The pintaderas, these special function clay objects, were found in several Neolithic sites all over Italy, like this one coming from the old excavations in the Arene Candide Cave (Liguria). Traditionally interpreted as tattoo instruments, they could be also textile stamps or systems of reconnaissance in collective owens. In every case their symbolic role seems obvious otherwise exactly understanding function.

Morphology of the object:

Oval shaped, quite elongated pintadera made out of a black clay. While on the upper face there is a traforated flap handle, the lower face is divided into four parallel strips by three long longitudinal carved lines: the two in the middle are smooth while the ones on the sides are decorated with small equidistant carved lines perpendicular to the longitudinal divisions.

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Like other pintaderas recovered in the same cave, as well as in other Neolithic sites in Liguria, the Arene Candide pintadera shares the same elliptical shape. The objects may differ in length and regularity in shape but are all ornate on the lower side and provided with a flap handle, in some cases- as in this one- pierced and located half-way along the surface of the upper side. Numerous are the kind of decorations: the most common is the one with dots, different in size, more or less aligned in uniform longitudinal rows. Many pintaderas are decorated with simple carved lines, more or less uniform and deep, which intersect making different patterns.

Many pintaderas have been recovered throughout the numerous excavation campaigns in the Arene Candide Cave. The cave- which measures 70 m. in width and 15 m in depth is quite dry, luminous and with 3 different entrances- was used in the Neolithic Period as a shelter and forage area for animals as well as inhabitation for humans. Pintederas are objects of every day use and have been interpreted in many different ways: as tools for tattoos, as matrix to decorate textile or as seals to “sign” single object baked in communal ovens. What ever was the use of this kind of object it is clear the innate symbolic content of these sigils/matrix.

BERNABÒ BREA L., 1946, Gli scavi nella caverna delle Arene Candide – parte I, Gli strati con ceramiche, Istituto nazionale di Studi Liguri, Bordighera. MAGGI R. (a cura di), 1997, Arene Candide: a functionale environmental assessment of the Holocene sequenze (Excavations Bernabò Brea – Cardini), Memorie dell’Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, n.s. 5 TINÈ S., 1974, Il Neolitico e l’età del Bronzo in Liguria alla luce delle recenti ricerche, Atti XVi Riunione Scientifica Istituto Italiano Preistoria e Protostoria, pp.37-57 TINÈ S., 1986, Nuovi scavi nella caverna delle Arene Candide, in DEMOULE J.P., GUILLANE J.(eds), Le Neolithique de la France, Picard, pp.95-111