Within two weeks the archaeological site of the pre-Roman necropolis of Cafaggio in Ameglia will be accessible to the public again thanks to the safety measures on the route which from next year will also see the complete removal of architectural barriers. A result presented today on the occasion of the European Archeology Days thanks to which the spotlight has been turned back on the site which in the last two and a half years – together with the Roman Villa of Bocca di Magra – has seen total interventions worth around 160 thousand euros with the objective of restoring full usability to citizens and tourists.
“When in 2021 they asked me to take care of these places – he said Luigi Gambaro, archaeologist of the Ministry and coordinator of the works – I realized that there was no one left from the Superintendence who could take care of it, they gave me the keys and told me what the problems were. It was a “mission impossible” to make a preliminary project for the safety and removal of architectural barriers. It was very difficult for me and I tried to do it to my best and with the development agreement signed in 2022 with the Municipality. we also obtained financial collaboration from the institution to be able to open these two places and carry out interventions that can no longer be postponed. A work that will be completed within the next year with the creation of the second entrance to the route which will also allow access to people with disabilities”.
“The valorization of the Ligurian Necropolis was and is for us one of the priorities of our cultural program – stated the Mayor Umberto Galazzo – Today is therefore an important day for an ever closer goal, a stretch of journey undertaken together with the Archaeological Superintendency of Liguria with which we have signed a program agreement which has also involved a series of interventions on the nearby site of the Roman Villa”. “Today the foundations are being laid to make the protohistoric Necropolis usable, the only complex funerary structure of the ancient Ligurians in the entire region – continued the councilor Marzia Ratti – I would therefore like to thank the Superintendence and in particular Luigi Gambaro for having made this intervention possible which allows us to add another piece in the perspective of respectful and aware tourism”.
Finally the architect Massimiliano Ali: “It is not always possible to find such a synergy but it was possible thanks to two sensitive institutions because it was necessary to identify a series of phases. We have ensured the safety of the previous structure in terms of accessibility and protection measures for non-adults and the restoration of some anchorages. It is not an architectural intervention but it allows us to rediscover full usability of the place.”
The archaeological site of Ameglia represents the cemetery area of a strong nucleus of Apuan Ligurians who traded with the Etruscans and Celts and made use of an important maritime port at the mouth of the Magra river, future seat of the portus Lunae and constitutes the most important testimony, in the entire Liguria and among the largest in north-western Italy, of Ligurian burial grounds dating mainly between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The tombs, 54, are made up of boxes made with slabs of schistose stone coming from the nearby Corvo promontory and they guard the urns with the incinerated remains of the deceased and the funerary objects. Each structure, which could also accommodate multiple burials united by kinship and/or social ties, was then protected by a pile of stones which also had the function of a marker.
