- chapter 37: Villanovan and Etruscan mining and metallurgy –
collected, work it further and manufacture iron objects of every description. (Diodorus
5.13.1–2; translation by Loeb Classical Library edition, 1939).This passage shows, inter alia, that at least some iron was exported still unrefi ned, as
bloom, to be refi ned elsewhere: this was confi rmed by the archaeometallurgical analysis of
some bloom fragments found in the Etruscan settlement of La Castellina del Marangone,
near Civitavecchia (Giardino 2011: 991) (Fig. 37.12). The iron ore was exported from
Elba into the Tyrrhenian area starting from the sixth-fi fth century bc; it probably reached,
as well as Populonia, Follonica, Pisa and Genoa (Corretti, Benvenuti 2001: 142).
Elban industry remained very prosperous as late as the third century bc, since the
Elban military contingent, who participated on the Roman side at the battle of Cannae
in 216 bc, was very proud of using weapons made from iron extracted from their own
mines (Silius Italicus, Punica 8.615–616). Even Arezzo, like Populonia, must have had
a fl ourishing metallurgical industry. In 205 bc, during the Second Punic War, the two
cities were the only ones among the Etruscans supplying metal objects to the Roman
army: Arezzo provided Rome with 50,000 weapons including shields, spears, helmets,
spurred spears, as well as tools such as axes, hoes and sickles; Populonia supplied Rome
with a large amount of iron (Livy 28.45).
Few details are known about the settlements associated with mining. As well as the
above-mentioned village near Lago dell’Accesa – which is just over a kilometer from the
rich deposits of mixed sulphides at Capanne – settlements that are also likely to be related
to mining activities include the hill settlements of Castello di Procchio and Castiglione
di San Martino where the fl oors rest on a base set up made with iron slag, dating from the
fi fth-fourth centuries to the^ fi rst century bc (Camporeale 1985: 24).
Iron smelting slags have been found in Tuscany, along the coast of Follonica (Cucini
Tizzoni, Tizzoni 1992: 47–51); and at Follonica, in the Via Massetana, 21 furnaces have
been found, arranged in battery (Aranguren et al. 1998). However, the main evidence
of the Etruscan iron industry comes from Populonia, on the Gulf of Baratti, where even
into the early twentieth century the slag covered an area of 200,000 square meters,
reaching a depth of ten meters (D’Achiardi 1929: 397). The archaeological excavations
of the industrial district, from the 1970s to the present day, show that in this area iron
metallurgy had developed since the mid-sixth century bc (Martelli 1981; Buonamici
2006). Investigations have identifi ed furnaces, with a similar shape to those of Follonica.
Figure 37.12 Fragment of a bloom from the Etruscan site of La Castellina del Marangone
(Santa Marinella, Rome).