La fibula ad arco di Piazza al Serchio e i primi ritrovamenti di epoca longobarda a Lucca (XIX secolo)

The article suggests the identification of a bow brooch (7th century AD) of unknown provenience, which now belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with a brooch coming from the Lombard cemetery of Piazza al Serchio near Lucca (Tuscany). The cemetery was dug up illegally at the beginning of the twentieth century and the grave goods were dispersed. The identification is based upon some notes made by a local scholar, Livio Migliorini. At the time of the discovery, Migliorini made a drawing of the brooch which showed an unusual detail: an engraved stylized human portrait on its back side. After almost a century, the identification of the original context of the brooch gives new scientific value to an artifact that, up until now, was lacking provenience and also provides a new key for the interpretation of the history of the site, above all in the light of the other early medieval findings in the area.