The Lunigiana Stele Statue Museum is located in the Piagnaro castle in Pontremoli (MS). His collection, of great suggestion, exposes and narrates one of the most important phenomena of European megalithics. The Stele Statues, male and female human figures represented in abstract forms, were carved in sandstone by populations who lived between the 4th and 1st millennium BC. and still represent a partially unsolved enigma today. These prehistoric and protohistoric images are characterized by a “carabiniere hat” head and a U-shaped face, classified by archaeologists into three typological groups ( A, B, C); they were built between the Copper Age and the Iron Age and have spanned the centuries to reach us, undergoing voluntary concealments, reuses and reuses over time which have often changed their form and function. Today the Stele Statues are to all intents and purposes the identity symbol of Lunigiana, the valley of the river Magra along which all the finds are distributed. The Museum of the Stele Statues is the most representative in Italy for the number of specimens collected and for the documentation on the sites of discovery, on the raw material used and on the processing techniques.

The birth of the Museum is due to the passionate and farsighted activity of prof. Augusto Cesare Ambrosi who, after research in the 50s and 60s and the creation of a first archaeological collection in the Municipality of Casola in Lunigiana, strongly wanted the Steles to be collected together in a prestigious location in Pontremoli. The new layout of the Museum (inaugurated in June 2015) on an almost doubled exhibition area has made it possible to further enhance the Stele Statues within the spaces of the Piagnaro Castle: an elegant and essential layout, enriched by modern multimedia contents, which enhances the charm and the suggestion of the Stele Statues.

In Lunigiana there are currently 80 specimens known, recovered at various times and in different locations. The stele statues depict male and female characters in a stylized way accompanied by some characteristic elements of their equipment or jewellery. In very rare cases there are inscriptions on the stele statues. Based on their shape they have been divided into three different groups. The stele statues constitute an important testimony of prehistoric and protohistoric civilizations that affected the Lunigiana area over a long period of time, starting from the 3rd millennium BC. until the dawn of the historical era, around the sixth century. B.C. To better understand the function of these monuments, connected to very ancient cult needs, it is also necessary to know the historical-cultural context to which they belong. The term “statue-stele”, or anthropomorphic stele, classifies those boulders destined to be fixed vertically in the ground, in which human features are recognized obtained both through the shaping of the stone and with the iconographic motifs represented on the surfaces (physical attributes such as the face, the eyes, or items of equipment such as necklaces, clothes or weapons). The statue-stelae differ from simple stelae, smooth or figured slabs, and from menhirs, which have neither a shape nor iconographic elements that can recall the human figure, but also from “engraved boulders” which bear on their surfaces representations of objects and ornaments.

All the Lunigiana stele statues are made of sandstone: it is a compact stone attributable to the formation of the boulder, a sedimentary rock from the upper Oligocene. This type of sandstone is widespread in the valley of the Magra river in the form of stratiform blocks, more or less rounded due to the transport carried out by the impetuous torrents that descend from the mountains. Il banco di arenaria accuratamente scelto, prima di essere scolpito, veniva portato ad una forma geometrica mediante una lavorazione estesa, quasi sempre, su tutte le superfici.

Once the shape was obtained, the image was completed with the bas-relief, i.e. lowering the bottom of the surface, saving the areas that were supposed to represent anatomical details (arms, hands, breasts) and attributes (weapons, jewels).

To achieve this, the figured parts were first traced with a sequence of percussions, then joined with a groove; once the engraved design was completed, the relief was lowered by lowering the background. For the realization of these, probably, stone tools were used. With a striker the general shape was given to the stele and the anatomical parts and the grave goods were highlighted; with a small flint blade, used as a saw, the contours of the figured parts were refined and certain details such as the fingers of the hands were highlighted.

With a drill, consisting of a flint tip mounted on the end of a stick and rotated between the hands, the holes for the eyes were obtained. Silica sand, or a pebble of harder sandstone, was used as an abrasive to smooth the hammered surfaces. Finally, the inscriptions present on the group of later stele statues were engraved with steely iron points.

photos: arch. Elia Santini