In the second half of third millennium B.C. from Southern France came to western Ligurian Riviera new peoples, bringer of new culture – material and spiritual – a culture that originally came from the uplands of Languedoc. They introduced new burial rite of collective burial in open air tomb. They created weapons and instruments splintering the stone, and they mined copper ore to make up small personal belongings, daily use instruments or weapons.

A little pastoral community took up own residence near the today’s village of Realdo during the summertime for the transhumance, and the Grà di Marmo (Marble), an hidden little cave to the collective burial.

The "Arma del Grà" of Marble is a little tiny cave of karst formation split open in the grey limestone of Middle Eocene, and it is 985 metres high.

In this cave from 1963 onwards, thanks to the efforts of brothers Enrico and Erminio Lanteri Motin of Realdo, was arranged four excavations campaign leading by the Research Group of Archaeological Institute of Liguria Region.

The excavations, leading by Mr. Massimo Ricci, show very soon a thick and confused mass of human bones found out in a cave.

The hollow was bounded by a small stone wall and covered by limestone sheets. All the bodies founded out with curled up their legs.

The place was very cramped and many bones show us traces of incomplete combustion after special rites.

In the "Arma del Grà" of Marble there were found out more than twenty-five bodies buried and it means that this hollow it was engaged to sepulchral purpose for a long time during the Copper Age. A couple of bones samples have the date between the 2800 and 2400 B.C.

THE FUNERARY OUTFIT: THE LITHIC INDUSTRY AND THE CERAMICS

The excavations found out a rich and several funerary outfit, typical of Copper Age, plenty of lithic instruments and small decoration objects. The lithic industry consisting just in arrow cusps and "half-moons", in flint-stone and jasper: an arrow-centre with lozenge shape, an arrow-centre with peduncular tail, and others "half-moons", extracting from flint-stone blades. That "half-moons", surely, were used to load the arrow cusps.

THE LITHIC POLISHED INDUSTRY

It is represented by a heel fragment of polished axe in green stone (jadeite). The axes and the hatchets were polished to wood handwork or to cut the trees down and sometimes to create weapons to defence when it needs. They worked out for this industry with three stages, once they finished the axe or hatchet and then put them fix a wedge into the wood.

THE CERAMICS

The excavation restored lots of fragments about just a big pot: it is egg-shaped, with flat-bottomed and with elbow handles. This pot shows in advance some typological shapes of Polada, a culture of old Bronze Age (2200 - 1600 B.C.) established in Northern Italy.

A specimen very similar has been found out in the Grotta (cave) dell’Antenna, nearby Borgio Verezzi (SV), with a flat copper axe. (Some instruments are on exhibition at the Archaeolgical Museum of San Remo. There are some casts at the Ethnographical Museum of Triora).

THE FUNERARY OUTFIT: THE ORNAMENTAL OBJECTS

The excavation restored several pieces of funerary outfit, typical of Copper Age, mainly lithic instruments and some ornamental objects.

Similar archaeological finds were found out in the sepulchral caves of Alpes-Maritimes and Var Region in France.

These objects are hundreds of necklaces made of marble or calcspar. The pearls so called "à ailettes" are coming from Southern France. Those pearls are widely diffuse in many European countries, and especially in Italy: in Ligurian Region were found out in the "Arma della Grà" of Marble, in the Argentina Valley itself, in the "Tana Bertrand" (Badalucco), in the "Arma della Vigna", near Loreto of Triora and in the "Tana dell’Armusso", in the Maremmola Valley (SV); in the Lombardia Region, in the "Buco del Corno" of Entratico, in the "Bus della Scabla" of Aviatico and in the"Buca di Andrea" in Zogno; in the Veneto Region at the "Colombare del Negrar".

Sixty-six pearls "a goccia" (drop), made of marble or calcspar with three or four lobes; all these small pearls were used to get distance between the vague of necklaces.

The only two objects made of bone restored are: a bent hanging, in circle section, obtained from a wild bore’s tusk (n°2) a multi-punched small plate, rectangular slightly bent, obtained from a thin plate of wild bore’s tusk (n°1). Probably were used to get distance between the pearls of necklaces.

THE OBJECTS MADE OF COPPER

These kind of objects are particularly important of their rarity, several bent hangings in some shapes (n°4) and (n°3). An exact copy of this hanging was found out near Saint-Paul-lez-Fayence in the Var Region, in France.

The excavation restored lots of shell fragments of "dentalium", that ones were used to get the distance between the stone necklaces.

(All the instruments restored are on exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of San Remo. Some casts are available at the Ethnographical Museum of Triora.)