14C-dating from an old quarry waste dump of Carrara Marble (Italy): evidences of the pre-Roman exploitation

In the Carrara Marble Basins (Northern Tuscany, Italy), long and intense quarrying activities since the Roman times have produced extensive deposits of waste materials, known locally as ravaneti. Controversy still exists about the beginning of marble exploitation in the area. Three 14C-age determinations performed on charcoal-rich levels embedded in an old ravaneto help us to better understand the beginning of this exploitation. The older dates (2470 ;± 45 and 2290 ± 45 years BP, in term of calibrated ages: 763-409 BC and 405-205 BC) indicate that marble exploitation began well before the Roman conquest. These data demonstrate that ravaneti may be useful archaeological archives for reconstructing the history of marble exploitation in this area