masso-altareWhere: Camaiore - town of Greppolungo

When: IV century B.C. - XIX century

Placed below Mount Gabberi, Rock of Pennati overlooks the town of Greppolungo.

It consists of a great limestone boulder that was found by the Archeological Group of Camaiore. It is slightly elevated and it has a subcicular shape; it is also manually honed. The Rock presents various engravings that depict several pennati, plus other engravings made by the martellina tecnique.

The pennato, also called roncola (falx arboraria), is an ancient working tool of lumberjacks who dates back to the Late Bronze Age, (1200 - 1100 BC). It has a short handle, also called immanicatura, and a wide blade with the tip curved forward. Pennato was also used as an offensive weapon; also, it was probably related to Silvano, the god of the woods (Etruscan language: Selvans, Latin Language: Silvanus) who was often represented as a bearded man with a pennato in his hand. The pennato was usually used by the Ligurian - Apuan people which lived also on the mountains of Camaiore. The word pennato seems to derive from Pen-, who has the ancient meaning of "mountain": the words Appeninus (Apennines mountains), Penna and Pania could derive from this word.

pennato-con-monetinaIMG2306On the Rock of Pennati there are 15 rock carvings, 12 of which representing pennati (picture left and right); plus, there are a mazzuolo (mallet), a coppella and a rectangolar basin, aside from other carvings not easily identifiable. They seems to be very ancient because of their consumption: instead, the more recen ones seem to have a deeper engraving.

Nowadays, 500 rock carvings have been registrated in the Apuan Alps: they are mostly on Limestone rocks e and they are usually situated on heights and rocks who are in a dominant and panoramic position - maybe they were places with a cult function. The rock carvings have an uncertain dating who covers a very long chronological period that touches the most recent times. Besides pennati, there were often represented other symbols, such as crosses, which could attest the Christianization of the territory and also which had probably the purpose to exorcise the previous pagan ritual of Ligurian - Apuan people.

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