The history of clay working in the Venetico - Fodachello basin. A profile of the territory between industrial archeology and educational tourism.

Abstract

«It is the feet of clay that make the gold of the image precious. Her feet are very pretty, but they are not feet of clay. White porcelain feet, if you like. They have been through the fire, and what fire does not destroy, it hardens». With these words Oscar Wilde, British poet and novelist, inside of his masterpiece The picture of Dorian Gray, if on the one hand he underlines the value of clay by comparing it to the most precious of materials, that is gold, on the other he manages to admirably summarize the importance of fire within the clay manufacturing process.
Taking inspiration from this quote, we can define the clay as one of the most used materials by man, second only to paper. In fact, throughout history, clay, mainly used for building purposes, was also used for the production of decorative objects or as a support for the first forms of writing. The stated objective of this article is precisely to retrace the evolution of clay extraction and processing processes, with particular reference to the industrial basin of Venetico/Fondachello, focusing, in a second time, on the recent challenges in the field of the enhancement of heritage of industrial archeology. In fact, this area, affected by an extraordinary economic expansions after the Second World war, appears today studded with numerous plant for the production of clay in ruing. These structures, testimony of the area’s industrial past, are currently at the center of many initiatives that aim to enhance both materially and culturally. The article is addressed to students of archaeological sciences and aims to highlight the key role that the concept of an educational tour (or field visit) plays. The concept of educational tour in intimately connected to the phenomenon of educational tourism. This phenomenon, used in various pedagogical systems, is considered by experts to be one of the most effective teaching techniques. The educational tourism, by definition, is considered as the meeting point between education and tourism, structuring tourism itself as preparatory activity for the achievement of educational objectives.