WHERE: Camaiore - Località "La Serra" (Vado)

WHEN: V - II centuries. B.C.

In September 1957 in the locality called "la Serra", at the base of Mount Gabberi and near the little town of Vado, three  drawer structured stone burials (one of which empty) were found in a clay quarry. These burials were made with six stone slabs and they measured 35x35x30 cm.

The first burial was referable to a man and it contained a vase containing the ashes of the dead and some bronze fibulas. It was covered by an upside down bowl and there were also a little vase made for blending, some iron fragments and black painted cup (kylix). A kylix was a Greek type of wine cup and it was widespread between VI and IV centuries BC.

In the second burial, referable to a woman, there were a bowl containing her burned bones, and covered by an upside down bowl, a big fragment of a clay vase, seven bronze fibulas; a bronze spiral decorated armilla; two silver rings and some amber discs.

According to the typology and material of the funeral goods, experts have dated Vado's drawer structured burials to a Ligurian settlement of III - II centuries BC.  Liguri Apuani used to bury the dead in boxes made of stone slabs, in which they put the funeral urn (covered with an upside down bowl ) and several funeral goods, such as pottery, ornamental objects and clothing. In male burials there were iron weapons of Celtic tradition (swords, spears, javelins and, more rarely, helmets), due to the warrior character of Ligurian society. In female burials the presence, as in this case, of amber objects indicates the activation of commercial traffic with the area of the Po Valley.

During the same excavations,  a cudgel cippus with a conic log was found inside the quarry, too. The cippus was dated around the V - IV centuries B.C. and it refers to a previous Etruscan necropolis.

Lastly, during the '50s were also found various inhumation burials who dated back to the Roman Age: unluckily, nowadays no trace remains of it.

The finds are partly preserved at the National Museum of Villa Guinigi in Lucca and partly preserved and exhibited at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Camaiore.