The Bell Beaker Rock Sanctuary Pigloner Kopf (South Tyrol, Italy): Burnt Offerings and Local Metallurgy in the Eastern Alps

The archaeological site Pigloner Kopf (Vadena/Pfatten, South Tyrol, Italy) has revealed unexpected elements related to the local Bell Beaker culture, like the local production of shaft-hole axes, typologically linked to the Balkans and the Danube region. The site also shows the oldest evidence of ritual burnt offerings in the Eastern Alps. The mostly burnt animal bones, cereals, flint tools and fragments of pottery could be interpreted as the remains of a rock sanctuary with burnt offerings. The site can be considered as a prototype of the alpine places of worship and mountain sanctuaries. These burning rituals were practised from the beginning of the Bronze Age until the late Roman Empire. The aim of the paper is to present the results of the study of materials and their analyses, focussing on the metallurgical industry, composed mostly by objects produced with local copper, such as 10 miniaturised shaft-hole axes, 7 awls and a pin and also by imported objects like a dagger blade and spiral ornaments. The deposition of copper tools in hoards in association with burnt offerings suggest a ritual interpretation of the site, dated to the late Copper Age with Bell Beaker elements in lithics and pottery.