The Iglesiente: a mining area in the centre of the ancient Mediterranean world

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Sardinia was famous in Antiquity for its silver, lead, copper, and perhaps zinc and tin deposits. The metal abundance is considered to be the main reason for the Phoenician, Punic, and Roman interest on this island in the first millennium BC until Late Antiquity. Nevertheless, the exploration of Sardinia as an important mining region in these periods has scarcely been done, neither with the use of the ore-resources, the installation of the mines, the smelting and working places, the transport and trade of the ores, nor the therewith connected administrative and socio-historical aspects. In a three-year- project, the development of the local infrastructure (e.g., roads, settlements, sanctuaries) in correlation with the ore deposits, and the smelting and working places of the chaîne opératoire, in combination with the historical background from the 1st millennium BC until the Late Roman period in the Iglesiente (the most rich in ore-region in Sardinia) shall be systematically explored and set into a broader Mediterranean context. Evidence is available by archaeological, literary and epigraphic sources and shall be combined with newly created data by different methods.