Pollino National Park: the stone giants of Frascineto and Eianina

A new Stonehenge discovered in the Pollino National Park: they are huge stone giants between Frascineto and Eianina in the mountains of province of Cosenza In Calabria.

The stone giants of the Pollino Park

To discover the 'stone giants' the hiker and profound connoisseur of the mountain Antonio Parapugna. The expert identified a plateau with boulders arranged in a circular shape with a large menhir in the center, a monolithic megalith. According to Parapugna “The arrangement of the stones is the work of man and can be traced back to the practice of astronomical observations". A deduction motivated by the fact that "in the two solstices of winter and summer the sun projects the shadow of the central menhir, exploiting a precise alignment, in the direction of two boulders present there, exactly".

Ines Ferrante, a cultural worker in the area, agrees that this is not a random and bizarre work of nature. Nor would it have been the atmospheric agents to create the stone sculptures. "The site could be a sort of calendar for religious and agricultural uses - remarks Ferrante - and could therefore be linked to the ancient study of the cycle of the seasons ".

Megaliths used for astronomical reasons or religious rites

“The Frascineto-Eianina site would be much larger than that visible to the naked eye. But currently submerged by a fairly recent holm oak wood and is partly broken up. The megaliths present - highlights Ferrante again - perhaps used for astronomical or religious reasons testify to its anthropic nature. Just as they testify to the presence of an ancient civilization that inhabited the place. Therefore, like other megalithic sites in Calabria, it deserves to be properly studied and enhanced ".

For the expert it is "an extraordinary and suggestive discovery that adds to the naturalistic and landscape wonders and beauties offered by the territory, already rich in many attractions. The new stone giants and the whole territory deserve, in fact, a careful and thorough examination by scholars. Without forgetting that the discovery took place in the largest protected area in Italy, the Park national del Pollino ".

Source photograph in evidence: Fernando Santopaolo of Italian Wikipedia - Transferred from it.wikipedia to Commons - Public domain