Archaeology of Mining

Mining has long been a core element of southern African economies, but histories of mining and popular knowledge of mining is almost entirely restricted to the large-scale, capital intensive, formal, industrial mines of the twentieth century.  There is scant knowledge of the African contribution to mining in the pre-colonial period and even less knowledge of the artisanal skills involved in mining, processing of ores, metallurgy, metal fabrication, and use of metals. This set of slides presents elements of a current research project that uses ethnographic and archaeological methods to identify sites, practices and processes of both contemporary and ancient (“pre-colonial”) mining and metallurgical technologies; to explore the cultural and historical significance of these technologies in southern Africa; and to explore a link between high-temperature technologies & other specialised knowledge systems such as ‘traditional healing’.
The central hypothesis is that practice of these technologies requires specialised and restricted expertise that is not generalised as the cultural property of an ethnic, linguistic (e.g 'Bantu), or tribal group but is rather the property of specialised “guilds” (groups of practitioners). Many sites previously identified as agricultural can be better understood as mining and metallurgical sites. Products of high-temperature technologies were circulated largely within the region and not always exported as regional historians often claim. Finally, I argue that there are strong historical continuities between early (“Pre-colonial”) miners and metallurgists in the past and the present, especially with contemporary artisanal or 'illegal' miners (zamazama or makorokoza).

Les travaux miniers anciens des Barrencs, situés dans la vallée de l’Orbiel sur un plateau qui sépare les villages de Lastours et de
Fournes-Cabardès (Aude), ont été découverts dès la fin du xixe siècle. Pendant plus d’un siècle ils ont été présentés comme l’œuvre des Romains. Entre 2009 et 2012 les travaux miniers ont fait l’objet d’un projet de recherche porté par une équipe spécialisée dans l’archéologie minière du
laboratoire TRACES de l’université de Toulouse 2 – Jean-Jaurès. Les recherches ont mis en évidence un vaste complexe minier qui a exploité
des structures filoniennes verticales à sub-verticales démontrant une parfaite organisation et un haut niveau technique de la part des mineurs. Cette nouvelle étude a permis de faire remonter la plus grande partie de l’activité minière au second âge du Fer. L’étude géologique menée en interaction directe avec les investigations archéologiques démontre une excellente maîtrise de l’exploitation, basée sur une bonne connaissance géologique empirique. Elle a guidé les anciens mineurs lors de la reconnaissance du gisement et, par la suite, pour l’exploitation des zones riches. Les analyses minéralogiques et élémentaires réalisées sur un échantillonnage systématique conduit au sein des travaux étudiés mettent en évidence une minéralisation épithermale riche en cuivre, argent et plomb. La composition minéralogique des minerais du gisement est dominée par la pyrite, la chalcopyrite, les « cuivres gris » argentifères, la galène et la galène argentifère, la sphalérite et des sulfures de cuivre souvent argentifères.Des sulfures et des sulfosels complexes d’argent, de cuivre et de plomb constituent la fraction mineure. Il ressort que pour les anciens mineurs, le minerai exploité était riche en cuivre, en argent et en plomb. Mais, la mine est loin d’avoir révélé tous ses secrets et des recherches complémentaires
seront nécessaires pour estimer les volumes de minerai extrait, les modalités de traitement des minerais, le type de production ou le commerce.
The ancient mining works of Barrencs, situated in the Orbiel valley on a plateau between the Lastours and Fournes-Cabardès villages (Aude,
France), were discovered at the end of the 19th c. For more than a century these were thought to be Roman in origin. Between 2009 and 2012, the mining works have been studied as part of a research program carried out by a mining archaeological specialised team of TRACES laboratory of Toulouse 2 – Jean-Jaurès University. The study identified a vast mining complex that exploited vertical to sub-vertical vein structures, showing perfect organisation and a high technical level of the miners. It also permitted to push back in time the mining activity, to the Iron Age. The geological study, carried out in close relation with the archaeological investigations, shows an excellent mining proficiency, based on a good geologic empirical knowledge that guided the ancient miners, both for ore deposit survey and for its eventual extraction. The mineralogical and elemental analyses conducted via a systematic sampling through out the entire studied mine area, showed that the area under study is rich in copper, silver, and lead epithermal mineralisations. The composition of mineralogical ore deposits is dominated by pyrite, chalcopyrite, silver-bearing “gray coppers”, galena and silver-bearing galena, sphalerite, and copper sulphides (often argentiferous). Complex silver-copper-lead sulphides and thiosalts are present in smaller proportions. It appears that, for the ancient miners,
the mined ore was rich in copper, silver and lead. Theses first results are quite promising and further study will focus on other issues, such as the ore volumes extracted, the ore treatment methods, and the types of production or trading areas; all important for the total comprehension of this ancient mining complex.

The circulation of metal has long been viewed as a catalyst for social, economic and population changes in Europe. These theories are rooted in the distribution of metal objects across time and space. New techniques and perspectives derived from archaeological science can shed new light on the understanding of the movement of people, materials and technological knowledge. This session seeks to integrate archaeometallurgical data with archaeological theory to address longstanding questions about past mechanisms of exchange, mobility and social complexity.
Advances in the characterization of metals and metallurgical residues (including bulk elemental composition by XRF/pXRF and trace elemental and isotopic analysis by ICP-MS) combined with more sophisticated approaches to data analysis add greater resolution to provenance studies. Though offering better pictures of artefact source, the explanation of artefact distribution across geographic space requires the use of theoretically informed models and solid archaeological evidence to discern differences between the circulation of raw materials, ingots, objects, craftspeople and populations. Full characterization of metals circulation is essential to understanding its impact on social practices and the emergence of complexity and linguistic and cultural transfers of interacting peoples.

We are interested in papers on the following themes:
• Archaeometric based models of exchange.
• Invention, innovation and transmission of metallurgical knowledge.
• Research on comparative assemblages integrating archaeometric and typological analysis.
• Characterization and discrimination of different modes of material circulation.
• Archaeometric based studies on the impact of metals on social complexity.