Page 446 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

was imported in the years before 1000 b.c., it is very unlikely
that the metalworkers of this region had not tried to manu­

facture this new and superior metal, though clearly with only
limited success. Certainly Europe was highly interested in iron
at this time.

The rock carvings of Vai Camonica exist to this day, and are
well described by Emmanuel Anati in Camonica Valley. The
fact that they are only found in this one valley (and in the Monte

Bego area three hundred miles to the west) strongly suggests
that Vai Camonica was a religious center for the peoples of the
Alps throughout this millennium. The precise form that this

centralized worship would take is unknown, but it seems reason­
able to imagine it not very different from the centralized worship
instituted not much later by the Greeks beneath Mount Olym­

pus, where the Olympian gods looked down upon a periodic
festival comprising a political congress, religious ceremonies, and
the Olympic games.