Social strategies and rituality in ancient mountain landscapes

Since prehistoric times, mountains have represented key areas for understanding the development of social strategies related to group territories and interaction. The peculiar characteristics of mountain environments and the strong impact of climatic conditions have had considerable impacts on human encounters with these environments. Many locations and paths have often been used continuously through deep time up until today. In some cases, these factors have combined and led to the identification of special places for ritual and or symbolic practices. The aim of this session is to focus on evidences of ancient social strategies and rituality behaviours in mountain landscapes of the world, looking for common and divergent patterns.