned for years, according to a theory - rather weak in arguments - which denied the possibility of a megalithic presence in Liguria.
The menhir in Tramonti, the one of Piani di Invrea in Varazze, and the stele of Triora were already known. The menhirs in Millesimo are three, a few meters one from the other and dominating the valley below; the biggest one is two-meter high and seems to be driven into the ground; the other two, smaller in size, lay on a sandstone base.
They all seem to come from a sandstone wall behind them, from which they were probably extracted to be placed where they now stand.

The archaeological site is situated in a doline at about 500 meters above sea level, whose swallow hole consists of a natural cavity, known as "Tana dell'Orpe" or, better, "Tana della Volpe". The area is dominated by hills facing the Bormida Valley of Millesimo, and is known from a naturalistic point of view for the superficial and underground karstic phenomena characterizing it and involving calcarenite rocks dating back to the Oligocene period (Formazione di Molare), giving origin to circular depressions, called dolines, and to caves. The territory of Bormida Valley is rich in evidences demonstrating the presence of man since prehistoric times, mainly consisting of finds collected during the previous century by Father Ighina di Carcare. They are axes made of smoothed stone coming from the surroundings, that is from Cosseria, Cairo Montenotte, Cengio, Rocchetta Cengio, Rocchetta Cairo, Roccavignale, Plodio. They usually date back to the Neolithic Age and are linked to the deforestation activity. However, no archaeological settlement had been located until that moment. The site which has been discovered on Bric Tana represents an exception both as far as the local prehistory is concerned and as far as the middle Bronze Age settlements in the open air in Liguria are concerned. Therefore, it gives the opportunity to better define the cultural facies of this period, a facies that had been linked only to scarce material found within some caves of Finalese.

Millesimo: Historical Outline

The area of Millesimo was already interested by human settlements in prehistoric times, as demonstrated by the recent finds of the settlement which has been discovered in Bric Tana. According to recent research activities, the settlement dates back to a period going from 1700 to 1200 BC. Remember that in 1700 BC, middle Bronze Age in the European area, Egypt was experiencing the fortification of the eastern area of the Nile Delta and the building of Karnack sanctuaries; when the site of Bric Tana was abandoned, in 1200 BC, Egypt was experiencing the 19th dynasty and the building of Luxor and Karnak temples.

• The History (Italian text)
• The Napoleonic Museum (Italian text)