Alpine Archaeocopper Project
The AAcP project is a joint collaboration between several Institutions aiming the re-investigations of Alpine copper mines, in order to define the mineralogical, petrological, geochemical aspects, and to develop a database of elemental and isotopic tracers for provenancing ancient copper metals and smelting slags.
The conceptual foundations of the investigations are reported in specific publications.
The esperimental techniques employed are:
| Technique | aim | working groups tasks |
| Field survey and sampling | collect samples from copper mines (ancient and modern) representative and appropriate to be a geochemical reference of ore mineralizations | UNIPD, ARCA, NATMUS, MTSN |
| X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) | mineral identification prior to chemical and isotopic analysis | UNIPD |
| optical microscopy (RL-OM) | petrography of the ores, minerogenetic intepretation | UNIPD |
| electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) | preliminary chemical analysis, micro-phase identification | UNIPD |
| quadrupolar mass spectrometry (ICP-QMS) | trace elements 14<Z<83, including PGE and REE | UNINSUBRIA |
| multicollector mass spectrometry (ICP-MC-MS) | copper and lead isotopes | BERN |
| advanced statistical analysis (PCA, PLS-DA, etc.) | discriminant models for each minerary district, provenancing models | UNINSUBRIA |
Data are available for these copper districts (all individual deposits are listed in the database):
| Region | Minerary district (Main deposits) | status |
| Carnia | Carnic Alps (Monte Avanza, Comeglians, Casera Pramosio) | completed |
| Veneto | Agordo (Valle Imperina, Sasso Negro, Valle del Mis, Passo di Valles) [pictures] | completed |
| Schio (M. Trisa, M. Naro) | completed |
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| Trentino | Valsugana (Calceranica, Vetriolo, V. di Sella, Cinque Valli, Pamera) [pictures] | completed |
| Val dei Mocheni (Grua va Hardombl) [pictures] | completed | |
| Faedo (Montagił) | completed | |
| Predazzo (Bedovina) | in progress | |
| Alto Adige | Valle Aurina (Predoi) [pictures] | completed |
| Chiusa (Monte Fondoli/Pfundererberg) [pictures] | completed | |
| Val Venosta-Val Martello | completed | |
| Lombardia | Val Camonica | in progress |
| Val d'Aosta | St. Marcel (Chuch-Servette), Herin, Petit Monde, V. d'Ayas | in progress |
| Piemonte | Valli di Lanzo (Chialamberto, Usseglio) | completed |
| Val di Susa (Cruvino, Salbertrand) | completed | |
| Canavese (Colle della Borra, Piamprato) | completed | |
| Val Germanasca (Via Fiorcia) | completed | |
| Val Pellice (Ciabraressa) | completed | |
| Valsesia (Alagna) | completed | |
| Queyras (France) | Saint Veran [pictures] | completed |
| Liguria | Libiola, Monte Loreto [pictures], Bonassola, Reppia, Piazza | completed |
| Val Bormida (Murialdo) [pictures] | completed | |
| Emilia Romagna | Valle del Secchia-Dragone (Boccassuolo) | completed |
| Valle del Nure (Vigonzano) | completed | |
| Toscana | Isola d'Elba | partial sampling |
| Campiglia Marittima | completed | |
| Val di Cornia | partial sampling | |
| Ophiolites of the Tuscanian Apennine | partial sampling | |
| Colline Metallifere, Grossetano | partial sampling |