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An unpublished collection of 47th vintage postcards of Cortina and surroundings, from the 20's to the 50's .
Roman inscriptions on Col Davagnino
Chapter 2 - The Age of Writing
While the three hunters are hypothetical ancestors, we have good reasons to believe that the Paleo-Veneti are almost certainly our forebears, as supported by the successful finds and excavations that are still going on at Auronzo di Cadore and elsewhere in the Veneto region. These excavations have unearthed plates written in characters synthetically called Etruscan, and the latest successful find (1999) of a stone engraved with Etruscan characters at Mondevàl, the burial site of the Mesolithic man, completes the mosaic. Add to this, the famous stone engraved with Etruscan characters, found on Mount Pore in the 19th century, just behind Mount Averau; the two stones with Etruscan inscriptions found in Feltre , in the 19th century as well, some hundred bronze objects unearthed at Lagole di Calalzo, all with engravings (in Etruscan or Etruscan-Roman), and the picture is almost complete. From further back in time date the finds with Etruscan engravings at Ovaro, east to Cadore, and at Gurina, in Carinthia, beyond Monte Croce Carnico. These sites are considered the northernmost border of the region inhabited by the people whom linguistics name as Paleo-Veneti or Venetics. An ideal circle enclosing the bowl of Cortina. To the south the area stretched over the whole Veneto region and to the west it reached as far as Verona and Vicenza, roughly on the border on Rhaetia. Since the epicentre lies at Este, site of numerous finds, this civilization is named "atestina", after this town. These people were familiar with writing and expressed themselves with written messages – not all of which have been interpreted yet – engraved on metal plates or stones, by means of an alphabet borrowed by the Etruscans. It was a boustrophedonic writing, that is from right to left. The most ancient inscriptions date from the 6th and 5th centuries BC and the most recent ones – linguistics suggest they were engraved by a "Latin" man, i.e. a man who knew both languages – date from the 1st century BC, during the Roman occupation of these territories. The people, known as Paleo-Veneti or Venetics, had already settled in the bottoms of the valleys (Feltre, Calalzo, Auronzo - where we will find the next messages in Latin) where they had their own sanctuaries. Seasonally, they used to climb up to the high pasturelands for grazing and hunting. At Mondevàl on Mount Pore, just close to the Ampezzo valley, those men left us a few written messages, possibly boundary stones (German scholars) or tombstones (Italian school). No such findings are reported at Cortina. Does it suggest that the valley was not inhabited? Absolutely. Though it might seem quite unbelievable, systematic archaeological studies have never been done in Cortina yet. Therefore it is just a question of time (and good luck).
Roman inscriptions on Col Davagnino
