Le miniere, la metallurgia e il sacro nel Nord Africa fenicio-punico

Since Neolithic era, metallurgy had been perceived as a magical issue and metals as living elements that used to grow inside the earth, according to nature cycle. Man could help this natural process thanks to fire and mineral processing, in order to divide metal from stone. Epigraphic materials from the ancient Middle East prove this relation, but this was common in Punic Western world too, especially in the deities on neo-Punic coins of the II and I century B.C.