07 - On the trails of the mammoth

Description

From the village of Colbertaldo di Vidor, in the locality of “Cal de le Crode”, go up through the vineyards close to the “Col Giardino” and then arrive at the base of the “Col Maor” (possible northern variant for Val Trenta). On the summit there are some trenches of the Great War. Descend to the pass that divides “Val d’Oca” and “Val Arnera”, and then turn off at the base of “Col Castellir”. Just before closing the ring, you enter a small canyon where the Rosper stream has created characteristic erosion pools, called Gor.

Curiosities

Just west of the route, in “via Rovede” in Colbertaldo, in 1974, during the excavations in a clay quarry, some bones belonging to a mammoth were found. But why such a big beast in these areas rather than in Siberia? Seventy thousand years ago, during the last glaciation, two glacial tongues reached the Treviso plain, one to the east and one to the west of the pre-Alpine ridge. The thickness of snow and ice gradually decreased to give way to a steppe with tufts of grasses and some shrubs, an ideal environment for these large herbivores typical of the regions of Eastern Europe and Asia. Even here, therefore, these large animals roamed, where today vineyards and villages arise. In the area of San Giovanni di Valdobbiadene a lake more or less large like that of Revine had formed, due to the melting of the ice, and a swampy environment was created all around. It was here that the fate of the mammoth was sealed, which, being trapped in the mud, died and was preserved to this day by an extraordinary combination of physical events. Today the mammoth, which the volunteers of the “Montelliano Research Center” nicknamed Gaetano, rests in the civic museum of Crocetta del Montello.