Copper smelting activities at the Millan and Gudon Chalcolithic sites (Bolzano, Italy): chemical and mineralogical investigations of the archaeometallurgical finds

The Millan and Gudon archaeological sites are located in Northern Italy, a few km NE of Bolzano, Alto Adige on the left slope of the Isarco Valley. The Millan site was accidentally discovered in 2002 during a survey of the Bressanone area for the construction of a SNAM gas pipeline (Dal Ri et al. 2005), whereas the Gudon site, whose remains were unearthed during the summer of 2005, belongs to a wider well-known archaeological area that has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age (Tecchiati 2005). Over two hundred kilograms of smelting slags were collected at the Millan site together with a number of other remains, including a few fragmented baked-clay tuyeres, Bell Beaker ceramics shards, thick rimmed jars, and one Aeneolithic arrow head. Interestingly, a small metallic copper fragment was also found among the archaeological finds, making the Millan site one of the very few archaeological places yielding slags and semiworked metal at the same time. Neither furnace-like structures nor furnaces-related fragments were found at the Millan site.