Man has left a number of ancient marks in the Cinque Torri-Averau area since the early traces of seasonal settlements of shepherds and woodcutters and the alterations of the environment that followed.
An unpublished collection of 47th vintage postcards of Cortina and surroundings, from the 20's to the 50's .
Reconstruction of the "iced man" with his clothing and objects of his equipment.
Chapter 1 - Three hunters in the Pre-history Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic
Anthropologists believed that the bowl of Cortina d'Ampezzo and the nearby valley had been inhabited only in recent times. Recent archaeological discoveries (three in particular) have revolutionised these assumptions, suggesting that, much further back in time, at least since the last glaciation (some 10,000 years BC) the tribes settled around the lagoons, at the foot of the pre-Alps, used to climb up the mountains surrounding Cortina in the good season, to hunt deer and wild goat for the purpose of securing supplies, like meat to dry for the winter, hides, bones and horns to make tools.. The earliest find was the burial site of a man who lived in the Paleolithic age and died while walking up to the high pasturelands. He was buried by his tribe in a ritual manner, with a wide assortment of tools and clothing, also colour pebbles that might suggest a journey into the next world. The site is in Val Rosna, between Primero and Feltre, at the mouth of the Cismon stream, west to Cortina. Also the second ancestor, who lived in the Mesolithic age, died while going hunting on a summer day some 7,500 years ago. He was found at Mondevàl, a pastureland between Croda da Lago and Pelmo, very close to Cortina. The rich equipment of this man, ritually buried beneath a boulder, suggests a civilized tribe who probably believed in some sort of life after death. The grave, with the skeleton and all its personal effects, can be visited at the Museum of Selva di Cadore.
The third ancestor, even closer to us, is the man found in the ice of Similaun, on the col connecting Val Senales to the Inn valley. He lived around 5,000 years ago, in the Neolithic age. His body is in the archaeological museum of Bolzano. Though seemingly far from Cortina, yet distances had not the same meaning they have today, this extraordinary find is a further confirmation that our mountains were inhabited. That man basically lived on hunting and fishing, yet even gathering – in a birch case he carried some plums – and farming – his food supply included some gramineae grains. He was familiar with metal manufacturing, his axe was made of copper; he was wearing ornaments and was tattooed (possibly for health or aesthetic reasons); for the rest he was very much alike the other two men who ventured into the high pasturelands.
All three may be considered as the ancestors of the peoples who frequented the mountains in the good season and had gradually settled in the valleys.
Who were they?
Scholars suggest the Paleo-Veneti, an ancient people probably coming from the Anatolian peninsula who settled in the area south of the Alps.
Blades placed onto the skeleton’s shoulders and flint blade
Awls made of stag’s horns placed on the breast-bone and between the knees of the skeleton.
First set of equipment: a deer’s shoulder-bone, utilized.
The Tisenjoch axe is the only prehistoric axe delivered to us in perfect conditions: it consists of a handle and a copper blade. The blade was fixed to the hilt with vegetal pitch and leather strips.
The quiver of the "iced man" is not entirely preserved: the top and the shoulder-strap are missing. In the quiver were found 12 semi-manufactured arrows and 2 ready to be shot, 4 tips of stag's antlers fastened together by raffia, a bent horn tip and a ball of string.
The flint blade of the dagger was fitted into a wooden hilt. .
Images taken from : "L'uomo venuto dal ghiaccio" by A. Fleckinger e H. Steiner, published by Folio Editore, Bolzano – Vienna 1998 and Archaeologial Museum of Alto Adige
The burial-site of Mondeval de Sora after removal of the filling of the grave
First set of equipment: tools
First set of equipment: nuclei
Images taken from : "Immagini dal tempo – 40.000 anni di storia nella provincia di Belluno" Comune di Belluno, 1992
