Bacini di approvvigionamento e produzione del ferro fra l’Elba e la costa toscana nel Medioevo: recenti acquisizioni e metodologie multidisciplinari per la ricostruzione di un nuovo quadro storico-archeologico

Sources and Production of Iron in Elba and the Tuscan Coast in the Middle Ages: Recent Information and Multidisciplinary Methods for the Reconstruction of a New Historical and Archaeological Understanding. The close connection that existed between the exploitation of the iron deposits on the island of Elba and the development of the social, economic, political and infrastructural features along the Tuscan coast facing Elba is a subject that has been dealt with by numerous authors. The final phase of the most intense mining of iron which started in the 7th century A.D. has traditionally been assigned to the period between the end of the 2nd and the middle of the 1st century B.C., but mining activity has been documented until Late Antiquity. Steel production first exploited Elban minerals, but also used the hydroxides from the Colline Metallifere, as it has been demonstrated by numerous documents. The expansion of the Lombards in the territory of Populonia in the 6th century A.D. has always been considered a serious obstacle to the circulation of the mineral from the island which, in the meantime, had remained under the domination of the Byzantines. The new archaeometric data acquired thanks to the ERC nEUMed project after the conclusion of the research on the site at Vetricella (Scarlino) have made it possible to re-evaluate this hypothesis and to underline the important role that the iron resources had for the territory of southern coastal Tuscany for the consumer towns in the north, from the 6th to the first half of the 11th century. The picture that emerges also reveals that the methods for exploiting the mines were part of a plan under a single direction which, in this historical phase, was the public authority.