The Gaban shelter
TEMPORARILY CLOSED
The archaeological site of Riparo Gaban is located in a small flat valley near Martignano, at the foot of Mount Calisio.
It is a large shelter carved out of a protrusion of natural rock about 10 m high. The favourable position, elevated with respect to the Adige valley floor, exposed to the east and protected from the winds, made it naturally suitable for human settlement. The discovery of the site took place in the 1960s by local enthusiasts and in 1970 the Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences promoted the first excavation campaign. In the following decades, several research campaigns were carried out by the University of Trento. The site is particularly important for the discovery of numerous objects of art and worship that tell the aesthetic taste and complex ritual of the ancient inhabitants of Calisio. The most important find is perhaps the famous "Venerina del Gaban", a female figure obtained from a bone plate, which presents intermediate traits between the Mesolithic and Neolithic traditions: it is an important testimony to an era of passage in which agriculture and breeding were introduced.
