Luni

An Apennine village with long houses cut into soft rock, a small but prosperous Roman town on the Ligurian coast of north Italy. It specialized in the trade of marbles quarried at Carrara. There is evidence of its Late Roman trading contacts with North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean and there are imported soapstones and lead coins of the 7th-9th centuries.

A small but prosperous Roman town on the Ligurian coast of north Italy that specialized in the trade of marbles quarried at nearby Carrara. However, small excavations in the centre of the abandoned classical town have revealed a sequence of post-classical phases that illustrates Luni’s 5th- and 6th-century prosperity, and its slow contraction thereafter. In particular, evidence of its Late Roman trading contacts with North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean have come to light, as have imported soapstones and lead coins of the 7th-9th centuries. Whether the history of Luni is typical of many classical towns now remains to be seen, but these excavations put the Dark Ages in this part of Italy in sharp perspective.