Le district minier des Collines Métallifères (Toscane, Italie) durant la période médiévale. L’exploitation des ressources et les implications politiques et économiques

The Colline Metallifere mining district is located in western Tuscany (central Italy), and includes a vast area which extends from the inland to the Tyrrenian coast. Durning the last twenty years, the territory has been investigated by the University of Siena, and from the 2015 is the core of an Erc–Advanced project, named: NeuMed: Origins of a new economic union, 7th-12th centuries: resources, landscapes and political strategies in a Mediterranean region, co-ordinated by the University of Siena (p.i. prof. Richard Hodges). Following the first, well known and pioneristic researches initiated by Riccardo Francovich, which were mainly focused on the late medieval period, the new studies, carried out during the last ten years, have challenged the detailed reconstruction of settlement patterns and resource exploitation over a long chronological period, from Early to Late Medieval time. Within this period, a special attention has been reserved to the study of mixed sulphides exploitation. In this contribution, our aim is to analyze the political strategies carried out by public or private powers, which were in charge of the exploitation of different crucial natural resources (i.e. non-ferrous minerals; iron minerals; salt), on the basis of the most recent archaeological and historical achievements. These strategies will be followed starting from the economic policies and trade routes developed on both local and wider territorial scale, in the historical frame included between 7th and 12th centuries.