Ilva
Ilva is an island located in the Tuscan archipelago, approximately seven miles off the coast of Etruria in western Italy. Spanning eighty-six square miles, Ilva is known for its rich agricultural resources and fisheries, but it gained historical significance primarily due to its abundant metal deposits, particularly iron. The island's name has Ligurian origins and was historically referred to as Aithalia, a name likely derived from the smoke produced by its metalworking activities. Excavations have revealed that Ilva was an important trade hub, attracting Greek traders as early as the eighth century BC, who sought its iron, which had begun to replace copper as the primary metal in exports. Its resources contributed significantly to the prosperity of nearby Etruscan cities, especially Populonia, which thrived on trade and metallurgy linked to Ilva. Following its conquest by Rome around 250 BC, Ilva continued to supply metals and granite, maintaining its economic importance for some time. The island features remnants of Roman habitation, including villas and coastal settlements, which reflect its historical significance as a center of mining and trade.
Subject Terms
Ilva
formerly Aithalia, Vetalu (?) (Elba)
An island, eighty-six square miles in area, seven miles from the coast of Etruria (Tuscany, western Italy). Ilva possessed useful agriculture and fisheries, but being virtually an extension of the Catena Metallifera (qv) on the mainland, it principally owed its fame and prosperity to its wealth of metals. The name Ilva is Ligurian, but (like other islands possessing mineral wealth) it was also called Aithalia from the smoke (aithalos) rising from its metalworkings; late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) tablets of the thirteenth century BC seem to refer to Aitaro, and subsequently the Etruscans, who occupied a considerable number of sites on the island, probably called it Vetalu, or perhaps Eitale.
In their time iron was replacing copper as the principal export, and its abundant availability, mostly near the east coast and in open-cast mines, attracted Greek traders, at least from the eighth century BC; for fragments of iron attributable to that date, and originating from Ilva, have been found on the Campanian island Pithecusae (Ischia), the Greek market that fulfilled a pioneer role in developing commercial relations with the metal-rich Etruscan communities. Much of the prosperity of Etruscan Populonia, on the mainland opposite, was derived from Ilva, and both alike seem to have belonged to the powerful city-state of Vetulonia from about the seventh century onward.
It was in order to plunder Ilva's large supplies of iron that a Syracusan fleet attacked the island (as well as Corsica) in 454/3. Not long afterward Populonia took over much of the smelting of this metal from the islanders, who no longer had sufficient wood-coal at their disposal. About 250 Rome gained control of Ilva, but it continued to flourish, at least for a time, supplying granite as well as metals to the mainland. Virgil celebrates its `inexhaustible mines,’ referring less to the the present than the past. The foremost of several Roman towns was Fabricia on the north coast of the island (Portoferraio, `Iron Harbor,’ formerly Feraia, from the iron mines nearby); and large Roman villas have come to light at Grotto di Portoferraio and Cavo di Rio Marina.