The site of Bibbiani, situated on a hill at circa 15,000 north-west of the town of Capraia, was identified in 1989 by members of the Archaeological Group of Montelupo Fiorentino. In the early 1990s it was excavated by the Superintendency of Tuscany in collaboration with Montelupo Fiorentino’s Museum of Archaeology and Ceramics. The research uncovered a sub-elliptical hut on the summit of the hill. Inside was archaeological material dating to an advanced phase of the Late Bronze Age. Moreover, structures relating to the same occupation phase were found in several trenches, suggesting that the hill was the site of a large settlement.

The excavations were interrupted in 1992 and began again in 2006. Below the humus a deposit was reached containing occasional fragments of majolica, relating to sporadic occupation in the late medieval period and numerous but minute fragments of impasto pottery attributable to the Late Bronze Age settlement. Considering the disposition of the materials and the varied nature of the sediment, this deposit was interpreted as colluvial soil, which suggests the presence further north of another prehistoric site. Below this level was another layer interpretable either as the “roof” of a sunken structure, or as further colluvial sediment which had filled the break in the slope caused by the “hut’s” construction. The structure is of large dimensions and placed on a north-south alignment.