A journey through time: Prehistory in Valle D’Aosta

For a voyage back through the millennia in Valle d’Aosta, a new Prehistory Circuit is being organised as part of the PITEM Pa.C.E. – Alcotra Programme 2014/2020 project. Once this Circuit is operational, an array of cultural insights, images and QR codes will inform visitors. In the meantime, however, there are many archaeological sites already available to see fascinating evidence of prehistoric Man’s presence.

The oldest archaeological site to have been discovered in the Valley is known as MF1 and is located on the slopes of Mont Fallère in the Municipality of Saint-Pierre. By analysing numerous traces, archaeologists determined that people have lived in Valle d’Aosta since the Mesolithic era. This indicates that hunter-gatherer tribes travelled in the Valle d’Aosta area around 9000 years ago, climbing over the steep mountain slopes in search of wild animals. And even subsequently, humans made use of the mountain area of Mont Fallère, as shown by various discoveries that reveal seasonal moving of livestock between higher and lower pastures (vertical transhumance) starting from the fourth millennium BC.

The most significant necropolis in Valle d’Aosta dating back 6500 years was discovered in 1968 on a rocky knoll overlooking the river Dora Baltea in the municipality of Quart. This was in the Neolithic era, an ancient time when agriculture and livestock farming first appeared. Archaeologists excavated some 60 tombs, yielding some truly intriguing grave goods including jewellery, necklace components and a beautiful bracelet made with a Glycymeris shell, which suggests they were travellers from the sea. Continuing the research in the vicinity of the necropolis led to discovering ceramic fragments from other archaeological strata. These provide clues about the daily activities of a potential settlement that may have been established much later, during the period called the Middle Bronze Age.

Another important Valle d’Aosta necropolis from the Neolithic era was discovered in 1917, during the construction of the hydroelectric power plant at Champrotard in the Municipality of Villeneuve. Workers unearthed an exceptional treasure: 25 stone burial chambers (cists).  The grave goods contained turned out to be very rare, but a number of everyday items found in the adjacent strata, including an axe, a scraper, an awl and even a wild boar’s tooth used for ornament, imply funerary rituals that were repeated throughout time and certainly connected to the necropolis.