Natural Science in Archaeology

150 7 Metals and Related Minerals and Ores
for Roman and Medieval production in the region. Gold ore mills dating from the
thirteenth century CE have been identified (Lehrberger et al. 1997). These authors
describe in detail the gold mineralization in this region. The gold deposits of the
Tauern Mountains in the eastern Austrian Alps have been worked for over 3000 years,
first as placer deposits. These deposits were worked extensively by the Romans.
Probably the maximum production of early gold was the exploitation of Iberian
deposits by the Romans. Pliny (NH 33) discussed Roman mining in Spain, and
Davies (1935) brought things up to the twentieth century. Lewis and Jones (1970)
have added new detail about Roman gold mining in northwest Spain, pointing out
that much of the recoverable gold there was alluvial or placer gold. When the Visigoths
controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula in the middle of the first millennium
CE, they made high quality gold jewelry from gold recovered in the south of the
peninsula (Guerra and Calligaro 2007).
Gold was recovered from many European countries, but was most abundant in
Ireland, Britain, western France, and the Carpathian region. In Ireland, gold was the
most common material used for ornaments during the Bronze Age. The Romans
had extensive gold mining operations in southwestern Great Britain (Wales) at
Dolaucothi, near Pumsaint (Jones and Lewis 1972). These mines were technically
advanced. They were opencast, and used deep mining techniques in the exploitation
of gold-bearing veins. Dumps of quartz gangue can still be observed. Nearby
placer deposits had likely been worked earlier. The Leadhills-Wanlockhead district
of Scotland produced gold for more than 400 years. Gold recovery from placers in
the district was quite profitable in the early years, especially in the 1500s. Figure 7.2
shows the gold deposits of the British Isles.
Perhaps the most famous ancient gold district in Europe is in western Transylvania
between the Aries River in the north and the Mures River in the south. Herodotus
mentioned the gold jewelry worn by the inhabitants along the Mures River. The name
of the River Aries may be derived from the early name for gold, auries or aurum.
This river certainly contained placer gold. The Romans constructed many tunnels in
the region to extract the lode gold. Some of the earliest gold objects in the world have
been recovered from Necropoli in northeastern Bulgaria (Kostov 2005d).
In a very detailed study, Tamain and Ratz (1982) have described the gold ores
of the west-central Massif in France in their geologic and archaeological context.
The Limousin area in the southwestern part of the Central Massif of France has a
long history of metals exploitation, especially gold and tin. Gold mining is attested
from the fifth century BCE (Cauuet 1994). The gold was extracted primarily from
veins, but there was also placer production. Mining continued through the sixth and
seventh centuries CE and into the High Middle Ages. A comprehensive review of
gold in prehistoric Europe is available in Morteani and Northover (1995). This book
contains six articles on gold deposits and/or gold mining.
In the Greek legend of the “Golden Fleece,” ancient placer miners extracted
alluvial gold by shoveling the gravels into sluice boxes hollowed out of tree trunks.
A lining of sheepskins trapped the gold particles. The coarse gold was shaken out,
but the fine gold adhered to the wet wool. The fleece was then hung out to dry so the
gold could be beaten out. Jason and the Argonauts set sail in search of this Golden