Ligurian tomb in Castelvecchio Pascoli

Barga, località Loppia

Remains not visible. Finds are kept at the Municipal Museum of Barga. Other graves of Val di Vaiana are exhibited in the National Museum of Villa Guinigi in Lucca.
 

At the moment of its discovery, during the removal of earth at Monte Ceneri, the grave was probably disturbed and scattered material was later collected, while stone slabs probably belonging to the protective case were lost. The retrieved objects appear to belong to a single tomb, certainly that of a woman, but we cannot rule out that the grave was part of a small family necropolis, in line with the other findings.
The cremated rests of the dead were deposited inside an olla of impasto; the cinerary vessel was supplemented by a smaller painted earthenware olla decorated with red bands, a black glazed earthenware olla of north-Etruscan production and a few iron objects, of which only fragments remain. Four bronze buttons that were probably in origin applied to a belt and two bronze fibulae belong to the clothing. The part of personal objects is composed of a small bronze spiral used to fix plaited hair and some necklace beads made of amberand blue glass paste, decorated "a occhi". The presence of an impasto clay spindle is sign of the female art of spinning and shows that this was indeed a woman's tomb.
This set of finds allows us to date the burial to the middle of the III^rd century b.C.; most of the objects from the necropolis of Val di Vaiana are datable to the same period, showing the particular vitality of Ligurian settlements in the Serchio valley in times of relative peace, before the conflict with Rome worsened, at the end of the III^rd century b.C.