Il sito delle stele di Groppoli (Comune di Mulazzo, MS) : nuove considerazioni alla luce delle datazioni radiometriche

The contribution stems from the desire to clarify the moment of the concealment in a pit of the stele statues of Groppoli (seven steles plus the small fragment of an octave), previously unconvincingly attributed to the Roman imperial era. The redevelopment of the most recent ceramics in the pit, fragments of protohistoric Ligurian vacuoles dating back to the 6th century BC and the Romanization, as well as the support offered by eight 14C dates, show a thousand-year-old frequentation due to the transit on the Magra valley bottom track, at the point where it reached the forced ford point on the Geriòla stream. Radiometric datings indicate how the concealment of the stelae took place between the middle of the 6th and the beginning of the 4th century BC, despite the impossibility of clarifying the real circumstances.

Following the radiometric dating, it will be considered first of all how the concealment pit was built, at least partially, on the ceremonial area of the stelae located in the immediate vicinity of the ford, a privileged passage point that for this peculiarity was interwoven by frequentation millennial. Going back in time beyond the moment of concealment of the stelae, the recent-final Bronze Age, the Middle-Upper-Final Neolithic, the Ancient Mesolithic are attested. The ceremonial area of the Groppoli steles, located in a forced transit point linked to a ford, is completely similar to other stele discovery sites linked to a forced ford in the context of an important natural artery: Pontevecchio (ford in the point of conjunction between the Canale di Nàvola and the Canale dei Bocciari, beyond which the Bàrdine stream begins), Talavorno (ford on the Màngiola river north of S. Benedetto), Ponticello (ford on the Càprio river), Pontremoli m. Galletto (ford on the Magra river in the locality of S. Làzzaro).

This observation represents a significant step in the relationship between the stele statues and their territory. [Publisher's text]