The Statue Stelae from the Lunigiana Area - III
Group B Stelae type.
These statues have been found at different times since the last century in the basin of the river Magra and its tributaries, and are now partly conserved in the Civic Museum of La Spezia and partly in that of Pontremoli. The corpus comprises over 60 stelae, which document the birth and flourishing of the production in the Copper Age (5th - 4th millennium B.C.) and the subsequent, probably not contiguous, production in the Iron Age (late 2nd - 1st millennium BC).
The statues can be divided into two large groups (Copper Age and Iron Age). Their dating is based on the study of the representation of the objects carved on them. These objects, realistically drawn in the stone, are weapons and ornaments of a well-defined and well-recognized type, which correspond to and reproduce the archaeological remains found in the excavations of tombs or dwellings of the Copper Age. The former group, the more ancient and numerous one, comprises three types of anthropomorphic representations: male, indicated either only by a dagger or an associated flat axe; female, indicated by more or less marked breast, and sometimes by necklaces or chokers; finally a type without any attribute, hence conventionally considered asexual. This latter type is perhaps an expressive metaphor of an individual with a still-undefined social role, as would befit a child or adolescent.
The Copper Age stelae are divided in two groups: the Group A, or the Pontevecchio type Stelae, and the Group B, or the Malgrate type stelae. The main characteristic of the Group A is the head joined to the torso, of the Group B the head separated from the torso and spread out sideways.
Stone stelae
5th - 4th millennium B.C.
Pontremoli, Archaeological Museum
The Statue Stelae from the Lunigiana Area - III
Group B Stelae type.
These statues have been found at different times since the last century in the basin of the river Magra and its tributaries, and are now partly conserved in the Civic Museum of La Spezia and partly in that of Pontremoli. The corpus comprises over 60 stelae, which document the birth and flourishing of the production in the Copper Age (5th - 4th millennium B.C.) and the subsequent, probably not contiguous, production in the Iron Age (late 2nd - 1st millennium BC).
The statues can be divided into two large groups (Copper Age and Iron Age). Their dating is based on the study of the representation of the objects carved on them. These objects, realistically drawn in the stone, are weapons and ornaments of a well-defined and well-recognized type, which correspond to and reproduce the archaeological remains found in the excavations of tombs or dwellings of the Copper Age. The former group, the more ancient and numerous one, comprises three types of anthropomorphic representations: male, indicated either only by a dagger or an associated flat axe; female, indicated by more or less marked breast, and sometimes by necklaces or chokers; finally a type without any attribute, hence conventionally considered asexual. This latter type is perhaps an expressive metaphor of an individual with a still-undefined social role, as would befit a child or adolescent.
The Copper Age stelae are divided in two groups: the Group A, or the Pontevecchio type Stelae, and the Group B, or the Malgrate type stelae. The main characteristic of the Group A is the head joined to the torso, of the Group B the head separated from the torso and spread out sideways.
Stone stelae
5th - 4th millennium B.C.
Pontremoli, Archaeological Museum