Campanine di Cimbergo is a morphologically well defined area, situated between the deep gorge of the Re di Tredenus torrent to the north and the funnel-shaped slope to the south. To the east is the high wall of the glacial terrace of the “Piana di Cimbergo”, to the west the inaccessible ledge of the “Scale di Cimbergo”. Between 740 and 560 m a.s.l., on the lower slope of the Pizzo Badile this area of circa 14 hectares is undulating and rugged with occasional small terraces or ledges. Here the outcrops of the softer and smoother Lombard Verrucano rock, the skeleton of the entire area, are continuous and often of undulating “whale back” form, marked with long glacial gullies.

The present system of trails, both primary and secondary, basically retraces the ancient routes as imposed by the hillside orography. It is likely that the trail network and its branches played a part in cult practices in rocky zones, not only in the area of the Campanine but also adjacent areas such as Pagherina, Naquane, Coren del Valento and Foppe di Nadro. In fact, most of these areas are close to pathways and it is hard not to imagine a connection.

It is possible that the Campanine, as all of the other large rock-cut areas, assumed a mainly sacred role. There is evidence to suggest its connection to a uranian cult. However, there is a long-running stylistic-chronological question which still far from being resolved. Despite constant progress, from the theorising of the 1930s, to E. Anati’s fundamental definition in the 1960s and 70s, to the adjustments made in the last thirty years, uncertainties and lacunae remain due to the objective difficulty of the subject There are incisions on the rock datable using radiometric systems and much is also based on the figures datable in an absolute chronology (above all weapons) and with terminus ante and/or post quem (looms, carts, ploughs, vase forms, inscriptions, panoplies). dating is also based on the stylistic-thematic comparison with materials from known cultures. The scarce excavation data is of little or no help. Therefore, an analysis of the overlapping images and the conformation of the scenes aids in the definition of a relative chronology, that is to the order of succession of the illustrated scenes, which are then defined, by extension, on an essentially stylistic and thematic basis. The mesh of this network, applied to the mega iconographic context of the ‘camuno-tellino’ area, has given excellent results that are constantly being updated. The gauge of the mesh is sufficiently narrow to allow the consentient collocation of most of the images in a precise cultural sphere but, is at the same time, too wide for a large number of figures which fall through or remain on ambiguous ground.