Archaeologists have officially announced the discovery of a couple of stelae-statues  - antropomorphic standing stones - in Val Venosta, a valley in the western part of South Tyrol, Italy. The stones date back to the Copper Age, about 3000 BCE, and they have been discovered last year, during construction works in Vezzano, a small village at the foot of Mezzodì (Sonnenberg) mountain.
     Catrin Marzoli, head of the local Archaeological Heritage Office, said the statues are made of Lasa marble. This kind of marble extracted from the Jennwand near Laas (Lasa), is an exceptionally hard, durable material which wears well in adverse weather conditions and has been used for centuries in many buildings and monuments, including the monument to Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace in London.
     One of the ancient statues represents a woman with a shawl and a long dress, while on the other stone slab, broken in two pieces, is carved a male figure, with several knives and a wide belt. The latter stone is unusually tall for this kind of monuments, measuring 3,4m.
     The statues will be put on display in the Schlandersburg castle in Silandro.

Edited from Alto Adige (11 April 2015)