GOLD AND SILVER. ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE OF SADO ISLAND IN JAPAN

To northwest of Japan is Sado Island that belongs to Niigata Prefecture. Today in the island of Sado the mines of gold and silver are a living cultural heritage and especially culturally active. Here the mining archeology is a very important material resource and it is the cultural value of the island, where the topic mining interacts with three main areas of the archeology contemporary: urban archeology, industrial archeology and archeology of the natural landscape. This paper intends to analyze these three particular aspects of the Japanese island and to illustrate the main activities of the research and of the project coordinated by the Niigata Prefecture Board of Education. All the mines were closed permanently in 1989 and the present project aims to valorize the mining, the natural landscape, the villages of the miners and their productive activities for a correct understanding and knowledgeable use of the territory.