Il Parco archeogeominerario di Pisogne: valutazioni ecostoriche e geoarcheologiche alle pendici del Monte Guglielmo

The iron mining and processing activities in the Pisogne area, already attested in the 10th century and continuing until 1966, have left extensive remains of mining sites. As part of a project aimed at preserving the evidence of this centuries-old history and promoting the area for tourism, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the local administration of Pisogne have promoted a feasibility study for an archaeo-mining park, based on a widespread archaeological survey and an in-depth analysis of the geological characteristics of the territory. During the research it was thus possible to carry out a precise evaluation of the geological characteristics of the area, identify geo-archaeological and mining evidence and draw up a geo-referenced map of the sites of interest. In this way, more than 120 mining sites and about 30 structures linked in various ways to the cultivation and processing of iron have been surveyed and catalogued: in particular 15 roasting kilns (the so-called regane). The contribution illustrates the initiative and its prospects in the scientific field; the first results of the archaeometric analyses carried out at the Lucchini steelworks of Lovere and CNR, Institute of Sciences of Cultural Heritage, on slag samples taken during the surveys are also presented.