Recenti indagini sui contesti minerari delle Colline Metallifere (Toscana, Italia). Metodologie, fonti, protocolli operativi e risultati/Recent investigations on the mining contexts of the Colline Metallifere (Tuscany, Italy). Methodologies, sources, operational protocols and results

In 2021 and 2022, the LTTM Lab (Laboratory of the Topography of Mining Territories), operating at the Department of Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage, University of Siena, promoted two new multidisciplinary territorial survey campaigns on areas of high archaeo-mining informative potential in the Colline Metallifere district (Grosseto province). The survey protocol adopted was based on multiple sources (archaeological, geological, cartographic, documentary and photographic), and on a research strategy highly integrated between different skills. Remote sensing tools (LiDAR DTM), and geochemical analyses (pXRF) were used extensively. Statistical processing for the classification and interpretation of the evidence identified produced a significant qualitative increase in information and an improved characterization of the production landscape. Thanks to the use of new survey tools, the research achieved a significant numerical increase in the archaeological data, which now counts more than 800 reports, and an expansion of the investigated areas. In this paper, three case studies are presented in order to highlight the potential of new multidisciplinary operational protocols for the study of mining shafts, metallurgical processing areas and «cave-mining» contexts.