ENTRE ORIENTE Y OCCIDENTE: LA CIRCULACIÓN DE METALES EN ETRURIA Y EL TIRRENO CENTRAL ENTRE LA EDAD DEL HIERRO Y LA ROMANIZACIÓN. RESULTADOS PRELIMINARES Y PERSPECTIVAS EN EL MARCO DE UNA INVESTIGACIÓN INTERDISCIPLINAR

An archaeometallurgical and archaeometric study on midle-tyrrhenian Italian materials can ’ t be done without taking into account the complex of relations in which the Mediterranean area (western as well as eastern part) is involved. This paper deals with a chronological span of about six centuries, from Early Iron Age to classical period (10th – 9th/ 5th – 4th cent. BC), after which the Romanization brought a radical change in trade dynamics. The on-going research is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach (in which archaeometric and archaeological studies collaborate) and deals with copper, bronze, iron and lead artefacts, as well as silver and gold ones. Provenience and compositional studies have been started on initiative of the Antiquity Department of University of Rome “ La Sapienza ” , in collaboration with the Engineering Chemistry Materials and Environment Department of the same university, The Earth Science Department of University of Florence, the Istituto Superiore per il Restauro and the National Committee for Research (CNR) and they have been carried out on finds coming both from Etruria (some funerary objects from Veii, 9th – 7th cent. BC and some cultual materials from the sanctuary of Pyrgi, late 6th/4th – 3rd cent. BC) and from Latium Vetus (from the Poggio Cavallari necropolis of Satricum, 5th – 4th cent. BC). The possibility of a direct relation between different mining areas such as Etruria, Sardinia, Iberia and Eastern Mediterranean can be traced on the base of many on-going studies on metallurgical activities at Cerveteri and Tarquinia and their territories. Concerning iron production (between Early Iron Age and the orientalising period, 10th-7th cent. BC) in the middle-Tyrrhenian area, it ’ s fundamental to verify the already well accepted possibility of a subordinate position of southern Etruria (Veii, Cerveteri and Tarquinia) to northern Etruria (the richest and the largest mining area of Etruria). So particular attention is to be dedicated at the complicated relation between the Tolfa mountains and the rich mining area of Campigliese and expecially the Elba island. Concerning copper, they have been sampled both imitated and imported artefacts and surely local ones, coming from funerary contexts in Veii (some tombs dated at the second half of the 8th cent. BC). Of extreme interest are the data came to light from recent analysis (by Prof. José Ignacio Gil Ibarguchi dell ’ Universidad del País Vasco, SGIker-Geocronología & Dpto. Mineralogía- Petrología della Facultad Ciencia y Tecnología) made on a miniaturistic jar of nuragic production or type and on a spit (the first one coming from a female tomb and the second one from a male one, both of the second half of 8th cent. BC). For later eras (classical and hellenistic periods), archaeometric analysis have been done on some samples of aes rude coming from the sanctuary of Pyrgi, by the harbour of Cerveteri, dated between 5th and 4th – 3rd cent. BC. 94 About supply and circulation of lead in Etruria and Latium Vetus, are now available the results of isotopic analysis (still by Prof. José Ignacio Gil Ibarguchi) made on a fragment of a cup (Veii, end of the 8th cent BC), on a group of lead acorn bullets (glandes plumbeae), of drainage remains and of ingots (cultual offers from Pyrgi, 6th – 4th cent. BC) and on some miniaturistic weapons (from Poggio Cavallari necropolis of Satricum, 5th – 4th cent. BC). A wide range of possibilities is now given by the studies just started on the sources of precious metals, as in the western as in the eastern Mediterranean. If about gold the small quantities of trace elements prevent from substantial results, about silver the situation is quite different. An interdisciplinary equipe is now at work in order to form a data-base, not different from the one already available about lead, but based furthermore on differences in trace elements. Important results can be given by the forthcoming isotopic and trace elements analysis (that will be committed to Prof. José Ignacio Gil Ibarguchi and interpreted by the equipe of Prof. Rovira and by Dr. Martina Renzi) on samples collected from two hemispherical silver cups of oriental type, of Assyrian or Phoenician production, found in Veii. Those results could be compared to those of the recent researches on two cups coming from the Warrior Tomb in Tarquinia (now at the Altes Museum in Berlin), dated between the third and fourth quart of the 8th cent. BC like the homonymous tomb in Veii, from which comes the oldest of the two hemispherical cups. The analysis on the warrior tomb in Tarquinia seem to point out the possibility of an employment of native silver from Almeria ores. Others comparisons could be made between forthcoming analysis on artefacts coming from some of the main southern Etruria centers (Veio, Tarquinia, Vulci, Ischia di Castro, Narce, Falerii), in agreement with the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici, and on Phoenician or imitated finds from Sicily dated to the Orientalizing period, now in study by the colleague of the CNR Massimo Cultraro who for some years have been coordinating a research about gold and silver mines in Sicily and Calabria.