Necropoli di Cafaggio

The Cafaggio necropolis lies below Ameglia on the slope of Costa Celle. Its stone-cist burials preserve evidence of a pre-Roman Ligurian community associated with the Apuani and the lower Magra valley.

Why it matters

The cemetery offers a material record of funerary customs before Roman control of the area. Urns, grave goods and cremated remains reveal aspects of a community connected with Etruscan and Celtic exchange networks and the maritime landing places near the Magra's mouth.

What to notice

Excavations identified fifty-four stone cists within dry-stone enclosures arranged in two rows. Slabs of schistose rock from the Corvo promontory formed the burial containers, which held urns and grave goods beneath stone mounds. Some cists contained more than one burial, indicating shared funerary spaces rather than a simple one-tomb, one-person arrangement.

Context and history

The pre-Roman cemetery was used in the last quarter of the fourth century BC before a landslide ended that phase. Roman-period cremations and later inhumations show subsequent reuse of the ground. Systematic excavation began in 1976, bringing the earlier burial layout and its associated objects into the archaeological history of Ameglia.