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Theshamanic-ecstatichypothesisfortheAlpinerockartofValcomonica
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undeniablefactinAustralia,CentralAsia,Siberia,SouthAfrica,Centraland
NorthAmerica,andinmanyotherregionsacrosstheworld.Inthenorthern
partofAfrica,Ialsoadvancedthesamehypothesisforthepre-NeolithicRound
HeadrockpaintingsoftheCentralSahararegion.Herethereareafewscenes
closelysimilartospecificcompositionsfromsouthernAfricathatarerelatedto
trancedance,soulflightsandanimalfigureswithspecialcharacteristics(San-
soni1994).
PrehistoricandProto-historicEurope
Surely,prehistoricsocietiesinCentralandWesternEuropemusthaveexperi-
encedsomeformofshamanicexpressionsthatdisplayedcharacteristicsspe-
cifictotheirregions.Moreover,thesepracticescanbediscernablethroughthe
carefulexaminationofancienticonographyandmythology.Inregardstothis,
thereisnodoubtthatrockartplaysanimportantroleinprovidingevidence
ofthepossibility,ifnotthecomplexity,ofprehistoricimagesthattrulyrepre-
sentsacreddomains.However,itisnotbychancethattheacademicinterestfor
shamanic-animisticthemesshouldinformourinvestigationsintotherockart
ofEurope,morespecificallyfromthecavepaintingsofFranceandSpaintothe
Alpinerockcarvingsofnorth-easternItaly.
Withregardsthepost-PalaeolithicperiodinEurope,onecrucialquestionis
thatofthemovementsoftheIndo-Europeanspeakingcultures.Insummary,it
isacceptedthattherewasafirstwavewhichcameintoWesternEuropeduring
thelate4thmillenniumBCE.TheythengenerallyspreadthroughoutallEurope
(Bell-beakerculture)andfirmlyestablishedthemselvesbytheBronzeAge,2nd
millenniumBCE,asrecentlyconfirmedbypalaeogeneticstudies(Cavalli-Sforza,
Menozzi,Piazza1994;Cavalli-Sforza2001,Bocchi,Ceruti2001).Moreover,it
iseasytodiscerntheconcordancesbetweenthewesternandeasterngroupsof
Indo-Europeansthroughtheirreligiousandsymbolictraditions,notonlydueto
tracesofmythological-ritualpatternsfromtheearlyhistoricperiod,butalsoto
theevidenceoficonographyfromcontextsdatingtothe2ndmillenniumBCE.
Consequently,acommonsocial-ideologicalidentitycanbediscernedwhichis
confirmedbydataaccumulatedfromthefieldsofarchaeology,palaeogenetics,
linguisticsaswellasthoseofarthistoryandthephenomenologyofreligions.
However,howdoesshamanismfitintothisEuropeancontext?Compelling
evidencecomesfromexaminingthetraitsofaneasternIndo-Europeangroup
knownastheIndo-Iranians.Inparticular,therockartofCentralAsiafromthe
endof3rdmillenniumBCEtothe2ndmillenniumBCEhavesemiotic-mythic
connectionstotheearlywrittensourcesoftheIndianVedasandtheIranianAv-
esta(Rozwadowski2002,2004).Thereisapossibilitythatsomeshamanicinflu-
encescouldhavediffusedfromveryancientAsianculturesintotheIndo-Irani-
