Archaeology of Mining

Between 1806 and 1865 alum was produced at three factories near Bonn-Niederholtorf. Archive research, field surveys, lidar data and trial excavations have revealed vast remains of the most important alum producing site within the kingdom of Prussia.
Brown coal was used as raw material for the chemical processes, which included burning the coal at low temperature, elutriating the newly generated aluminum sulfat and the creation of the alum. The process had an impact on the surroundig country side due to mining subsidence damage, the remains of the three factories as well as large areas covered by slag and ash dumps.

In the Middle Ages, Eastern Languedoc was one of the major Mediterranean mining areas. There is a concentration of BPGC (= blende, pyrite, galena and chalcopyrite) sulphide mineralization at the southeast edge of the Massif Central, from the Monts du Vivarais to the Monts de l’Espinouse. The outcrop was mined as of the Chalcolithic (Bronze) Age, at the latest, and up to end of the 20th century. Silver mining developed considerably between the 11th and 14th centuries. Despite nearly 50 years of ongoing research, it is paradoxical that so few syntheses have been published on this district, and always in France. Since then, archeological work has continued and text extraction lists have been completed, opening up prospects for detailed, updated analysis of silver mining locations and production rates, characterized primarily by discontinuity. First, spatial discontinuity. Mapping of the mines mentioned in the texts reveals production concentrated in mining regions apparently separate from one another. In addition to giving a summarized overview of empirical research and biases, our objective will be to initiate a typological classification, in particular with a view to promoting regional and extra-regional comparisons. Then, temporal discontinuity. Sequencing of the corpus and archeological dating can provide a better understanding of the time series issues presented by most of the mines. Using it, we will attempt to identify the main production rates according to available data. In short, the review we propose will be an opportunity to present a regional mining corpus and thereby encourage the development of future research topics.

Le Languedoc oriental fut au Moyen Âge l’un des principaux espaces miniers méditerranéens. Des monts du Vivarais aux monts de l’Espinouse, la bordure sud-est du Massif Central concentre des minéralisations sulfurées de type B.P.G.C. (= à blende, pyrite, galène, chalcopyrite) dont l’exploitation, initiée au plus tard dès le Chalcolithique et poursuivie jusqu’aux dernières années du XXe siècle, s’est considérablement développée entre les XIe et XIV e siècles. Cadre de recherches continues depuis près de cinquante ans, cet espace a paradoxalement fait l’objet de peu de synthèses, de surcroît toujours établies à l’échelle de la France. Depuis, les opérations archéologiques se sont poursuivies et les dépouillements textuels complétés, ouvrant la perspective d’une analyse actualisée et détaillée tant des lieux que des rythmes de la production argentifère, dont la discontinuité est la première caractéristique. Discontinuité spatiale d’abord. La cartographie des exploitations citées dans les textes révèle en effet une production concentrée par ensembles miniers, qui apparaissent distincts les uns des autres. Outre la présentation synthétique du corpus et de ses biais, notre objectif sera d’initier un classement typologique, en particulier dans la perspective de favoriser les comparaisons régionales et extra-régionales. La discontinuité est ensuite temporelle. La mise en série du corpus textuel et des datations archéologiques offre la possibilité de mieux cerner les problèmes chronologiques que posent la plupart des exploitations. Nous tenterons ainsi de dégager les principaux rythmes de production, en fonction des données disponibles. Sous des aspects plus pragmatiques, le bilan que nous proposons sera l’occasion de présenter un corpus minier régional, et ainsi d’encourager le développement de futurs axes de recherches.

In 2015 test trenches were cut across several early water races that ran across the Earnscleugh Flat in Central Otago, New Zealand. These races were probably cut during the gold rushes of the early 1860s to take water from the Fraser River to the workings on the high banks of the Clutha River. The excavations found that these early races were very shallow and quickly dug, in contrast to later water races, some of which were much more substantially engineered.

Only download paper you can translate! When examining the local names of settlements was found a Celtic origin of the name of one of the villages - Košťany. The village has retained its Celtic name until such time when the name was in the 18th century Czechicized. The original name of the village is characterized by the activity of their inhabitants - tin mining.  First name was Costen - phonetic wording Costean?
Při zkoumání pomístních názvů osad byl zjištěn keltský původ názvu jedné z obcí - Košťan. Obec si zachovala své keltské jméno až do doby, kdy byl název v 18. století počeštěn. Původní název obce charakterizuje činnost jejich obyvatel - těžbu cínu. Původní název byl Costen fonetické znění názvu Costean?
KW: PREHISTORIC TIN , TIN MINING , ERZGEBIRGE , WASHING , TIN DEPOSIT , CELTS , KRUŠNÉ HORY , PRAMENÁČ , KOŠŤANY , latén, keltové,kosten, costean, pravěký cín, cornish, toponymy

Preservation Inlet is located in Fiordland National Park in southwest New Zealand. It was the site of a number of gold mining enterprises in the late nineteenth century, all of which had closed by the early years of the twentieth century. The area has now reverted to forest, but two intact stamp mills and numerous other relics of the mining operations remain in this forest. This archaeological survey was carried out for the New Zealand Department of Conservation in 2004, and details the archaeological evidence for the Morning Star, Golden Site and Alpha mines.

The Bannockburn Sluicings Historic Reserve is located near the small settlement of Bannockburn on the southern side of the Kawarau Arm of Lake Dunstan (previously the Kawarau River) about six kilometres south- west of Cromwell, in Central Otago, New Zealand.The reserve contains extensive examples of alluvial gold mining, with a number of mining techniques represented including tunnelling, ground sluicing and hydraulic sluicing. Excellent evidence of water management is present, including the large Menzies Dam, and Stewart Town represents the domestic lives of the gold miners. Overall the reserve contains physical (archaeological) evidence of many aspects of nineteenth century alluvial gold mining.

The Golden Gully Stamper Battery and water wheel near Serpentine in Central Otago is one of the most intact water-wheel driven batteries in the New Zealand goldfields. This paper explores the operation of both the water wheel and the stamper mechanism using archaeological observations and contemporary technical literature. It concludes that in the real world, using second-hand equipment, ideal performance was not necessarily sought, merely adequate performance.

Public LIDAR-Scan Tools (www.tim-online.nrw.de) are used for the survey and documentation of known and unknown mining areas in the Eggegebirge in Northrhine-Westfalia.

With this tool an iron ore mining pit field was discovered, where iron stone (content 50-55 % Fe) was extracted from slopes. This mining area is not mentioned in the historical sources, so it seems to date in the mediaeval times or former times.

The Invincible Mine and Battery and the associated Otago Pyrites Saving Company’s buddle (also referred to as a ‘rotating convex table’ and a ‘concentrator’) are located on the western flank of the Richardson Mountains (which in turn defines the eastern side of the Rees Valley) about 17 kilometres north of Glenorchy. The gold mine opened in 1880, and operated intermittently until the mid-1890s, with sporadic prospecting continuing until about 1937. The sites are notable for the intact set of seven Berdans at the battery house, which is the largest surviving array of Berdans in New Zealand, and the buddle on the valley floor, which is the most intact gold-saving buddle in New Zealand.

One of the most remarkable features of the Southern African archaeological record is the presence of thousands of mining sites, and tens of thousands of dry-stone structures. Numerous forges and smelting sites were used to make large amounts of metal and metal objects of iron, gold and copper.  I argue here that together these constitute an industry that produced a profusion of beads, amulets, and other small metal objects. These circulated as ritual and trade goods within a wide regional network of exchange. (While it has been argued that gold was exported, there a very few goods that could plausibly have been received in exchange.) Throughout the period that is called the “Iron Age”—based on analogies with European history—southern African societies were small and mobile. They practised a range of economies that included hunting, gathering, scavenging, sheep and goat herding, cattle pastoralism, and agriculture. But other economic activities must have also included trading, provision of ritual and healing services, dispute resolution and management of courts, some organised raiding, defence and attack, together with craft production of ceramics, clothing, decorative items, hairdressing, leather tanning, and other activities. Among these was also mining, ore processing, smelting, and metalsmithing.  Historians and archaeologists of southern Africa, however, have mostly neglected the full range of economic activities in favour of activities related to “food production”, with metal working presented as a part-time avocation.  This has had the effect of leaving healing, ritual activities, and the constitution of the moral basis of society out of the historical picture. I argue, instead, that the many objects produced by highly skilled craft specialists were crucial elements in an exchange of valued, protective, and sacred objects that provided the moral basis for disparate small mobile ethnic and family groups to interact with each other. The specialists that made these objects were surrounded by taboos and avoidance that universally characterise such artisans. For their own part, these technicians organised themselves into what we might call secret guilds. The proposed model constructs a morally imagined landscape in which ritual and technical specialists knit together a diverse population of autochthons and incomers who spoke Bantu, Khoe and Bush languages, and practised different but complementary economies. These practices and beliefs show a genuine historical continuity, albeit often existing today outside of the institutions of modernity. Networks in which healers, prophets, and pastors exchange medicines, magical practices, knowledge, and sacred objects continue to exist.  Worship at sacred sites is still prevalent in southern Africa. So too is the use of ‘muti’, amulets and regalia by traditional healers and their clients, among others. This historical vision allows us to re-conceptualise southern African cultures and practices and to integrate an account of the moral basis of society over the longue durée.

Der Harz wurde in seinem heutigen Aussehen durch Jahrhunderte des Bergbaus geformt, was neben den reichen Gangvererzungen im Unterharz und den Steinkohlevorkommen bei Opperode vor allem auf das am südöstlichen Harzrand ausbeißende Kupferschieferflöz zurückzuführen ist.
Der größtenteils von Fichten- und Buchenwäldern bedeckte Ostharz ist eine Region mit großem historischem Potential. Sie birgt noch heute zahlreiche Bodendenkmale und Kulturlandschaftselemente, die sich im schützenden Wald obertägig erhalten haben. Diese lassen sich mit Hilfe digitaler Geländedaten, die durch eine lasergestützte Erfassung der Erdoberfläche generiert wurden, visualisieren. Neben Überresten des Altbergbaus können so auch Wüstungen, alte Äcker und Wegeverbindungen, Burgen und Erdwerke oder Meilerstellen sichtbar gemacht werden. Sie lassen sich nicht nur lagegenau verorten, sondern auch zerstörungsfrei in ihrer exakten Ausdehnung dokumentieren.

Wenn man über Bergbau in Thüringen spricht, denkt man zuerst an die Kaliindustrie im Werragebiet. Der Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts auf Kalisalze aufgenommene industrielle Bergbau prägt hier mit seinen weithin sichtbaren Abraumhalden die Landschaft. Weniger bekannt – und auf den ersten Blick kaum noch sichtbar - sind die Zeugen des Altbergbaues auf der südlichen Seite des Thüringer Waldes. Etwa 15 Kilometer südwestlich von Eisenach befindet sich das Dorf Kupfersuhl. Hier und um das angrenzende Dorf Eckardtshausen wurde der Bergbau im Jahr 1535  - zunächst auf Kupferschiefer und später auch auf Kobalt -  aufgenommen.

This conference was the first occasion on which a collection of papers was presented relating to the then new evidence for Bronze Age copper mining in Britain.
The publication has 22 papers recording the discovery and early work at the Great Orme, excavations and fieldwork at Parys Mountain, Nantyreira, Copa Hill, Mount Gabriel (Ireland) and at the Mitterberg (Austria). There are 4 papers on stone mining tools, 4 papers on firesetting techniques and experiments and other papers on radio-carbon dating, palaeoecological work, copper smelting and on general observations on early mining in Wales.

in T. Stöllner, P. Thomas, (Hrsg.), Bergauf Bergab – 10.000 Jahre Bergbau in den Ostalpen, Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum vom 31.10.2015 - 24.04.2016; Im Vorarlberg Museum Bregenz vom 11.06.2016 - 26.10.2016. Veröffentlichung aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum Nr. 207, Bochum 2015, pp. 83-88

The article deals with the little-discussed issue of historical exploitation of gold in the Vodňany region. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of known or newly documented montane areas near Vodňany the knowledge of which has been expanded thanks to the use of several research methods.

The Tarawera Smelter was constructed in 1909-1911 in an attempt to process the complex gold-bearing ore from the Tarawera Mine. The venture was a failure, and after a trial smelting of 35 tons the operation closed down. An inclined brick chimney from the smelter survives at the site.

Extensive prehistoric fahlore mining was proven during the 1990s
in the traditional mining region of Schwaz/Brixlegg in North Tyrol.
Numerous well preserved mines – of which the true age was until
then unrecognised – in the mean time can be assigned to the
Bronze Age. Beside the actual traces of mining, sites of ore treatment
and ore smelting were discovered as well. Results of the first
archaeological excavations clearly show that the mining region of
Schwaz/Brixlegg is a further addition to the important prehistoric
centres of copper mining in the Alps. The features are very promising
when seen from an archaeological point of view due to their
large number and diversity; here – within a limited area – in future
it will be possible to record and reconstruct the different steps of
the metallurgical chain of production – from the mining of the fahlore
over the mineral processing to the smelting and production of
raw copper.

Der 1965 vollständig eingestellte Siegerländer Eisenerzbergbau schien lange Zeit vergessen. Seine Technischen Denkmale wurden bis in die Gegenwart hinein häufig nicht geachtet, abgerissen oder verschandelt. Abgesehen von einigen Traditionsinseln, allen voran das alte Bergmannsdorf Müsen mit der weltberühmten Grube Stahlberg, schien der Jahrtausende alte Abbau der Siegerländer Erze weitgehend nur noch zum Interessensgebiet von Mineraliensammlern aber auch einer zunehmenden Schar abenteuerlustiger jedoch meist auch illegaler Befahrer der stillliegenden Grubenbaue geworden zu sein.

Erst in der jüngsten Zeit wandelt sich das Bewusstsein langsam. Junge, gut ausgebildete Wissenschaftler*innen haben mit viel Fleiß und Energie aber auch Karrierebewusstsein das historische Berg- und Hüttenwesen als Fachgebiet entdeckt. Ihre Forschungen und zunehmenden Publikationen, häufig auf archäologischen Gebieten, scheinen die Spuren, die die Siegerländer Bergleute hinterlassen haben, wieder in einen Brennpunkt der Wahrnehmung auch der einheimischen Bevölkerung zu legen.

Die Neuauflage des „Füssebergs“ mit seiner detaillierten und mit vielen Illustrationen gut verständlich gemachten Geschichte dieser wichtigen Siegerländer Grube, die einer der letzten fachlich versierten Zeitzeugen hinterlassen hat, soll diese positive Entwicklung fördern aber gleichzeitig auch eine Brücke zwischen der „alten“ Bergbau- und Heimatforschung und dem heutigen Anspruchsdenken wissenschaftlicher Bearbeitung schlagen.

Zahlreiche Fotografien der aktuellen Untertagesituation, die bei Sicherheitsbefahrungen im letzten Jahrzehnt aufgenommen worden sind, veranschaulichen die Thematik zusätzlich.

The iron ore mining in Siegerland, which was completely discontinued in 1965, seemed to have been forgotten for a long time. Its technical monuments have often been disregarded, demolished or vandalized to this day. Apart from a few islands of tradition, the millennia-old mining of the Siegerland ores seemed to have become largely only an area of interest for mineral collectors but also for an increasing number of adventurous, but mostly illegal visitors of the disused mine workings.

Only recently has awareness slowly changed. Young, well-trained scientists have discovered historical mining and metallurgy as a specialist area with a great deal of diligence and energy, but also with career awareness. Their research and increasing number of publications, often in archaeological areas, seem to put the traces left by the Siegerland miners back in the focus of attention of the local population as well.

The new edition of the "Füsseberg" with its detailed history of this important Siegerland mine, which is made easy to understand with many illustrations and which was left by one of the last technically experienced contemporary witnesses, is intended to promote this positive development, but at the same time to build a bridge between the "old" mining and mining industry Homeland research and today's sense of entitlement to scientific processing.

Numerous photographs of the current underground situation, which were taken during safety inspections over the past decade, also illustrate the subject.

Die über Jahrhunderte und zum Teil Jahrtausende erfolgten Eingriffe des Menschen in die Landschaftsstruktur führten zur Entstehung einer komplexen Kulturlandschaft mit zahlreichen archäologischen Denkmalen. Durch Bergbau, Rodungen, Gründung von Siedlungen, Burgenbau, Ackerbau usw. wurde der Harz grundlegend verändert. Eine Vielzahl der von dieser Entwicklung zeugenden Bodendenkmale und Kulturlandschaftselemente sind noch heute in den Harzer Wäldern erhalten und im DGM erkennbar. Leider sind sie aber beispielsweise durch den zunehmenden Einsatz von Harvestern und Forewardern in der Forstwirtschaft oft stark gefährdet oder schon beschädigt/zerstört worden. Daher sind die genaue Aufnahme (bzw. Verortung der bisher unbekannten Fundstellen), Analyse und Interpretation der obertägig erhaltenen Strukturen außerordentlich wichtig, um diese künftig schützen zu können.        ││        Many thousands of archaeological monuments and cultural landscape elements are preserved in the vast forests of the Eastern Harz Mountains, up to this day. These sites can be recorded spatially with great precision and analysed non-destructively using new digital terrain data. This technique is particularly useful for recording the many surviving archaeological mining features. Excavations show that the Eastern Harz was mined at the latest since the Roman Imperial period. The first written sources set in during early medieval times. In some old mining areas, the proximity of defended sites suggests that mining was controlled by castles. In such cases, the digital terrain data can offer completely new insights into the structure and history of the cultural landscape.

Studio storico e archeologico dell'industria estrattiva sulla dorsale tra Agno-Leogra con particolare interesse per il caolino. Caso studio del progetto Agno-Leogra: villaggio minerario in località Rivabella, documentazione storica, rilievo archeologico e valorizzazione.

Este trabajo resume los resultados obtenidos mediante la investigación realizada a propósito de la excavacion arqueológica realizada en la mina y fundición romana de Los Puertos de Santa Bárbara (Cartagena) con el objetivo de ofrecer una visión de conjunto sobre las características físicas y espaciales de una instalación minero-metalúrgica menor del área de Carthago Nova.

Alburnus Maior site, or the present day Roşia Montană represents one of the most important mining centers of the Roman world, being exploited during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC for gold and silver. Due to a large scale mining project in development, a rescue archaeological program, one of the most important in Romania was initiated. Since 1999, a French mission from Toulouse Le Mirail University, including also Romanian geologists from Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca is involved in the mining archaeology at Roşia Montană. This mission allowed an interdisciplinary study between archaeology and geology. Survey, detailed topography of the Ancient mining works, archaeological diggings as well as geological studies have been made at surface and in the underground in different mining fields like Cetate, Cârnic and Păru-Carpeni. In Cârnic massif was studied a large part of the Antique mine, precisely more than 4km of Ancient workings (adits, inclined planes, shafts, vertical stopes, chambers with pillars), that allowed the exploitation of a big breccia dyke structure with high gold and silver grades. At Păru-Carpeni, where the study is still in progress, was discovered a water wheel system consisting of wooden wheels equipped with buckets. The geological studies were focused on the lithology of the host rocks, the hydrothermal alterations, the dimensions, the morphology and the mineralogy of the ore bodies exploited by the Roman miners. These studies revealed significant data for the understanding of the Ancient mining works because the spatial development of the mine was strongly related to the geological context of the ore deposit. A big scale Roman mining and metallurgical site is gradually emerging due to the surface and underground archaeological diggings from Roşia Montană.

Le site d’Alburnus Maior, l’actuelle Roşia Montană, représente un des plus grands centres miniers du monde romain, exploité aux IIe-IIIe s. de notre ère pour l’or et l’argent. En raison d’un vaste projet d’exploitation minière, le site fait l’objet d’un programme d’archéologie préventive, parmi les plus importants de Roumanie. Depuis 1999 une mission française de l’Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail comprenant des géologues roumains de l’Université Babeş-Bolyai de Cluj-Napoca est dévolue à l’archéologie minière préventive à Roşia Montană. Cette mission a permis une recherche interdisciplinaire entre archéologie et géologie. Des prospections, une cartographie détaillée des travaux antiques, des fouilles et des études géologiques, ont été menées en surface et en souterrain dans différents périmètres miniers, comme à Cetate, Cârnic et Păru-Carpeni. Dans le massif de Cârnic, une large part de la mine antique a été étudiée, à savoir plus de 4km d’anciens travaux (galeries, descenderies, puits, chantiers verticaux, chambres sur piliers) qui ont permis d’exploiter une grande structure de dyke de brèche à fortes teneurs en or et en argent. A Păru-Carpeni a été découvert un système hydraulique d’exhaure par roues élévatoires à augets actuellement en cours de fouille. Des études géologiques spécifiques du gisement exploité par les Anciens ont été menées sur les types de roches, sur les altérations hydrothermales, leurs dimensions, la morphologie et la minéralogie des corps de minerais. Elles ont apporté des informations significatives pour la compréhension des travaux miniers anciens, car le développement spatial de la mine antique était étroitement lié aux conditions particulières du gisement. Ainsi, un vaste complexe minier et métallurgique romain apparaît peu à peu grâce aux fouilles de surface et souterraines à Roşia Montană.

The inner Alpine Oberhalbstein valley has long been known as a Bronze Age settlement chamber and prehistoric mining landscape. Systematic mining-archaeological investigations have now brought to light several prehistoric mines and almost 90 smelting sites. Extensive series of absolute dates suggest that copper production occurred in two main phases: a Late Bronze Age phase (11th century BC) and an Early Iron Age phase (7th century BC). In addition to the summary presentation of the mining archaeological findings, the present study puts a special focus on the detailed decoding of the processing technology. Based on typological, morphological and archaeometric investigations of smelting slag as well as ore analyses, the process chain is traced, from the mining of the ore via the processing, only traces of which are known as of yet, to the smelting. The publication contains an extensive appendix of research data.

Beginning in 1853, Washington Territory witnessed numerous gold discoveries that, over the course of the next decade, propelled immigration, commerce, and transportation in the region.  Placer gold miners formed unique landscapes, social networks, and sociotechnical systems in response to global interactions, transnational migrations, and rapid change.  Archaeological data can enlighten the record regarding local and regional manifestations of these themes. In order to identify areas of high probability to yield such data, an investigation of early placer gold discoveries was undertaken.  Study results clarify when and where the first strikes were made and illustrate the transitory nature of placer camps during this frenetic period of the region’s development.

Approximately 68 % of the Selke valley (Harz district, Saxony-Anhalt) is covered by forest. Here and elsewhere, woods fulfil an important archive function. Thousands of archaeological structures have been preserved in dense forests, many of which are still unknown. The vast number of these cultural landscape elements, and occasionally heavy vegetation and rough terrain, render a complete field documentation impossible. Here the technology of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) offers completely new possibilities for recording the archaeological monuments. The entire terrain surface is captured in a highly precise, effective, and non-destructive manner. With this method, the cultural landscape characterised by centuries of mining, rulership, and settlement activities can be recorded and reconstructed in its entirety, and the previously known heritage inventory enormously consolidated. The region of the Selke River valley is a core area of the eastern Harz Mountains from the point of view of manorial, legal, and mining history. This is where the state of Anhalt, one of the oldest cultural regions in Germany, has its origins. In this 366 sqm area, per DTM (digital terrain model) so far more than 23.600 cultural landscape elements preserved above ground could be recorded, precisely localised, and their exact extent documented, which are now largely covered by forest. Among others, more than 8000 remnants of ancient ways, 7300 charcoal kiln sites, 3200 mining relics, more than 3500 ancient fields, 300 water management sites, 40 castles or hillforts, and 60 abandoned villages (or parts of them) could be detected.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Ozarks of southern Missouri was one of the most important mining regions in the United States. While industrialized underground lead mining occurred in some parts of the Ozarks, 19th-century lead mining was on a much smaller scale in most of the region. In most cases, individuals or small groups mined the lead by hand and sold it to one of the many furnaces distributed throughout the area.  The most ubiquitous mining-related sites in the eastern Ozarks are the thousands of hand-dug pits scattered across the region. Little attention has been given to them by archaeologists, who have in most cases simply recorded and dismissed them.  From the start, lead mining was a hard life, but it played an important role in the settlement of the interior Ozarks. The recent research in the Palmer district sheds light on an important period of Missouri's history. As will be seen, there is a rich and varied archaeological record which, as yet, has hardly been examined.