Copper Mining at Mount Gabriel, Co. Cork: Bronze Age Bonanza or Post-Famine Fiasco?

1983 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Stephen Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Mining ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Bronze Age

The background to discoveries of early mining sites in southwest Ireland is examined. Particular attention is devoted to the workings at Mount Gabriel, currently believed to date from the Bronze Age. Working principally from historical sources it is concluded that the site was exploited in shallow workings and trial pits between c. 1852 and 1862. Theories concerning the output of these and other Irish mines are discussed. Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological survey as well as documentary research are recommended to help solve the many outstanding problems.

Urartian Irrigation Works.

1972 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 179-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Burney
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The Bronze Age

If there is one aspect of life in the ancient Near East which may be taken as a common factor between lands and cities so far removed in space and time as Sumer and Urartu, Eridu and Van, it is irrigation. This is a subject crying out for more research, especially on the ground. Here too is a link between Seton Lloyd's excavations at Eridu and in the Diyala region, his publication of Sennacherib's acqueduct and his later interest in Urartu. The writer can claim first-hand knowledge only of the last. Without Seton Lloyd's encouragement in the Institute at Ankara and likewise during the weeks spent as an assistant during the first season's excavations at Beycesultan, the writer would scarcely have set out on his first archaeological survey in northern Anatolia, followed by that in the Pontic region of Tokat and Amasya (1955). These two surveys were but the prelude to those of 1956 and 1957 in eastern Anatolia. These, undertaken initially in the expectation of discovering mounds of the Bronze Age and earlier periods, became instead largely a revelation of the great number of Urartian sites, including numerous fortresses recognizable as such from their surface remains.

Preliminary findings from the 2010 archaeological survey in Lake Dian Basin, Yunnan

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
The United States ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Survey Team ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractIn 2010, a joint archaeological survey team organized by the scholars from China, the United States and Canada conducted archaeological survey in the southern and western parts of the Lake Dian Basin. The surveyed areas involved three towns, which were Kunyang in Jinning County and Haikou and Biji in Xishan District, Kunming City, covering areas of about 74sq km. The survey methods included onsite survey, core observation and hand coring test. The survey discovered two microlithic sites, 21 sites of the Bronze Age, five sites containing remains of both the Bronze Age and the Han Dynasty and one site of the Han Dynasty.

scholarly journals Transformations of Metal Supply during the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-330
Author(s):  
Viktória Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Neutron Radiography ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Metal Artifacts ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
The Bronze Age

This paper presents recent research questions which have been raised and methods which have been used in the study of Bronze Age metallurgy in connection with available natural resources (ores) in and around the Carpathian Basin. This topic fits in the most current trends in the research on European prehistoric archaeology. Given the lack of written sources, copper and bronze artifacts discovered in settlement and cemetery excavations and prehistoric mining sites provide the primary sources on which the studies in question are based. The aim of compositional and isotope analysis of copper and tin ores, metal tools, ornaments, and weapons is to determine the provenience of the raw materials and further an understanding of the chaine operatiore of prehistoric metal production. The Momentum Mobility Research Group of the Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities studies these metal artifacts using archaeological and scientific methods. It has focused on the first thousand years of the Bronze Age (2500–1500 BC). Multidisciplinary research include non-destructive XRF, PGAA (promptgamma activation), TOF-ND (time-of-flight neutron diffraction) analyses and neutron radiography, as well as destructive methods, e.g. metal sampling for compositional and lead isotope testing, alongside archaeological analysis. Microstructure studies are also efficient methods for determining the raw material and production techniques. The results suggest the use of regional ore sources and interregional connections, as well as several transformations in the exchange network of the prehistoric communities living in the Carpathian Basin.

The Treasury of Atreus

Antiquity ◽  
1940 ◽  
Vol 14 (55) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Wace
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Striking Feature ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
The Third ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Bronze Age

The Treasury of Atreus is one of the most important monuments of the Bronze Age in Greece and is universally recognized as the supreme example of Mycenaean architecture. It is also the finest of all the many beehive or tholos tombs which are such a striking feature of Mycenaean culture. The beehive-tomb is essentially a creation of the architecture of the Greek mainland and of Mycenaean as opposed to Minoan building. In Crete so far three beehive-tombs of Bronze Age date are known, two of which—one at Hagios Theodoros and another just found at Knossos—date from late L.M. III, the very end of the Bronze Age. The third, found at Knossos in 1938, is not to be dated earlier than 1500 B.C. All three are small and poorly constructed. The Early Bronze Age circular ossuaries of Mesarà in Crete, often erroneously described as beehive-tombs, are, as Professor Marinatos has provel nothing of the kind. On the other hand, on the Greek Mainland and in the islands immediately adjacent to it, at least forty beehive-tombs are so far known. These figures are enough to indicate that the beehivetomb is a product of Mainland or Mycenaean rather than of Cretan or Minoan architecture. More accurate information about the date and construction of the Treasury of Atreus, the finest of all the beehivetombs, cannot fail to enlarge our knowledge of the history and art of the Mycenaean civilization.

Rhodes in the Bronze Age: An Archaeological Survey

Phoenix ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Sara A. Immerwahr ◽  
Christopher Mee
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
The Bronze Age

scholarly journals Continuities and changes of animal exploitation across the Bronze Age – Iron Age boundary at mining sites in the Eastern Alps

Archaeofauna ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 77-106
Author(s):  
KONSTANTINA SALIARI ◽  
ERICH PUCHER ◽  
MARKUS STAUDT ◽  
GERT GOLDENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Eastern Alps ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
Age Variations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Since the 1990s, the Schwaz-Brixlegg mining district in the Lower Inn Valley, North Tyrol, Austria, features excavations on mostly Late Bronze (LBA) to Early Iron (EIA) Age sites, focusing on the reconstruction of metallurgic activities and of all aspects related to it. This paper reviews the Schwaz-Brixlegg archaeozoological materials and compares them with those from contemporaneous mining (copper and salt) sites on the Eastern Alps, to assess diet and subsistence strategies of the early alpine, geo-resource-centered, communities. The faunal remains from Schwaz-Brixlegg document a change in diet for the Lower Inn Valley area from the LBA to the EIA exemplified by a shift from a pig-based economy to another one based on cattle and occasionally small ruminants. These species were most often brought whole to the sites and only occasionally as meat cuts (in particular, ribs). Age and sex profiles indicate that miners consumed high-quality meat. As is also documented on prehistoric mining sites from the Eastern Alps, butchery marks evidence a standardized slaughtering process car- ried out by professional butchers. At Weißer Schrofen, pig was the main meat provider during the LBA, whereas cattle and sheep/goat were more important as dairy products and wool/skin providers. This pattern changed in the EIA, when sheep became the dominating meat supplier at the site of Bauernzeche. This shift may reflect an adaptation to climate changes, which determined the amount of fodder available for stocks, and/or to the impact of cultural and economic developments taking place during the Final Bronze Age. Variations on the faunal assemblages might also reflect agents such as topography and altitude. All in all, a logistic balance between miners (consumers) and peasants (producers) is revealed although more information is required (e.g. archaeobotany), to shed more light on the major changes recorded in the EIA. Based on gnawing marks from Weißer Schrofen, some of the dogs there must have been large-sized. Although this may constitute an exceptional case for the Bronze Age, similar results were reported from the EBA Brixlegg settlement at Mariahilfbergl. Future research is needed to elucidate the possible functional role of dogs in the context of early mining activities.

Northern Europe

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Copper Mining ◽  
South West ◽  
Copper Mines ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Arsenical Copper ◽  
The Bronze Age

Copper objects first circulated in Britain and Ireland around 2500 BC, thus beginning a short-lived Chalcolithic that ended with the rapid adoption of tin-bronze metallurgy after 2100 BC. Both islands have numerous sources of copper; however, these orebodies are not evenly distributed, nor were they all accessible to the prehistoric miner. This is part of the explanation why certain regions developed a strong tradition of copper mining that lasted well into the Bronze Age. Ireland has long been regarded as a significant producer of metal in the Bronze Age. This reflects the large quantities of Bronze Age metalwork found in a part of Europe with abundant sources of copper. The south-west region of Cork and Kerry was the main centre for early copper production. This began with mining at Ross Island in Killarney, where Beaker culture groups produced arsenical copper during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (c.2400–1900 BC). Farther south, there are seven copper mines now dated to the Early to Middle Bronze Age (c.1800–1400 BC) in the peninsulas of west Cork. These are known as Mount Gabriel-type mines, the name coming from the single largest concentration of such workings located on the eastern slopes of this mountain in the Mizen Peninsula (O’Brien 1994, 2003). The recent discovery of trench workings at Derrycarhoon continues the story of Bronze Age copper mining in that area to 1300–1100 BC, after which this activity seems to have ceased (O’Brien 2013). The study of these mines began during the late eighteenth/ early nineteenth centuries, when mineral prospecting led to the discovery of primitive workings at several locations in south-west Ireland. Described as ‘Dane’s Workings’ in the antiquarian literature, these mines were associated with the use of firesetting and stone hammers (see quotations from Griffith 1828 and Thomas 1850 (in O’Brien 2003) in Chapter 1). The first systematic research began in the 1930s with the discovery of the Mount Gabriel group by the geologist, Tom Duffy. These were subsequently mapped by another geologist, John Jackson, who brought these mines to wider attention when he obtained a Bronze Age date for charcoal taken from mine spoil on the mountain (Jackson 1968).

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