In the absence of written sources, the dating of stele statues can only be done based on archaeological and stratigraphic contexts. Almost all of the stele statues in Lunigiana were found by chance (during field or road works) and their discoveries occurred in different periods, starting from the 19th century. Sometimes, even the documentation regarding the circumstances of the findings and the exact location is missing. Only in two cases, Minucciano III (in the figure) and Venelia II, archaeological excavations were carried out, providing useful information for interpreting the context and dating the monuments.

Due to these factors, dating stele statues requires the use of other methods, such as studying the objects (e.g., daggers) depicted on the monuments themselves. These attributes are compared with objects found in excavations that are properly dated, thus establishing a tentative chronology for the stele statues. However, this method, based solely on analogy, can have ambiguities and cannot be considered reliable in all situations (for example, the depiction of weapons that were typical of a certain period but continued to be depicted on stele statues even in a much later period than their actual diffusion).

Based on various studies and datings, a chronological range has been identified for the stele statues, spanning from the beginning of the Copper Age (late 4th millennium BC) to the full Iron Age (7th-6th century BC), with a significant development of the phenomenon during the central phase of the Bronze Age (2800-2300 BC).

Groups A and B are the oldest, as the male stele statues feature a Copper Age dagger. These statues retained their value and significance at least until the Middle Bronze Age. With the late stages of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, production ceased, only to resume with the stele statues of Group C, which exhibit iconographic elements from the older ones, indicating a continuity, at least ideologically, with the previous groups. This last series of monuments, which can be considered more as statues than steles due to their three-dimensional representation, can be dated, based on inscriptions on some of them and the typology of weapons, from the late 7th century to the late 6th century BC.