Riparo and Grotta di Anticoli

Rock Art Site Description

Riparo and Grotta di Anticoli (Anticoli shelter and cave) are two adjacent decorated sites. The cave (grotta) opens along the slopes of Monte Licino and extends over the Fosso di Casalromano, on the left bank of the Aniene river. It comprises a chamber approximately 5 meters by 5 meters in size. Part of the entrance is obstructed by a large boulder. This boulder, facing the graffiti, has a wide smoothed surface at its base, which is challenging to interpret according to Piero Ceruleo, the discoverer of the rock art figure: it could be due to the continuous and repeated passage of people or animals, or it may result from other causes such as the magical-religious practice of incubatio — latin term meaning “sleeping in a sacred place for divine revelation” —, also hypothesized in the rock art corpus of Central Italy for the decorated site of Pastine or Parete Manzi (Civitaluparella, Chieti) in Abruzzo region. The shelter (riparo) is also situated at the base of Mount Licino, close to the previously mentioned cave. In the initial survey, Ceruleo discovered a black anthropomorphic figure drawn in charcoal on the rocky wall of the shelter. A subsequent survey by Ceruleo unveiled numerous additional graffiti and charcoal drawings.

Incubatio consists of sleeping in a place that is consecrated and believed to be capable of emanating benevolent spirits, [...] this practice was widespread from antiquity until the last century, and in slightly altered forms, it still survives today in the popular religiosity of conservative areas such as southern Italy and [...] has its Western roots precisely in ancient Greece. One may think, for example, of the long revelatory sleep in a sacred Cretan cave that tradition attributes to Epimenides (Maximus of Tyre 38.3), the famous "Cave of Charon" in Asia Minor, where pilgrims lay down on bare rock to receive ‘divine’ dreams (Strabo 14.1.44).

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Rock Art Figure Descriptions

The surfaces of the Anticoli cave walls in are rough and feature numerous concretions, rendering them unsuitable for supporting wall art. Nevertheless, near the entrance vault, opposite the boulder, a small smooth area, roughly 10 x 10 cm in size, displays a series of graffiti composed of parallel lines angled in various directions, forming a grid. In additional sections of the cave vault, also near the entrance, there are other clusters of similar graffiti that have previously been surveyed and studied. In the Anticoli shelter, the graffiti are positioned at roughly the height of an average person. The graffiti adorn a section of the rocky wall approximately 50 cm in height and 30 cm in width, situated at a height of about 100-120 cm from the current floor level.

In the Anticoli rock shelter the engravings are barely discernible to the naked eye but become clearly visible when photographed and enlarged.

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Riparo and Grotta di Anticoli References

@article{nokey,

title = {Nuovi siti con manifestazioni di arte rupestre pre-protostorica nella media valle dell'Aniene},

author = {Piero Ceruleo },

url = {https://www.apenninerockart.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/CeruleoP_2013_Nuovi-siti-con-manifestazioni-di-arte-rupestre-pre-protostorica-nella-media-valle-dellAniene.pdf},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-01-01},

urldate = {2013-01-01},

journal = {Atti e Memorie della Società Tiburtina di Storia e d'Arte},

volume = {LXXXVII},

pages = {109-126},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {Nuovi contributi alla conoscenza della preistoria della Valle dell'Aniene},

author = {Piero Ceruleo },

url = {https://www.academia.edu/3630507/Nuovi_contributi_alla_conoscenza_della_preistoria_della_valle_dellAniene},

year  = {1982},

date = {1982-01-01},

urldate = {1982-01-01},

journal = {Atti e Memorie della Società Tiburtina di Storia e d'Arte},

volume = {LV},

pages = {7-49},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}