- Claudio Giardino –
They also showed signifi cant contents of antimony and arsenic, probably related to the
use of copper ores containing these elements, like the copper minerals from northern
Lazio and southern Tuscany.
In Tuscany, relatively little metallurgical evidence can be clearly ascribed to the Iron
Age. Metalworking is attested on the island of Elba, which also has copper- and lead-ore
deposits as well as those of iron: the pseudo-Aristotle (De mir. Ausc. 93) stated that on
Elba, copper was mined fi rst and it was only later that iron was mined. In the site of Colle
Reciso (or perhaps at Santa Lucia) a fragmentary sandstone mold for casting axes was
discovered in the nineteenth century, associated with molten copper and slag (Cocchi,
1865: 10, pl. I: 11–12; Foresi, 1867: 18–19; Delpino 1981: 275, note 27). At Colle
Reciso – where there are iron and copper outcrops – a bronze hoard was also discovered
(two other hoards were found at Chiessi-Valle Gneccarina and in an unknown place on
the island) (Giardino 1995: 119–122).
Evidence of Iron Age metallurgical activities is also present in the Populonia region: at
the Villanovan site of Poggio del Molino, on the Gulf of Baratti, a stone mold for multiple
castings was found (Fedeli 1982–83: 157–164); additionally, the fi rst installation of the
furnaces at Val Fucinaia should be attributed to the Villanovan and Orientalizing periods
(Minto 1954: 302–303). The late Villanovan lead axes from the Volterra region are a local
production, and therefore they testify a casting activity that is almost exclusive to the
Val di Cecina area: examples were discovered at Bibbona, Lustignano and Volterra, in the
Guerruccia necropolis; only a single piece comes from Sarteano, which is in the territory
of Siena. These axes are probably related to the exploitation of lead ore deposits from the
Colline Metallifere (Giardino 1995: 129, Fig. B 62).
With regard to iron, its use develops in Etruria during the Early Iron Age, fi rst in
the centers of southern Etruria (Tarquinia and Veii) and then in those of Tuscany. At
Vetulonia only a small number of iron artifacts date from the eighth century bc; the
widespread diffusion occurs especially from the Orientalizing period onward (Gualtieri
1977: 221–222; Delpino 1988: 63–65; Giardino 2005: 498–499).
The Etruscan periodAncient sources on mining activities in Etruria are quite scarce. Strabo records the
existence of already abandoned old mines in the environs of Populonia (Strabo 5. 2.6).
Information on the smelting activities is also rare in literature. The presence of iron
smelting furnaces is mentioned on island of Elba, which owes its Greek name (Aithalia)
to the pollution of smoke (aithalos) that surrounds it. In the fi rst century bc, Diodorus
Siculus outlined the iron and steel processes that took place there:
...For the island possesses a great amount of iron-rock, which they quarry in order to
melt and cast and thus to secure the iron, and they possess a great abundance of this
ore. For those who are engaged in the working of this ore crush the rock and burn the
lumps which have thus been broken in certain ingenious furnaces; and in these they
smelt the lumps by means of a great fi re and form them into pieces of moderate size
which are in their appearance like large sponges. These are purchased by merchants
in exchange either for money or for goods and are then taken to Dicaearchia (modern
Pozzuoli, Naples) or the other trading-stations, where there are men who purchase
such cargoes and who, with the aid of a multitude of artisans in metal whom they have