THE BEGINNING OF IRON METALLURGY IN TUSCANY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ETRURIA MINERARIA* Alessandro Corretti Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa Marco Benvenuti Dipartimento Scienze della Terra, Università Firenze To the memory of Giuseppe Nenci. Everyone interested in archaeometallurgy is aware of the richness of Tuscany in mineral resources and of the importance that these resources had in the development of Etruscan and Roman civilizations; in medieval times too, numerous city-states derived important revenues from mining exploitation and metal production. The same is valid, on a larger scale, after the unification of Tuscany under the Medici government in the i 6th century, and even in recent times some mineral resources, such as iron ore from Elba, were successfully exploited notwithstanding international competition. Though minor iron ores, exploited in past times, occur also in other parts of Tuscany, the evidence about ancient ironworking in these sites is very scarce or even absent; so the present article wiIl deal mainly with the Colline Metalflfere * We wish to thank Dr. V. Serneels and Prof. J.-P. Descudres and the University of Geneva for their kind invitation and warrn hospitality in Geneva, as well as for their patient waiting for, and reviewing of, this paper. The responsibility for the contents is, of course, entirely the authors’ This paper represents a slightly different version with respect to the lecture given at Geneva in June 1999 in that it deals only with the beginnings of Populonian and Elban ironworking. The text is the resuli of prolonged discussions and cooperative work between the authors, with A. C. being responsible for the historico-archaeological aspects, and M. B. for the geological and archaeo metallurgical issues. Financial support carne from the italian National Research Council (CNR) through its Progetto Finalizzato Beni Culturali, from MURST (ex-60% grants to M. B.), and from the Laboratorio di Topografia Storico-Archeologica del Mondo Antico, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. Special mention should be macle of the late Prof. Giuseppe Nenci, who directed this unit for more than 15 years: everyone working with him will forever remember his deep knowledge, great hurnanity, and untiring enthusiasin. He allowed A. C, to make this study side by side with current work in Sicily and at Pisa, and to his memory we want to dedicate this work, as a small and humble token of our sincere thanks. Note the use of the following abbreviations, in addition to the usual ones: Corretti 1988 A. Corretti, ‘Indagine preliminare sull’attività di riduzione del ferro in età romana all’isola d ‘Elba’, Geo-archeologia 1, 1988, 7—39 Delpino 1981 F. Delpino, ‘Aspetti e problemi della prima età del ferro nell’Etruria settentrionale marittima’, L’Etruria Mineraria. Atti del XII Convegno di Studi Etruschi e Italici, Firenze-Populonia-Piombino 1979 (1981) 265—98 Delpino 1988 F. Delpino, ‘Prime testimonianze dell’uso del ferro in Italia’, The First Iron in the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the Populonia/Piombino 1983 Symposium. Il primo ferro nel Mediterraneo. Atti del Convegno di Populonia/Piombino 1983, Pact2l (1988)47—68 Delpino 1990 F. Delpino, ‘Siderurgia e protostoria italiana’, Studi Etruschi 56, 1989—90, 3—9 Delpinio 1993 F. Delpino, ‘Apporti egei nell’avvio di attività siderurgiche nell’italia antica?’, BPI 84, 1993, 48 1—90 Fedeli 1983 F. Fedeli, Populonia. Storia e territorio (1983) Minto 1954 A. Minto, ‘L’antica industria mineraria in Etruria ed il porto di Populonia. Studi Etruschi 23, 1954, 291—3 19 Ridgway 1992 D. Ridgway. The Firsi Western Greeks (1992) Romualdi 1993 A. Romualdi, ‘La polis nel periodo arcaico e l’attività di lavorazione del ferro’, in: aa.vv., Populonia e il suo territorio. Profilo storico- archeologico (1993)1(12—17 MEDITARCH 14,2001. 127-145