Roman Times
In 238 BC began in Sardinia the era of Roman domination. As a matter of fact Carthage was forced to formally cede the island to Rome following the defeat in the First Punic War and the upheaval of the mercenaries who were stanced on the island. In 226 BC, Sardinia was granted the status of Roman province.
Under the Romans mining activity grew strongly, first of all as far as rich gold ore bodies of lead and silver are concerned. Ever since 269 BC the Roman Republic had employed silver as a monetary unit, whereas lead was used in the most various fields of civil life, from crockery to water pipes. Sardinia ranked the third region, among all Roman dominions, after Spain and Brittany, in the amount of worked metals. The mining production during the whole period of Roman rule was assessed at about six hundred thousand tons of lead and one thousand tons of silver. The mining industry of the Romans was not limited to the basin of the Iglesiente, in fact they knew and definitely exploited rich silver ore bodies of Sarrabus, the importance of which the geographer Solinus was referring to when he wrote: "India ebore, argento Sardinia, Attica melle" ("India is famous for ivory, Sardinia for silver and Attica for honey").
The mining development in the Roman era consisted mainly of excavations and shafts—some more than one hundred meter deep—using hand tools and sometimes fire-setting to shatter rocks. Workers were free miners first, called "metallari" and from about 190 onwards were slaves and prisoners called "damnati ad effodienda metalla." In 369 the emperor Valentinian II decreed that each ship landing at Sardinia should pay a tax of 5 soldi for each metallarus on board. Afterwards the emperors Gratian, Valens and Valentinian II prevented any metallari from moving to the island. There was a fear that the extraordinary richness of Sardinian ore bodies might threaten the silver mines of Spain that were owned by the Emperor.
In the late Roman era Sardinian mining industry diminished significantly and, in order to satisfy the limited needs of the island's market, many more were relinquished and some of these, like those of the Sarrabus, were forgotten.
Read more about this topic: History Of Mining In Sardinia
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