Copper Mining in the Bronze Age at Mynydd Parys, Anglesey, Wales

The Bronze Age in Britain is now a term often used to include both the first use of copper c. 2400 bc and also tin-bronze from c. 2100 bc, all of which required the extensive use of copper. Prehistoric mining for this metal has been identified in surface and underground workings in Parys Mine, Mynydd Parys, Anglesey, although almost all of the surface workings are now obscured by the extensive deep spoil from more recent mining in the industrial period. These copper-bearing ores are in bedded lodes, together with some intruded vein deposits. The Bronze Age workings have been exposed underground where they have been intersected by the early 19th century industrial workings on and above the 16 fathom and 20 fathom levels in the Parys Mine. Spoil exposures contain stone hammers (‘mauls’), wood fragments, and charcoal; samples of the latter have been radiocarbon dated with chronological modelling suggesting activity took place in the first half of the 2nd millennium cal bc. Although relatively limited in extent, these important prehistoric mining sites are among the earliest found in the UK. They have survived due to their protection from surface erosion and limited accessibility.

Nový výzkum pravěkých těžebních polí na Bílém kameni u Sázavy, okr. Benešov New excavation of the prehistoric mining fields at Bílý kámen near Sázava, Central Bohemia

The article presents a current view of the issue of the Neolithic mining site of Bílý kámen near Sázava (Czech Republic, Benešov district). The results are based both on an analysis of earlier finds and on the finds from a new archaeological excavation. The findings show that the traditional idea of one of the most important monuments of prehistoric mining activities of non-silicate rock in Central Europe will need to be substantially revised. The fact that it is not the main source of the raw material of marble bracelets during the period of the Stroked Pottery culture (5100/5000–4500/4400 cal BC) opens new space in a seemingly long-resolved discussion. Radiocarbon data enrich our knowledge of the activities taking place at Bílý kámen in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern period.

The social organisation of metalworking in southern England during the Beaker period and Bronze Age: absence of evidence or evidence of absence?

This paper attempts to consider the social dimensions of metalworking during the Beaker period and Bronze Age in southern England. However, any attempt to discuss the social context of metalworking in these periods, i.e. who was working metals and where these activities occurred, is confronted with an extremely low evidence base of excavated archaeological sites where metalworking is known to have taken place. This lack of data and subsequent understanding of metalworking locations stands in stark contrast to the thousands of Beaker and Bronze Age metal artefacts housed in museum archives across Britain. These metal artefacts bear witness to the ability of people in Beaker and Bronze Age societies in Britain, and particularly southern England, to obtain, transform and use metals since the introduction of copper at c.2450 BC. Such metal artefacts have been subject to detailed analytical programmes, which have revealed information on the supply and recycling of metals. Likewise, there have also been significant advances in our understanding of the prehistoric mining of metals across the British Isles, with Beaker and Bronze Age mines identified in locations such as Ross Island (Ireland), the Great Orme (UK) and Alderley Edge (UK). Consequently, there is detailed archaeological knowledge about the two ends of the metalworking spectrum: the obtaining of the metal ores from the ground and the finished artefacts. However, the evidence for who was working metals and where is almost completely lacking. This paper discusses the archaeological evidence of the location of metalworking areas in these periods and dissects the reasons why so few have been found within archaeological excavation, with the evidence for early metallurgy likely to be slight and ambiguous, and possibly not identifiable as metalworking remains during excavation. Suggestions are made as to where such metalworking activities could have taken place in the Beaker period and Bronze Age, and what techniques can be applied to discover some of this evidence of metalworking activity, to allow access to the social dimensions of early metalworking and metalworkers.

Hammering the past: The experimental (re)construction and usage of prehistoric mining hammerstones from the Prljusa-Mali Sturac site, Rudnik Mountain

The locality of Prljusa-Mali Sturac on Rudnik Mountain is one of the richest prehistoric mining sites in Europe, taking into account the number of recorded, collected and analysed mining hammerstones. The reasonably estimated number of these tools of 2,000 and more clearly depicts the intensity of prehistoric mining activities at this locality as well as the conspicuousness of the mining potential which this mountain possessed. During the archaeological research conducted so far, 688 hammerstones have been collected and analysed (of which 478 are from recent excavation campaigns), thus producing results based on which hypotheses were made regarding their manufacture and use. Consequently, in the summer of 2017, an experimental (re)construction was undertaken on three basic types of these tools, as a complementary segment to a set of functional and typological analyses. The goal of the experimental research was to enable and gather as much as possible data that would serve as a comparative filter for testing previously set hypotheses and research questions related to the manufacture and usage modes of this category of mining tools. The mining hammerstones made for the purpose of this experiment proved to be extensively efficient in practice. The obtained results enabled a more complete understanding of the prehistoric mining technology on this site, but also raised some new questions.

Information Integration in a Mining Landscape

The integration of information sources is a fundamental step to advance research and knowledge about the ancient mining landscape of Schwaz/Brixlegg in the Tyrol / Austria. The approach is applied for the localization, identification and interpretation of mining structures within the area. We want to show the use of the CIDOC CRM ontology with extensions in combination with a thesaurus to integrate data on a conceptual level. To implement this integration, we applied semantic web technologies to create a knowledge graph in RDF (Resource Description Framework) that currently represents the available information of seven different information sources in a network structure. More sources will be integrated using the same methodology. These are geochemical analysis of artefacts, onomastic research on names related to mining and archaeological information of other mining areas to research the spread of prehistoric mining activities and technologies.The RDF network can be queried for research, cultural or emergency response questions and the results can be displayed using Geoinformation systems. An exemplary archaeological research question is the location of mining, settlement and burial sites in the Bronze Age, differentiating between ore extraction, ore processing and smelting activities. For emergency forces the names and exact locations of mines are essential in case of an accident within an old mine. Different questions require a subset of the created knowledge graph. The results of queries to retrieve specific information can be visualised using appropriate tools.