Ligabue Magazine 47

18.00

Second semester 2005
Year XXIV

When did art come into being? Around 40,000 years ago according to the experts. That was when in various areas of the planet there was a spectacular outburst of works of art. Again according to the experts, those responsible for these great wonders were Homo sapiens sapiens, people very like ourselves. Earlier human species had never been thought to have produced works of art. But for some time now this idea bas been called into question by the discovery of a series of artefacts from 70,000, 250,000, and 350,000 years ago. They push back the established dawn of art and suggest that before Sapiens sapiens other species of Homo produced what might be considered art.

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In my article on the subject, I present some of the earliest art objects and put forward a theory which I believe can explain the existence of very ancient art, and its by now certain proliferation 40,000 years ago. In short, the idea runs as follows: the ability to produce art is built into the biological structure of various species of Homo (and not only Sapiens sapiens) but only when there are the right social and cultural conditions does art lose its previous casual nature and trigger off a kind of chain reaction.

Burying war – Adriano Favaro retells the fascinating story of Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà (see photo), the explorer originally from Friuli in Italy, who for years travelled through the region of the Congo winning the respect of the people he met. Today in Africa, be is still commemorated as the only white man worthy of a place in the pantheon of the founding fathers of the continent. He gathered a great quantity of geographical and ethnographic information, bought hundreds of slaves in order to free them, and drafted a peace treaty sealed by a ceremony involving the King of the Betàkà tribe “burying war” in a ditch, where weapons were laid along with a case containing the text of the agreement. This year (the hundredth anniversary of Savorgnan di Brazzà ‘s death) the Zaire government managed to obtain the mortal remains of the explorer from the Algerian authorities. They have thus finally been laid to rest in Brazzaville (the capital named after him), in the same place where “war was buried”.

Holy cords -We move to another continent to listen to archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig explaining the secrets of the giant quipu preserved by an Andean farming community in Peru. The quipu consist of small knotted cords used by the Incas to record numerical data. But the giant quipu examined by Kauffmann Doig is much different from the Inca quipu, and not only on account of the exceptional size of the cords. In fact the local farmers take special care over it and bring votive offerings. They also pray to it for rain for their crops. This has involved a remarkable cultural transformation: having lost their ancient knowledge, the Inca descendants have shrouded the object in holiness.

Horror in paradise – On a tiny island in the Pacific the usual romantic picture of a “South Seas paradise” has been contrasted by a newly emerging picture of a violent, strife-torn ancient world. Archaeologist Davide Domenici tells bow a necropolis from 3,200 years ago on the Vanuatu islands in Melanesia (Pacific Ocean) has yielded some fascinating information. The necropolis was probably used by the Lapita, the forebears of the Polynesians. Several millennia before our age, they set off from the coasts of Soutbeast Asia to settle throughout the Pacific. The intact Lapita tombs reveal a very complex, dramatic picture: dozens of individuals decapitated after death and others buried with human skulls on their chest alongside vases containing skulls.

White gold – For five centuries Tuareg and Berabich nomads have travelled for aver 1,500 kilometres through the desert with around a hundred dromedaties along the Timbuktu-Taudenni-Tirnbuktu route in Mali. Forty kilometres a day to reach the inferno of the Taudenni mines, where dozens of hard-worked men dig down to find the salt layer and then cut out thirty-kilo slabs. The salt is loaded onto the dromedaries – they carry an average of 120 kilograms each – and the caravan sets off again for Timbuktu. Once there were dozens of salt caravans crossing the Sahara, but since the 1970s competition from lorries has been stifling the centuries-old traditian.

Massimo Cappon takes us along the great Azalai, the Timbukt๠salt caravan, to experience the sun setting on an adventure now become legendary.
Fate awaited him – Bruno Berti recounts the story of Vittorino Cazzetta, who for years explored Cadore in the Dolomites. His discoveries included trails of dinosaur footprints (the first of their kind to be found in Italy), the intact burial of a Mesolithic hunter and various other prehistoric items of interest. Berti’s article commemorates this explorer who in a cruel twist of fate died in a cave at Piz del Corvo. In fact several years earlier Vittorino had already fallen into the cave and miraculously survived. He decided to go back and put up a plaque of the Virgin Mary in thanksgiving. But when descending into the depths of the cave, he lost his footing and slipped into the void, where fate lay in wait for him.

Discovered twice – The unusual story of the Brazilian Amazonian Indians called the Zo’, “discovered” in 1989, is told by Maurizio Leigbeb who went to look them up in one of their villages. In fact as he explains, these Indians were first seen in 1975 by a mining engineer who vainly tried to make contact with them. Then some Evangelical missionaries managed to create a relationship of “collaboration” with the Indians, which the Brazilian authorities responsible for protecting them decided to interrupt to safeguard their culture. The Zo’ were once more swallowed up by the forest and were only “discovered” again in 1989. Today they inhabit impenetrable areas, but Leigbeb managed to make contact. He introduces us to them and their striking lip ornaments while they are getting ready for a ceremony.

War dogs – Archaeologists rarely come across tombs containing dogs and when this does happen it is obvious that the animals were buried so they could follow their masters to the hereafter. But Gabriele Rossi-Osmida, leader of an archaeological mission at Adji Kui in Turkmenistan, has made an even rarer discovery: two dedicated dogs’ tombs. The dogs in question were Molossoid and clearly the forbears of all the Molosser breeds often used in battles by ancient peoples. In their lifetime the two dogs must have won the respect worthy of the most valorous fighters. Around 2,400 years ago, as befits true warriors, they were accorded the honour of a tomb of their own. This was one of the most remarkable discoveries made during the recent excavation campaign conducted in Turkmenistan by the Ligabue Study and Research Centre.

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