At the beginning the metal had the sense of strong index of power and wealth. Its rarity to find and the need to obtain it did make it was difficult to know the technologic secret that allowed to obtain from minerals and to work them in the meantime.

Its color and brilliance then, that reminded the luster of the stars, made the metal objects fine and requested, from leaders both civil and religious, then by those who, like gods, exercise power on earth.
Still they continue to make with metal the symbols of power: just watch to the crowns and scepters that constitute the really symbol of royalty and that are made of gold or platinum.
Furthermore rich and powerful men have always exhibit artifacts in precious metal (watches, brooches, pottery, etc.) as a sign of social and economic superiority.
Already in the early metal age are attested forms of storage and exchange of ingots, weapons, ornaments and tools. The copper and the bronze during prehistoric period, as well as gold actually, distinguished the common people by the powerful and rich person.
Communities (as well individuals) that were able to accumulate a greater quantity of metal were in a position significantly preferred over the others.
The desire to own precious metal has always been that since ancient times there were attempts to obtain them starting from the less value, through the magic and alchemy.
The money - which for millennia has been made, not surprisingly, in metal - it was only a manifestation, however, relatively recently, of the prestige that metal possessed.
The coin makes its first appearance around the late seventh century BC in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, and represents the solution of a long economic and social process with the capability to absolve to the need of wide-ranging exchange.
The traffic of goods and products, in fact, could no longer meet the complex economy that developed in the ancient world as part of long range market, not at least because of the perishable nature of some product.
Pre-and between the first historical age lies a phase defined as "premonetale", in which the metal, used in various forms and divisible by weight, was an effective symbol of commerce.
The study meeting is focused on scientific issues related to the use of the metal as an index of wealth and power and to related technologies.
Plenty of space, of course, will be reserved for experimentation and learning, as in the spirit ant the tradition of the meetings of Experimental Archaeology held so far in Antiquitates center.
One day will finally be dedicated to a type of ancient material discovered only recently, the term "cermets" (union of the initial word "ceramics" and "metal"), which was observed for the first time most recently on some archaeological Indonesians particular from the site of Gua Made Jjava).
These objects of art, probably depicting gods and ancestors, are made of  a materials, "cermets", which has the technological characteristics of the ceramic, but the appearance, value and symbolic worth of the metal.

The workshop will be held in Etruria, a region rich in deposits of metal ores, where metallurgy began as early as the late Neolithic age. Metallurgy then contributed substantially to the development and wealth of Etruscan civilization, which began minting money relatively late, after a long pre-monetary period.
Unfortunately, due in part to the scarcity of the documentation that has come down to us, our knowledge of the Etruscans’ metal-working techniques is rather limited and sometimes uncertain. An important contribution comes from experimental archaeology, which, in seeking to replicate ancient metallurgic processes, provides essential information to scientific research.
Experimental archaeology also offers an opportunity to speak straightforwardly to the contemporary world, facilitating research and arousing the interest of a wider public – especially young people – in archaeological and numismatic matters, which all too often are confined to small circles of specialists.
Lastly, the workshop will discuss a highly topical issue by analyzing the technology used in minting the Euro series, thereby seeking to project the conference’s subject matter forward into a political and social future.

Last year’s conference at the Antiquitates Center laid the groundwork for establishing a protocol on how to conduct scientific experiments that would be agreed to and accepted by everyone concerned. One of the aims of the upcoming conference is to pursue a debate aimed at working out common strategies and methodologies that can open the way to an innovative conception of archeometallurgic experimentation.
The program has two purposes: first, to review the potential and applications of experimental archaeology in teaching and disseminating knowledge of the numismatic branch of ancient metallurgy; and second, to bring together scholars of archaeometallurgy and of ancient and medieval numismatics and professional European-level experimenters, in order to analyze the problems of this field of study and contribute to the drafting of an international experimentation protocol. During the three-day meetings, experts and experimenters will join forces to suggest and plan the best methods to obtain the maximum scientific results from the experiments. These methods will be field-tested at the Antiquitates Center.
The Experimental Archaeology Center is located in southern Etruria, in plain sight of the Tolfa Mountains, whose ore deposits have been mined since ancient times. For many years the Center has conducted intense scientific activities related to archaeological experimentation, whose results have been used repeatedly by researchers and scholars.
The Antiquitates facility, the only one of its kind in Latium, thus offers the indispensable logistical and cognitive support that the workshop requires. Workshop staff and attendees will build metal-purification structures, smelting ovens and minting equipment based on different historic and cultural traditions, such as the ones used by Etruscan, Greek, Roman and Anatolian communities.

• Prof.ssa Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri, Università del Salento – LECCE
• Prof. Claudio Botrè, Università “Sapienza” - Roma 
• Dott.ssa Francesca Ceci, Musei Capitolini - ROMA
• Dott.ssa Anna De Palmas, Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e dell’Antichità, Università di Sassari - SASSARI 
• Dott. Francesco di Gennaro, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - ROMA
• Dott.ssa Daniela Ferro, Dipartimento di Chimica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – ROMA
• Prof. Claudio Giardino, University of Arkansas – ROME CENTRE
• Prof. Giovanni Paternoster, Università Federico II - NAPOLI
• Prof. Mark Pearce, Dept of Archaeology, University of Nottingham -  (Gran Bretagna) 
• Prof. Salvador Rovira, Prof. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - (Spagna)
• Dott. Luciano Santella, Centro di Archeologia Sperimentale Antiquitates -  BLERA (VT) 
• Dott.ssa Barbro Santillo Frizell, Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici - ROMA 
• Dott. Sariel Shalev, University of Haifa—ISRAELE
• Dott. Daniel Steiniger, Istituto Archeologico Germanico ROMA
• Prof.ssa Raquel Vilaça, Universidade de Coimbra - PORTOGALLO