The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Claudio Giardino –

MINERAL RESOURCES AND MINES OF ETRURIA

The ore deposits

Tyrrhenian Etruria is the richest region of subalpine Italy for metal deposits. In its many
ore bodies are present, also in considerably rich mineralizations, copper, iron, lead, silver,
antimony, zinc, arsenic and tin. This consists of two main distinct geographical units,
with different metallogenic characteristics. The fi rst area is located south of the Arno,
in Tuscany, and includes the important mining districts of the Colline Metallifere (the
“Metal-bearing Hills”) and the island of Elba, and the second is in southern Etruria, with
the ore deposits of the Tolfa Mountains and the Maremma. There are also several other
minor outcrops in the Rognosi Mountains, in the region of Siena, in the Val di Cecina, in
the Apuan Alps, and near Florence at Impruneta (Lotti 1908: 179–182; Del Caldo et al.
1973: 160–167; Riccobono 1992; Giardino 2008: 73–74) (Fig. 37.6). This difference is
refl ected – in the common cultural matrix – even in the aspects and regional characteristics
of the Villanovan period: while Tuscany appears connected to the northern regions – as it
had been in the Late Bronze Age – and particularly to the Bologna area, southern Etruria
plays an autonomous role with the development of large proto-urban centers, which will
become the major cities of the historical age (Bietti Sestieri 2010: 252–253).

The mines

In Etruria, mining began in prehistoric times, as attested by the miners’ stone-hammers
found at Poggio Malinverno in the Tolfa Mountains (northern Lazio) (Giardino, Steiniger
2011). Traces of “prehistoric” exploitations have occasionally been observed also in
Tuscany, in the mines of Campiglia Marittima, Monte Rombolo, Boccheggiano and

Figure 37.6 Principal metal-bearing regions of Etruria.