Breakthrough for mining research in the Bronze Age

Mining already took place 3,500 years ago in the Austrian region of Montafon.

FRANKFURT/BARTHOLOMÄBERG. Mining in the Alps dates back much further than previously thought - in the Austrian region of Montafon since the Bronze Age. Thanks to C14 dating, a group of researchers from Goethe University in Frankfurt led by Professor Rüdiger Krause of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences was able to detect in the course of prospecting in the Bartholomäberg region at a height of 1450 metres ancient traces of mining from the middle Bronze Age. The C14 method, also known as the radiocarbon method, makes a relatively precise age classification possible, for example of charcoal, on the basis of decreasing radioactivity in carbonaceous material.

It was in this way that the researchers also discovered that 2500 years later - towards the end of the Early Middle Ages - mining evidently even resumed there, since there are clear traces in the terrain from this period too. That means that this is one of the oldest mining areas provable to date in a mountainous region of Europe. The discovery, which was made possible through funding from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)), equates according to Professor Krause to "a small sensation, since the academic world had so far not considered that Bronze Age mining in the Montafon mining area could be possible." There are only very few places with evidence of Alpine mining in the early and late Middle Ages either. Professor Krause now sees an exciting link, for instance, to the historically documented nine iron-smelting furnaces in Drusengau - the region around Bludenz, Klostertal and Montafon - which are mentioned in the Imperial Register of Chur (Churer Reichsurbar) of the year 843.

Professor Krause and his team, which includes archaeobotanists and a large number of students from Goethe University, have been researching for 15 years in the Montafon region, which lies in the Central Alps in the south of the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg. The objective is to explore early settlement history and early mining in this unique inner-Alpine "settlement chamber" with Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements and Bronze Age castle buildings with stone walls up to 3 metres thick.

Excavations in the newly discovered mining area are due to commence next summer. An exciting project, as the only other evidence of comparably ancient mining activity is in the Eastern Alps, for example in the famous Mitterberg mining area, where Bronze Age miners dug galleries as far down as 200 metres and developed mining on the most intensive scale in this period in the Alps. "What significance our new site in Montafon had in the context of Bronze Age copper supply in the Alps will be seen when we examine it further", says Professor Krause.

For archaeological research in Frankfurt, Montafon - with its special colonization history with Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements - is an important priority. After all, it is regarded as a model region for an interdisciplinary approach where archaeobotany, soil science and metal analysis, in particular the analysis of heavy metals in the ground as a relict of ancient mining, are very important sources of information. Work focuses on questions about what could have originally induced people to settle in this Alpine valley landscape. From what point in time onwards was their self-sufficient economy - gathering as well as livestock, arable and pasture farming - supplemented by mining activity? Thanks to the researchers in Frankfurt it is now known that this inner-Alpine valley landscape has been inhabited on a continuous basis since about 2000 B.C. and that Montafon can today look back on 4000 years of settlement history.

The scientific "breakthroughs" in the former mining area are now also visible in book form: On the 9th of November, the first monograph on the archaeology and early history of mining in Montafon will be presented in Bartholomäberg (Montafon): A "colourful" book richly illustrated with photographs and diagrams, which wants to familiarize the reader and observer in short and easily comprehensible words and in a lively way with the oldest history of an Alpine valley landscape using the example of Montafon as well as with the different types of exploration. Martin Vallaster, Mayor of the Municipality of Bartholomäberg, is noticeably impressed: "We are all very proud of this book, which is a product of lasting value for relaying the research results and their wide variety of new findings. Allow yourself when reading this book to be transported into the world of our ancestors and experience our exciting and unique settlement history".

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Book details:
Rüdiger Krause, Archäologie im Gebirge. Montafoner Zeitmaschine. Frühe Besiedlungsgeschichte und Bergbau im Montafon, Vorarlberg (Österreich). With contributions by Lisa Bringemeier, Rudolf Klopfer, Astrid Röpke, Astrid Stobbe, Franziska Würfel. 150 pages, 213 colour and large-format images, 23 x 23 cm, hard cover, € 19,80 Bartholomäberg/Bonn 2015 (ISBN 978-3-7749-3981-0), Distribution: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany), http://www.habelt.de
Information: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Krause, Faculty of Linguistics, Culture and Arts, Westend Campus, Tel.: ++49(0)160-824 7 824, Email: r.krause@em.uni-frankfurt.de

 

Souterrain

Picture of a souterrain in a ringfort or rath which has been half excavated in advance of road works in Ballygawley, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The souterrain or `artificially built cave' is often found in association with ringforts and other enclosed settlements of the pre-Norman period such as promontory forts. They are found throughout the country but have only recently been studied in any detail by P. Gosling for Co. Louth. He found that of the 250 examples known in Co. Louth there were high concentrations in the area to the west and north of the town of Dundalk. He attempted to establish a chronology for these problematic structures as well as to identify their main functions. Although they are not confined to Ireland, being found also in western Cornwall, Scotland and Brittany, very few datable finds have been located in association with them. The second major problem is that they also vary greatly in both size and plan, so much so that it has been difficult to isolate their major functions. In Cornwall the fogous (souterrains) are nearly always found in association with surface features, including `rounds' which are broadly similar in function to the ringforts. Thus it has been asserted that they were probably used for storage rather than for any defensive reason. Undoubtedly, some souterrains were used as safe hideaways for the inhabitants of nearby surface settlements because they contain either traps or some form of obstruction to confuse any intruder, such as the fine example at Donaghmore, Co. Louth. We are also lucky to have a dendrochronological date of AD 822 ± 9 for the oak posts which originally supported a roof of oak planks in the chambers of a souterrain at Coolcran, Co. Fermanagh.

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In her recent valuable survey of the archaeology of early medieval Ireland, Nancy Edwards takes a negative view of the continuity of clachans and the existence of nucleated settlement: `However, there is as yet little to support these hypotheses in the archaeological record, where, though open and partially enclosed settlements may have housed the lower echelons of society, they do not appear to have been nucleated.' She pointed to the evidence of isolated souterrains that have little or no above-ground features but `from time to time buildings have been successfully located indicating open or only partiallyenclosed settlements with one or more houses and outbuildings'. Some of the souterrains are large and extensive and it has been suggested that they were the refuge centres for unenclosed nucleated settlements above ground. Caution is necessary since aerial photography has revealed crop-marks that show aboveground enclosures around souterrains that had appeared, previously, to have been unenclosed. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that `of the 3,000 examples recorded nationally, only 40% are recorded in association with enclosures'. The dating of souterrains is loose but it is generally felt that they fall in the second half of the first millennium AD. The debate concerning the relationship between souterrain distribution and `tribal' areas is lacking in sophistication - even assuming that `tribal' areas exist for the period in question. Ultimately it will require archaeology to prove or disprove the theory that souterrains, in some locations, are the underground element of unenclosed settlements, and more precise dating will be necessary before discussing the relationship between distribution patterns and communities.

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A way of providing secure storage was by constructing a kind of cellar. In Cornwall, it took the form of a stone-lined trench, roofed by a series of lintels, and in this case it could be associated with an individual house (Christie 1978: 314-33). These features are called souterrains and occur also in Brittany. There is no obvious difference between the structures found on these sites and those in the larger enclosures which are usually described as hillforts. Although there are some signs of open settlements during the Early and Middle Iron Ages, enclosures are densely distributed across the landscape and may have been largely self-sufficient. Wheelhouses were sometimes associated with souterrains, but the connection between storage structures and individual dwellings is entirely different from the more centralised system illustrated by hillforts in southern Britain.

MINING, QUARRYING, AND SALT MAKING IN EUROPE

Eneolithic mines shafts with access platforms on Rudna Glava mine.

Early Neolithic mine on a hill top near Majdanpek dating to about 5000 BCE and one of the earliest known copper mines. It was researched between 1968 and 1989. It was excavated as part of the "Old Mining and Metallurgy of the Central Balkan" project, led by Borislav Jovanovic (Archeological Institute SANU) and Ilija Jankovic (Museum of Mining and Metallurgy in Bor). The ore was pulled out during spring or summer months, and prepared for processing and taken away toward surrounding villages and beyond.

BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL

The extraction of stone, ores, and minerals was an important complement to the farming economy of ancient European peoples. Early farmers mined flint for their tools at sites like Grimes Graves in England, Spiennes in Belgium, and Kremenets in what is now Ukraine, where the high quality flint was extracted from veins several feet below the surface. They also quarried outcrops of stone like amphibolite to grind into stone axes. The best-quality flint and stone would be traded over long distances. When the early farmers of northern and western Europe began to build large stone tombs and monuments called megaliths, either they used stones that were lying about the landscape, or they quarried stones and transported them over substantial distances. The bluestones that form the innermost circles of standing stones at Stonehenge came from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, 155 miles away.

Beginning around 5000 b.c.e. metals began to be used first for the manufacture of ornaments and then for tools. The earliest metal to be mined and used extensively in the production of tools, household implements, and other goods was copper. Early copper mines from the fifth and fourth millennia b.c.e. are found at places such as Aibunar in Bulgaria and Rudna Glava in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Subsequently, copper sources were located in other parts of Europe, such as in Liguria in northwestern Italy and at Mount Gabriel in southwestern Ireland.

Copper tools were better than the stone tools of the earlier Stone Age because copper can be hammered and molded into many different shapes. Copper, however, is a relatively soft metal with limited usefulness. Early in the fourth millennium b.c.e. metalworkers discovered that they could toughen copper by mixing it with tin. The resulting alloy, bronze, gave its name to the Bronze Age, which extended roughly between 2500 and 800 b.c.e. Settlements where bronze played a prominent role in the culture and technology of the community have been found in islands of the Aegean Sea, home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoans and Mycenaeans, as well as in central Europe, Spain, Britain, and Scandinavia.

While bronze was an advance on copper, it still was less durable and more expensive to make than the metal that supplanted it, iron. While iron came to be used extensively in the Near East, it was not until about 1100 b.c.e. that it found its way to Europe. In discussing European Iron Age cultures, historians and archaeologists refer to two primary periods. The first was the Halstatt Period, named after a town near Salzburg, Austria, where extensive salt-mining operations were conducted beginning about 1000 b.c.e. About 500 years later the La Tène culture developed in modern-day Switzerland. This culture produced an enormous amount of iron, and archaeologists have discovered numerous Iron Age artifacts from this region.

Mining for metals was a backbreaking business. While some metals such as gold could be found in nuggets in sandy soil or in water, the mining of copper and iron was more difficult, because the ore had to be dug out of the earth. First, a deposit had to be found. Ancient mining engineers were oft en able to locate a vein of metal by looking for stains in rock formations, riverbeds, and even in the water itself. Copper oxidizes (combines with oxygen) to form a greenish hue, while iron oxidizes to form brownish-red rust. Once a site had been located, workers dug shaft s with picks and shovels. The shafts were generally not very deep, perhaps about 30 feet, but deeper mines—some as deep as 300 feet—have been found.

Bronze Age miners then used stone hammers to break up the rock, but they also used picks and levers made from hardwood or antler. Archaeologists have discovered many hundreds of broken stone hammers at ancient mining sites, and the large number of such tools suggests that a separate group of men were on hand to make and repair tools; otherwise, the miners would not have been able to carry on their work. Another technique that ancient miners used was to heat the rock by building large fires against it. The heating and cooling cracked the rock, oft en to a thickness of a foot, making it easier to break it into pieces and haul it to the surface.

Iron Age mining was not radically different. Again, shafts were dug using picks and shovels. The ore was broken up with hammers and then carried in sacks up ladders to the surface, where it was further broken down, washed (that is, the ore separated from smaller bits of rock and sand), and made ready for smelting. Large cisterns of water were kept on hand for the washing process.

An important activity in ancient Europe was the mining of salt. Salt was a valuable commodity, for it was used in the preservation of food; it was so valuable that ancient Roman soldiers were oft en paid with salt, the origin of the modern word salary, and the ancient Greeks readily traded slaves for salt (giving rise to the modern expression that people “are not worth their salt”). A major center of salt production in ancient Europe was the area around Salzburg, Austria and the lakes to the east in a region called Salzkammergut (note the syllable Salz-, the German word for “salt”). Also, many German and Austrian place names contain the syllable hall, the ancient Celtic word for “salt.” This salt was left behind by ancient seawaters that covered the continent before they receded.

When salt occurs in large concentrations and is easily accessible, it can be mined just like any other mineral and carried out of the mine in large blocks, as at Hallstatt, where the miners had special leather backpacks for bringing out the salt. Where it is less concentrated or where groundwater flows through the salt deposits, it can be extracted by an evaporation process. Salt is highly soluble in water, so it can be extracted easily from the ground by dissolving it. Some ancient European salt mines consist of deep shaft s dug into the earth, oft en into mountainsides. After the shafts were dug, ancient salt miners let groundwater do much of the work. Large chambers were opened and then allowed to slowly fill with water, a process that could take up to 15 years. When the chamber was filled with brine, or salty water, it would be pumped out of the mine. At that point, the salty water was placed in large, shallow containers so that the water could evaporate. The salt left behind was fashioned into cakes for transporting. Over the centuries, numerous road systems were built principally for the transportation of salt. The Via Salaria in Italy is a good example.

FLINT MINE

A flint mine at Grimes Graves. Material for a new shaft was back-filled into a disused one. Exhausted galleries were also backfilled. The freshly mined flint was hauled to the surface where it was roughed-out into the shape of required implements. (Tracey Croft)

About 160 filled-in flint mine shafts can be seen in this aerial view of Harrow Hill, Sussex. The rectangular enclosure was used in the Iron Age for cattle slaughtering. (Cambridge University)

Plan of the galleries at Pit No. 2, Grimes Graves (Norfolk), ranged round the central access shaft. The position of deer antlers used in mining have been indicated. (Source: Armstrong, 1926)

Flint was used for making axes and other implements. Whilst the raw material can frequently be found lying on the hillside or seashore in southern Britain and north-eastern Ireland, and was at first used for axe manufacture, it is usually of poor quality due to frostfracturing, and the lumps often too small to make the sort of tools required. The best rock lies buried in seams often 5–15 m. (5.5–16.4 yd) deep which formed in the upper chalk, so mines were developed to extract it (fig. 13). When agriculture reached western Europe flint mines were quickly developed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. In England at least a dozen mining sites are known from Sussex (Harrow Hill (plate 10), Cissbury) and Wessex (Easton Down) to the Chilterns (Pitstone) and East Anglia (Grimes Graves). A possible site has also been located at Ballygalley in County Antrim. Radiocarbon dating shows that the earliest mines were in Sussex and must be contemporary with the first agriculturalists from 3100 to 2700 bc. The East Anglian mines at Grimes Graves span the period 2300 bc to 1600 bc with the greatest activity between 2000 and 1800 bc. One wonders how people knew that there was flint buried deep in the chalk. It can of course be seen outcropping in the cliffs at the seaside, and may have been encountered when ditches were dug for earthworks.

Archaeological excavations were recently carried out at Grimes Graves in Norfolk and the mines are typical. In a number of places the flint outcropped in narrow bands and could be quarried by opencast working which might involve only a few days’ digging. Where the seams of flint dipped deeper into the chalk, shafts had to be sunk from above. There are more than 340 of these deep shafts close together at the site. They are from 5 to 12 m. (5.5 to 13 yd) in diameter and can be as much 15 m. (16.4 yd) deep, depending on the depth of the best seam of flint. The stone occurs in three bands; the upper two known as the topstone and wallstone are fragmentary nodules and were not usually of much interest to the miners who made for the lowest layer, the floorstone. This seam is 5 to 10 cm. (2 to 4 in) thick.

Using pickaxes of red deer antler and shovels made of ox shoulder blades or shaped pieces of wood, the miners dug down until they reached the floorstone. Access would have been by ladder. Sometimes if the shaft was deep they inserted a platform about half-way down, enabling miners to descend in two stages. Occasionally small galleries might be dug to retrieve the wallstone if it seemed worthwhile but normally it was only at floorstone level that a series of galleries radiated out from the base of the shaft. These could be as much as 2 m. (6.6 ft) wide and 1.5 m. (5 ft) high at first. From these, smaller tunnels, less than a metre high, penetrated about 5 m. (5.5 yd) from the foot of the shaft. Often the galleries of one mine communicated with those of an adjoining abandoned shaft, the whole area being honeycombed with hundreds of tunnels. The miners worked lying on their sides in the galleries, removing the chalk with their picks and levering out the blocks of flint which lay buried beneath them. They passed the material back down the tunnel and other workers removed it into baskets which could be hauled to the top of the shafts. Galleries and shafts already cleared were back-filled with rubble. The galleries would have been hot and stuffy with limited air supply. Although we have no evidence for this, the miners must have worn protective clothing, especially for the hands, since the flint is razor sharp and the chalk very abrasive. Lamps, made by hollowing out a block of chalk and filling it with animal fat, have been found in a number of British mines, though not at Grimes Graves. It is possible that daylight reflected from the white walls was sufficient when the miners’ eyes became accustomed to it, providing the galleries were not too long. In the Sussex mines, where soot marks have been found on the roofs and ashes on the floor, faggots or tapers were also used for lighting.

It is likely that about a dozen men worked at each mine. A new shaft was dug every one or two years, though the actual digging time may have been only about two months. An average mine produced a total of around 45 tonnes (44.3 tons) of flint. This would have been roughly trimmed and shaped close to the top of the shaft. The rough-outs were then transported to would-be customers who we imagine were responsible for shaping the finished tools. These would include not only axes but adzes, arrowheads, scrapers, knives and sickles. Men engaged in mining may have had little time for agriculture unless the quarrying was carried out after the harvest. Perhaps they exchanged their flint for a large part of their food supply?