in Wales
One of the major mining sites in Britain beyond the South West was the Parys Mountain area on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales, where copper rich base metal mining took place spasmodically from 3500 BC until the early 20th century. Evidence of this was unearthed when underground mining exposed collapsed ancient bell pits, which were surface areas containing minerals that had been mined by crude scraping.
Other copper mining sites in Wales included Great Orme near Llandudno where, as at Parys, charcoal used for fire setting was found, which has enabled carbon dating. There is also evidence at Great Orme of a network of underground tunnels and workings which indicate that it was an extensive mine by the standards of the prehistoric era; there are suggestions of around 200 tonnes of copper having been extracted then. Since these Welsh mines are thought to have operated during the same period as the copper mines of the advanced world (then the Near East and eastern Mediterranean) it is likely that some of the mining techniques were imported, probably by traders or visitors from the European continent and beyond. Another ancient Welsh mining site was the Copa Hill copper mine near Cwmystwyth in west Wales, where extensive radiocarbon dating suggests significant mining took place between the 3rd millennium BC and the 12th century BC.
The Roman invasion of Britain also led to the development of a gold mine at Dolaucothi in the Welsh region of Carmarthenshire. Mining in this part of Wales is believed to go back to the Bronze Age but the Roman operation was on a different scale and used the hydraulic techniques of the Spanish gold mining industry recorded by Pliny. The existence of gold mining at Dolaucothi was uncovered in the 18th and 19th centuries when gold objects and then gold ore were discovered at the site. Later, other discoveries were made at Dolaucothi suggesting that the Romans had constructed a very sophisticated mine.
At Dolaucothi underground tunnels that chased the gold ore veins were discovered, as was part of a water wheel that would have been used to de-water the deeper levels of the mine which went down as much as 80 feet. Scorched timber was also found, indicating that fire setting to crack the rock hosting the gold seams was practiced. A number of pits, which were probably workings of surface veins, were also found.
The most interesting discoveries were of a number of tanks found in the proximity of the network of watercourses (aqueducts and leats) built by the Romans to bring water to the site. These tanks stored water which could then be poured over the loose and crushed rock at various rates of intensity to wash the gold out of the material; at that point there would likely have been a number of large trays that would have captured the gold as the water poured away. Some carbon dating work done on residue from the site indicates that the Romans may have worked Dolaucothi until the time that they left Britain in the 4th century AD.
Coal mining
Coal mining is also thought to have been carried out during the Roman occupation of Britain as there is evidence that Roman troops guarding Hadrian’s Wall used coal for heating in the cold of England’s north east, digging the coal from surface seams. There is also archaeological evidence that coal was used millennia before then in Wales to fire funeral pyres. It is also possible that coal’s heating properties were appreciated as a result of observation of spontaneous combustion of surface coal seams under certain conditions.
It appears though that wood remained the preferred method of heating, cooking and metal smelting in Britain for many centuries, probably as a result of its natural proximity to towns and settlements. This is something we will pick up again later.
Base metals
Whilst recorded evidence for ancient mining is difficult to obtain, particularly in the less developed world, which of course included Great Britain, archaeologists have uncovered clear proof of base metal mining activity in Wales and England, as well as in Ireland, going back to the Copper and early Bronze Age (4000 to 2500 BC). In Ireland two copper mines have been identified, at Ross Island and Mount Gabriel in the southwest. The origins of copper mining in Ireland were believed to relate to the Bell Beaker people who travelled throughout Europe and are thought to have developed important skills in mining and the treatment and working of metals.
However, it was another wave of visitors, the Hallstatt people from central Europe, who brought the knowledge and skills necessary to take Britain into the Iron Age. The Hallstatts are believed to have used their commercial position as salt miners and pig farmers to export to other continental markets and in due course were in a position to absorb foreign ironworkers and finance the development of their metal working skills. The Hallstatts were particularly interested in the manufacture of iron for weapons and were knowledgeable about bellows furnaces and carburising, which would have enabled them to make semi-steel.
The Hallstatts eventually arrived in Britain around the 5th century BC, bringing their iron-making skills with them. Britain had abundant supplies of iron ore and in due course a widespread iron-making industry grew up. One of many iron-working sites uncovered by archaeologists was Kestor near Chagford in Devon. Here an ancient settlement has been excavated and within some of the identified dwelling structures were small furnaces and signs of a forge for working the iron.
The quantities of iron used suggest that sources of the raw material came from surface accumulations such as bog iron. Apart from weapons, particularly swords and iron blanks for blades, archaeologists also found standard size iron bars which were used as currency. By the time of the 1st century BC British blacksmiths were also hammering iron into relatively thin circular shapes for use as hoops to strengthen wooden barrels and, critically, iron tyres for chariots and other heavy duty vehicles.
10. Central/Eastern Europe
The eastern Alps
Evidence of Bronze Age copper mining and smelting has been found throughout the Alps, stretching from eastern Switzerland across Austria. A particularly large site was found in the 19th century at Muhlbach, in the Mitterberg region in Austria. The chalcopyrite copper deposit was discovered by chance, but in time (the mid-1990s) archaeologists unearthed a Late Bronze Age (1300 to 700 BC) smelting complex which almost certainly was an important user of the Muhlbach copper ore. There is evidence of an extensive set of furnaces and slag heaps, and the site is close to water that would have been used in the washing process of treatment.
The ancient mines in the Mitterberg district have also yielded some of their secrets to archaeologists and surveyors who opened up one of the ancient mines in the late 1990s. The shafts went down almost 600 feet, very deep for such an early period, and galleries and drives ran in a number of directions in pursuit of the copper ore.
Germany
What we now know as Germany was historically a region, and at times an empire, consisting of a number of separate kingdoms, including Saxony, Bavaria and Bohemia. With the coming of the Dark Ages at the end of the 5th century AD, as we mentioned before, mining and much else besides fell into decline as the old Roman Empire crumbled. Power in Europe was now based in a socially and economically backward central region, stretching through France, Germany and into Europe’s east; conflict was endemic and the main demand for metals was for iron to make weapons.
In 800 AD Charlemagne became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and was responsible for the striking of a new silver currency, which itself helped to start the revival of mining. Charlemagne used Saxon slave labour to mine silver from known deposits in the Erzgebirge Mountains of Saxony. In pursuit of precious metals for the Empire’s treasury to finance almost constant wars on the continent he also encouraged the re-opening of the gold and silver mines of Schemnitz and Kremnitz, first worked in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, in what is now Slovakia.
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