Black glazed pottery is a type of pottery that offers important information regarding the inclusion of Elba in the Roman trade network as early as the third century BC. The underwater recovery of the black-painted cup bearing the name of Aulo Vettio offers us an important insight into the economy at the dawn of Roman control over the island of Elba. Aulus is in fact a famous trader (negotiator) who in the third century BC. it was linked to the sorting of minerals along the Tyrrhenian coast. This commercial activity was a real economic enterprise made possible by Roman expansionism and testifies to an inclusion of the Elban mining district within the traffic controlled by the City already during the third century, a moment in which the archaeological excavations on the island did not give clear references regarding the presence of hematite reduction plants.
