Archaeometallurgy: the contribution of mineralogy

Modern mineralogy is a discipline that is intrinsically suited to face archaeometric problems, especially in the field of archaeometallurgy, which requires contributions from areas as diverse as geochemistry, petrology, materials science, metallurgy, archaeology, engineering, and many more. Arguably, it is show that mineralogy may provide the necessary frame to put into use the information derived from different sources, and combine it into a unifying interpretation. According to the mainstream of the metal production cycle, the most significant areas of investigation in archaeometallurgy are: (1) the characterization and identification of ore sources (the mining stage); (2) the reconstruction of the smelting technologies for reduction of the metal (the smelting stage); (3) the interpretation of the metallurgical manufacturing processes in the production of the artefacts (the metallurgical stage); (4) the reconstruction of the use and diffusion of the metal objects (the physical lifetime of the object) and the incorporation in the archaeological record and their preservation (the afterlife stage). Examples will be discussed of the contribution of mineralogy to all steps of the archaeometallurgical cycle.