Evidence for Bronze Age and Medieval tin placer mining in the Erzgebirge mountains, Saxony (Germany)

Abstract

Tin is an essential raw material both for the copper–tin alloys developed during the Early Bronze Age and for the casting of tableware in the Medieval period. Secondary geological deposits in the form of placers (cassiterite) provide easily accessible sources but have often been reworked several times during land‐use history. In fact, evidence for the earliest phase of tin mining during the Bronze Age has not yet been confirmed for any area in Europe, stimulating an ongoing debate on this issue. For this study, a broad range of methods (sedimentology, pedology, palynology, anthracology, OSL/14C‐dating, and micromorphology) was applied both within the extraction zone of placer mining and the downstream alluvial sediments at Schellerhau site in the upper eastern Erzgebirge (Germany). The results indicate that the earliest local removal of topsoil and processing of cassiterite‐bearing weathered granite occurred already in the early second millennium BC, thus coinciding with the early and middle Bronze Age period. Placer mining resumed in this area during the Medieval period, probably as early as the 13th century AD. A peak of alluvial sedimentation during the mid‐15th century AD is probably related to the acquisition of this region by the Elector of Saxony and the subsequent promotion of mining.

Colluvial sediments originating from past land-use activities in the Erzgebirge Mountains, Central Europe: occurrence, properties, and historic environmental implications

“…However, this regional periodisation of mining must not always fit to very local developments, where local rulers probably had a decisive role for initiating mining and related infrastructure and supply activities. This is suggested by sites where a change of territorial rule coincides with intensified mining activities during the early fifteenth century AD such as Hohenwalde (Tolksdorf et al 2019) and the tin placer district at Schellerhau (Tolksdorf et al 2020b). Despite several following crises (Thirty Years' War, Seven Years' War, competition by mines outside Europe), mining remained the economic backbone of this region until the twentieth century AD, reflected by the third (eighteenth-nineteenth centuries AD) and fourth mining boom (mid-twentieth century AD; Fig.…”

“…Henkner et al 2018b;Dreslerová et al 2019;Knopf et al 2020). Further, at least along traffic routes through the Erzgebirge that were already used in prehistoric times (Ruttkowski 2002), or at prehistoric mining sites (Tolksdorf et al 2020b), local occurrences of prehistoric colluvial sediments might to be expected.…”

The <i>μ</i>Dose system: determination of environmental dose rates by combined alpha and beta counting – performance tests and practical experiences

“…For the present study, a PMT with a diameter of 70 mm was used. A detailed description of the technical setup is given by Tudyka et al (2018).…”

“…Recently, a laboratory-based, combined α and β particle detection instrument called the µDose system has been developed (e.g. Miłosz et al, 2017;Tudyka et al, 2018). Providing a cost-efficient approach, this novel device allows the determination of radionuclide concentrations of 238 U, 235 U, 232 Th and 40 K. Up to now, this measurement system has not been tested systematically.…”

Ambient seismic noise analysis of LARGE-N data for mineral exploration in the Central Erzgebirge, Germany

“…The Erzgebirge is endowed in world-class magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits hosted by a variety of vein and metasomatic structures that were extensively mined for silver, tin, bismuth and cobalt since the Bronze Age (Tolksdorf et al, 2019). The most important mineralized structures in the study region are closely associated with the emplacement of the Geyer granite, and include stockwork-like greisen bodies and veins occurring in the endo-and exo-contact of the granite, respectively (Hösel et al, 1994).…”