Tracing the human movements of three thousand years ago by volcanic grinding tools in the Final Bronze Age settlement of Monte Croce Guardia (Arcevia-Marche Region, central Italy).

Volcanic rocks were among the most sought-after materials to produce grinding tools in antiquity because lavas lithologies, either mafic or felsic, ensured good wear resistance and grinding capacity with respect to many other kinds of rocks. The interest in findings made of vesciculated lavas, referable to parts of querns, mortars, and/or pestles of the Final Bronze Age site of Monte Croce Guardia (Arcevia) lies in the fact that this settlement was built upon limestones belonging to the sedimentary sequence of the Marche-Umbria Apennines (central Italy) and far away from potential raw materials of volcanic rocks. A petrologic study of 23 grinding tool fragments clearly indicates a provenance from the volcanic provinces of central Italy: Latium and Tuscany Regions.

Petrological footprints of the millstones of Megara Hyblaea (Sicily Island, Italy) highlight the human interactions with Mediterranean volcanoes.

A petrographic and geochemical study of several volcanic millstones, representative of 119 artifacts found in the ancient Greek colony of Megara Hyblaea (Sicily Island) and recording the grinding device evolution from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, unravelled the volcanoes involved as quarrying and production areas. This was possible also through the comparison with available petrographic and geochemical literature data of ancient volcanic millstones found in the whole Mediterranean. Saddle querns, hopper-rubber, rotary Morgantina- and Delian-type millstones of Megara Hyblaea consist of lithotypes belonging to five magmatic series: Tholeiitic, Na-Alkaline, Tholeiitic Transitional, Calcalkaline and High-K Alkaline.

The Cultural Heritage of "Black Stones" (/) of Leopardi's Child Home (Recanati, Italy).

A macroscopic lithological study and physical (hardness, size, weight) investigations, coupled with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) chemical analyses of three egg- and one pear-shaped polished black stones, exposed in the library of the child home of the famous poet Giacomo Leopardi, at Recanati (Italy), were carried out. They are characterized by different sizes: two with the same weight of 16.9 kg and the two smaller ones of 5.

Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Geopolymer Foams (GFs) Doped with By-Products of the Secondary Aluminum Industry.

The article deals with the investigation of geopolymer foams (GFs) synthesized using by-products coming from the (i) screening-, (iv) pyrolysis-, (iii) dust abatement- and (iv) fusion-processes of the secondary aluminum industry. Based on principles of the circular economy to produce new technological materials, the experimental study involves industrial by-products management through the recovery, chemical neutralization, and incorporation of these relatively hazardous waste into the GFs. The geopolymeric matrix, consisting of metakaolin (MK) and silica sand (SA) with a 1:1 wt.