The moulds from Sardinia known as "steatite moulds": a preliminary study on their lithology and provenance

The problem of the origin of the materials used for producing the so-called "Steatite Moulds" has been practically neglected till now, possibly because nobody among the students concerned with these objects had any idea about the real nature of them. Actually, a lithological approach is necessary at first, since a material that is contemporaneously rather soft, compact and refractory, is a not trivial rock, which requires particular geological conditions for its formation, and these conditions do not occur everywhere. This first approach has led the authors to focus their attention on a number of occurrences, related with contact metamorphism, in which were actively exploited in the last century (one mine is still active) for various industrial uses, included some, which require the above properties. All the mines started their activity from extensive outcrops, easily observed by every people crossing the country.