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Shepherds Who Write: Pastoral graffiti in the uplands of Europe from prehistory to the modern age
Edited by Marta Bazzanella and Giovanni Kezich
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In a number of significant sites of the vast ancient pasturelands of the Old World, generations of wandering shepherds have left their testimony in the form of graffiti drafted on the rocks, sometimes in their tens of thousands, over a period of hundreds of years from ancient to modern times. The phenomenon is a conspicuous one, and has considerable significance for two reasons. On the one hand, the study of such pastoral graffiti may convey fresh ethnoarchaeological information as to the circumstances of the pastoral activities and the pastoral economy of the past. On the other hand, these signs, which can be often fully alphabetic as well as drawing upon ancient symbolic repertoires, can be of some aid in the interpretation of rock art as a whole genre of human expression, and projected back, in their significance and their modes of appearance, the earliest times of prehistory.
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front cover
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Of Related Interest
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Acknowledgements
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Contents
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List of Figures
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List of Tables
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Preface
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Introduction. Shepherds who write. A new frontier for ethnoarchaeology
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Bibliography
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1. Petroglyphs and graffiti in the Syunik highlands/Armenia – summer pasture for thousands of years
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1.1. Rock art and geology in the Syunik high steppe
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1.2. Depictions, distribution and presumable age of the petroglyphs
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1.3. Transhumance and highland pastoralism during the course of time
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1.4. Traces of shepherds and flocks/herds in Syunik
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1.5. Trying the big picture: Land use, exploitation and rock art as a part of the pastoral life
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Acknowledgements
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Bibliography
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2. Caves and shepherds’ engravings on the Majella mountains
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2.1. The places of the engravings
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2.2. Interpreting the engravings
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2.3. A particular representation
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Bibliography
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3. Trial of the distribution of the shepherds’ writings in the Mont Bego region (Tende, Alpes-Maritimes, France)
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3.1. Introduction
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3.2. Description
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3.3. Postulate
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3.4. Methodology
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3.5. The distribution of historical and pastoral engravings
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3.6. Conclusion
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Bibliography
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4. Moving beyond the Bego God
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4.1. Introduction
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4.2. Presentation of the site
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4.2.1. Geographical, geological and geomorphological contexts
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4.2.2. Archaeological furniture and palaeoenvironmental data
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4.2.3. Corpus and chrono-cultural attributions of prehistoric engravings
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4.3. Historiography
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4.3.1. Hypothesis no. 1: ex-voto and/or a sacred ‘stone-book’?
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4.3.2. Hypothesis no. 2: pasture boundaries and/or pastoral path markings?
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4.3.3. Hypothesis no. 3: the marks of male rites of passage?
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4.4. Critical analysis
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4.4.1. Recording methodology
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4.4.2. Use of the chrono-cultural context and apprehension of diachrony
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4.4.3. The qualitative, the quantitative, and comparisons proposal
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4.5. Discussion
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4.5.1. The pastoral function of the site
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4.5.2. Engraving in modern alpine pastoral universe
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4.5.3. Back to the hypothesis of male rites of passage
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4.6. Conclusion
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Acknowledgments
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Bibliography
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5. Igniting fire under mobile conditions and other Late Neolithic–Bronze Age shepherding traces
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5.1. Introduction
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Acknowledgements
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Bibliography
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6. Rock art in relation to pastoral villages in medium and high-altitude sites, in Valcamonica and in the Alps
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6.1. Introduction
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6.2. The relationship between man and environment was economic but was, most importantly, religious
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6.3. The expressions of man in the Alps
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6.4. Institutionalised ‘language’ and ‘minor manifestations’
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6.5. Conclusions
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Bibliography
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7. Pastoral Graffiti in the Val Grande National Park and in the areas of Natural Parks of Ossola Valley. Results of a first mapping
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7.1. Geography and environment of the mapped areas
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7.2. Inscribed surfaces and techniques
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7.3. Conclusions
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Bibliography
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8. Pastoralism and quarrying: possible typological divergences in the production of historical rock art in accordance with the sites intended use
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8.1. Camuna historic rock art
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8.2. The function of historical etchings
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8.3. The Camuni sites
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8.3.1 Campanine di Cimbergo
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8.3.2 The Monticolo di Darfo
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8.3.3 Archaeological area of Pisogne and Piancamuno
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8.3.4 Other minor sites
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8.4 ‘Schematic’ and ‘figurative’ rock art: a reading proposal
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Bibliography
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9. Beyond cup-marks: Writings, engravings and ethnography in Val Malenco: a first glimpse (Sondrio, Italy)
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9.1. Introduction
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9.2. Geography of Val Malenco
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9.3. Settlements: Contrade and Quadre
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9.4. Mines, lathes and rock engravings
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9.5. Writings and engraved signs within the Contrade
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9.5.1. Monograms, dates and crosses in the Contrade
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9.5.2. Devotion
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9.5.3. Mountain pastures, woods and property rights
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9.5.4. Cup-marks
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9.5.5. Other engravings
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9.6. Writings on a soapstone oven: a unicum
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9.7. The Ca’: a permanence?
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9.8. Horns on barns: ancient protection for hay and crops
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9.9. Conclusions
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Bibliography
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10. Ethnoarchaeology of pastoralism in Valcamonica high pastures
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10.1. Introduction (JB, MM)
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10.2. The area of study (JB)
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10.3. Methodology (JB)
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10.4. Results (JB)
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10.4.1 The structures
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10.4.1.1. Bait
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10.4.1.2. Enclosures
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10.4.1.3. Shelters
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10.4.1.4. Stone mounds
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10.4.1.5. Other structures
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10.4.1.6. Chronology
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10.4.2. Transformation of the landscape and resource exploitation (JB)
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10.5. Spatial analyses (JB)
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10.6. Pastoralism and rock art (JB)
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10.7. Comparison with the pastoral structures in the Lessini highlands (MM)
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10.7.1. The areas of study
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10.7.2. Breeders’ houses
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10.7.3. Shelters
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10.7.4. Enclosures
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10.8. Final remarks (JB, MM)
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Bibliography
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11. Pastoralism without writing? The case of Monti Lessini
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11.1. Introduction
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11.2. The Lessini highlands: a pastoral world without graffiti
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11.3. The Illasi high valley: graffiti from a marginal landscape
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11.4. The Agno-Leogra ridge: graffiti from a minery district
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11.5. Discussion
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Bibliography
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12. Compass-made circle engravings from Giau Pass and Mondeval (S. Vito di Cadore, Dolomites, Veneto region, NE Italy)
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12.1. The project and the area
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12.2. The method
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12.2.1. Historical data collection
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12.2.2. Survey strategy and methods
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12.2.3. Total archaeology and multiscale approach
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12.2.4. Data management and elaboration
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12.3. Results: human activities in the uplands
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12.3.1. The circles and other engravings
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12.3.2. Compass-made circle engravings
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12.3.3. Circles iconography
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12.3.4. Locational patterns and the landscape around the circles
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12.4. Analogues
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12.5. Discussion
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12.6. Conclusions
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Acknowledgements
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Bibliography
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13. A painted mountain: the figurative rock art of the shepherds of the Fiemme Valley
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13.1. The writings of the shepherds
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13.2. The writings database
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13.3. Writings and drawings
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13.4. The symbols of the valley floor
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13.5. The symbols of the mountain
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13.5.1. The animals
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13.5.2. The domestic animals
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13.5.3. The wild animals
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13.5.4. The deer
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13.5.5. The fantastic animals
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13.6. Discussion: an interpretative model
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13.7. Conclusion
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Bibliography
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14. A sign for every shepherd, for every shepherd a family: The signs of the house in the inscriptions of the shepherds of Mount Cornón in Val di Fiemme
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14.1. Introduction about the writings
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14.2. Process
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14.3. Discussion of data
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14.4. Conclusions
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14.4.1. Successive steps
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Bibliography
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15. The symbol of the cross on the rocks of Mount Cornón in the Fiemme Valley
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15.1. Introduction
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15.1.1. The context of the writings
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15.1.2. Writings and religion
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15.2. The symbol of the cross
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15.2.1. Chronology of the symbol
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15.2.2. Spatial distribution
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15.2.3. Position of the cross in the writings
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15.3. The Christogram
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15.3.1. Chronology of the symbol
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15.3.2. Position of the Christogram in the writings
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15.3.3. Typology
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15.3.4. Symbol and sentences
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15.4. The Sacred Heart
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15.4.1. Chronology of the symbol
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15.4.2. Position of the Sacred Heart in the writings
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15.4.3. Typology
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15.5. The Monogram of Mary
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15.5.1. Chronology of the symbol
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15.5.2. Typology
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15.5.3. Symbol and sentences
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15.6. Other representations of the cult
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15.6.1. Objects
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15.6.2. Churches
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15.7. Conclusions: the religion of the shepherds
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Acknowledgements
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Bibliography
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16. The mountain and the cross as centre of the maso
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16.1. Written landscape, milèsimi and calvari
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16.2. Where? Zooming into the various spatial scales
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16.3. When? Long term and singular events
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16.4. What? Origins, shapes and ‘behaviour’ of the symbol
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16.5. Who? Between autonomous builders and specialists
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16.6. Why? Improvised answers
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Acknowledgements
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Bibliography
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Back cover
Citable Link
Published: 2020
Publisher: BAR Publishing
- 9781407357164 (ebook)
- 9781407357140 (paper)
BAR Number: S2999