The History of Mining. Michael Coulson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the most famous mines developed in Germany, the life of which also spanned the ancient period, the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution and the modern age, were those at Rammelsberg in Lower Saxony in the Harz Mountains. The mines had been worked intermittently for over a thousand years but fell silent in the Dark Ages, re-opening in the 10th century. They produced copper, zinc, lead and silver over the centuries, the focus on particular metals in the ore changing as monetary requirements favoured silver at the end of the Dark Ages and then base metals as the Industrial Revolution loomed. It is thought that as much as 27 million tonnes of ore was mined over this long period before the last owners, Preussag, closed the mine in the late 1980s. Overall the mines were estimated to have produced over 3.75 million tonnes of zinc, 1.6 million tonnes of lead, almost 550,000 tonnes of copper, and more than 115 million ozs of silver and 825,000 ozs of gold.

      The Balkans

      We have already seen how the Cretans and the Romans obtained gold from the Balkans but long before then in the 5th millennium BC there is strong evidence of copper mining in Bulgaria, Rumania and Serbia. What is less obvious is the question of whether these developments came about as a result of Near East influence or whether the discovery of copper led to the establishment of an indigenous mining and metallurgical industry in the region. What we do know is that advanced civilisations like Crete imported copper from the Balkans, but in the ancient treatment sites uncovered there is some evidence of a local way of doing things in the shape of the copper casting moulds.

      The main ancient Balkan copper mining sites were Ai Bunar in Bulgaria and Rudna Glava and Rudnik in Serbia. Their age, around the end of the 5th millennium, has been estimated using carbon dating techniques. These techniques were also important in raising and progressing the idea that Balkan copper mining and metallurgy were more advanced then elsewhere in the Mediterranean and Middle/Near East at that time. Certainly archaeological work over the last few years has uncovered a large number of copper artefacts, which are older and still more sophisticated than those found elsewhere in the region.

      Without written records, the sort of civilisation in the Balkans several thousand years ago must be drawn from a mixture of evidence from archaeological diggings and speculation. The evidence from graves containing a large number of jewellery items, uncovered near the Bulgarian town of Varna, can be used. Many of the items were of gold, which suggested a graveyard for the wealthy of the region. It also suggested the likelihood of metal trading, as some of the copper artefacts in the graves were not consistent with local ore types. So in this relatively unconsidered, in today’s mining terms, part of eastern Europe we note copper mining, treatment, manufacturing, and metal trading with a social hierarchy thrown in for good measure, and all now 7000 years ago.

      Other mining regions

      From the 7th to the 11th centuries the silver and lead mines of Melle in central, western France were an important source of wealth for the French crown. Charlemagne, France’s first modern king, was particularly in need of currency as he waged almost total conflict during his reign (768-814) in his efforts to unite Europe. Before the Carolingian period lead had been the main target of the preceding Merovingian dynasty.

      The mines at Melle were extensive with galleries running several miles which had been carved out by the miners over the centuries after accessing the ore via vertical shafts; fire setting and then pick were the traditional mining methods used. From the 11th century silver was mined in the Fournel valley in France’s southern Alps near the village of L’Argentiere, named after the silver mines; again the need for silver coinage was the key motivation. The mines operated intermittently over the centuries, finally closing in the 19th century; an extensive network of tunnels where miners followed and extracted the ore remains today and can be visited. Evidence also remains of the surface treatment facilities.

      11. North America

      The possibility that the indigenous Indians of North America could have been involved in mining activity is something that early European settlers would have found unlikely given the basic nomadic structure of the lives of these people. However, the discovery of ancient mine workings in the area of Lake Superior in Michigan in the 19th century suggested otherwise, to begin with anyway.

      S.O. Knapp, who worked for the Minnesota Mining Company, came across two ancient copper mining sites in Michigan when surveying for the firm. One consisted of an ancient gallery which had been excavated underground and in the gallery were a number of stone hammers and an exposed copper vein. Close by Knapp found evidence of another copper mine where a shaft had been sunk to around 30 feet. In this shaft Knapp came across a large smooth lump of native copper, weighing perhaps 6 tons, which had clearly been worked by miners in the very distant past.

      On Isle Royale there are many examples of old mines where pits had been sunk almost 60 feet down to expose the copper vein; these pits extended over a two-mile length. The period of these workings is thought to relate to the 3rd millennium BC and as much as 500,000 tonnes of ore may have been mined, spread over at least 1000 years, although these figures can only be best guesses. Similar ancient copper workings were also unearthed in nearby Wisconsin. In Utah, coal miners at the Lion mine in Wattis found an ancient tunnel system which followed the underground coal seams for several hundred feet. Within this tunnel system there was also a coal ore collection area from where the coal would have been carried to the surface.

      Interestingly, in both the cases of Michigan and Utah the indigenous Indians could provide no information from their cultural history of mine working by their ancestors, so Knapp and others had to look elsewhere. It was therefore speculated that these mines were worked by an ancient but technologically advanced people who may have come from as far away as Alaska or indeed Asia and in time continued their journey south across America to Mexico and beyond. No sign has been found of smelting near the ancient Michigan finds, suggesting that whatever was produced was transported – maybe hundreds of miles – to be treated elsewhere and made into copper and possibly bronze items.

      In the state of Nevada further evidence has been found of indigenous mining activity in the form of arrowheads and spearheads made from hard rock deposits such as quartz. Spearheads have been found in the Carson Sink in the northwestern part of the state and in the Washoe Valley near Lake Tahoe dating from as far back as the 8th millennium BC. In the 3rd century AD for a couple of hundred years the Anasazi Indians mined turquoise and salt in what is now Clark County, and early prospectors in the 18th and 19th centuries recorded having received assistance from local Indians in locating promising mineral areas.

      12. South America

      Before the coming of the Spanish in the Middle Ages the areas that are now known as Latin, Central and South America were populated by a variety of civilisations that, because of the colour of their skin, some speculate may have made their way from Asia (as described in the previous section) many millennia before over the land bridge that existed across the Bering Strait, and then spread out east and south. Others may have taken a sea route from Asia going southeast on the prevailing Pacific currents leading them eventually to the shores of central and southern America.

      Today South America is well known for hosting a wide array of metals and minerals, both industrial like copper and precious like gold, but its historic tradition was mainly associated with precious metals. Ancient civilisations in South America such as the Chavin and Mochican, were capable of building sophisticated stone structures for living and worshiping in. They also had organised farms and had acquired the skill to work precious metals – gold and silver – into the most intricate and beautiful objects. Interestingly, despite these skills with precious metals, it appears that the Iron Age did not come to South America until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors with their steel weapons in the 16th century AD.

      Although СКАЧАТЬ