DISCOVERY OF A SACRED CAVE AT THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID-SHAPED MASSIF INTHE VALLEE DES MERVEILLES (PROTOHISTORIC SITE OF MONT-BEGO [+ -3,500 BP], ALPES-MARITIMES, FRANCE)/

Authors
MASSON E
Citation
E. Masson, DISCOVERY OF A SACRED CAVE AT THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID-SHAPED MASSIF INTHE VALLEE DES MERVEILLES (PROTOHISTORIC SITE OF MONT-BEGO [+ -3,500 BP], ALPES-MARITIMES, FRANCE)/, Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie II. Sciences de la terre et des planetes, 323(1), 1996, pp. 97-104
Citations number
4
Categorie Soggetti
Geosciences, Interdisciplinary
Journal title
Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie II. Sciences de la terre et des planetes → ACNP
ISSN journal
12518050
Volume
323
Issue
1
Year of publication
1996
Pages
97 - 104
Database
ISI
SICI code
1251-8050(1996)323:1<97:DOASCA>2.0.ZU;2-7
Abstract
The mountain range known as Mount Bego (80 km north of Nice) is famous as a protohistoric site, thanks to thousands of engravings that decor ate its rock slabs. Their distribution and their iconography, tightly linked to the landscape, express a dualistic organization: the two lar ge valleys, Fontanalba and Merveilles, seem to embody respectively our world and the next world. In the Merveilles area, a pyramid shaped ma ssif, decorated with a naturally sculpted human face, appears the ''ho ly of holies''. The place of worship that has just been discovered in the vast fault-cave at its top appears to confirm this assumption.