Miners and mining in the Late Bronze Age: a multidisciplinary study from Austria

Schibler, Jörg; Breitenlechner, Elisabeth; Deschler-Erb, Sabine; Goldenberg, Gert; Hanke, K.; Hiebel, Gerald; Plogmann, Heidemarie Hüster; Nicolussi, Kurt; Marti-Grädel, Elisabeth; Pichler, Sandra; Schmidl, Alexandra; Schwarz, Štefan; Stopp, Barbara; Oeggl, Klaus

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00062049

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Also the contemporaneous local metallurgic activities seemed to have had no significant impact on the vegetation. This is confirmed by LBA studies by Schibler et al (2011) in the Tyrol (Austria) and by Iron Age studies by Dörfler (2000) in Joldelund (Germany), where small-scale smelting activities also had only slight and short-lasting influences on the wood. Also recent studies by Rösch (2011Rösch ( , 2012, on calculations of wood demand and wood use during LN times in the Lake Constance (Germany) area as well as during (pre-) historic times in the Schwarzwald (Germany) area, suggest that the supply of settlements with construction and firewood was only on a small scale which did not lead to environmental changes in the region.…”

Section: Charcoal Analysissupporting

confidence: 55%

“…The history of settlement development and its anthropogenic impact on natural woodland since the LN in this Alpine area is primarily derived from several palynological and archaeobotanical studies (cf. Bortenschlager 1986;Walde 1999;Schibler et al 2011;Oeggl 2013). Recent research studies focus on anthropogenic disturbance of woodland for agricultural activities (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resource usage of the hilltop settlement on the Kiechlberg near Thaur (Tyrol, Austria) from Late Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age

Schwarz

Oeggl

2015

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Archaeological excavations on the 'Kiechlberg' near Thaur (Tyrol, Austria) excavated a dwelling site with an experimental phase of copper metallurgy from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Findings of copper ore, slag, unwrought copper and ingots document the processing sequence from ore to raw copper. Archaeobotanical studies on soil samples from these cultural layers reveal that the early dwellers were embedded in an agricultural society with cultivation of Hordeum vulgare (barley), Triticum dicoccon (emmer) and Pisum sativum (pea). Small domestic animals like Ovis/Capra (sheep/ goats) dominate during the Late/Final Neolithic whereas Bos sp. (cattle) prevail during the Early Bronze Age. Nutrition was supplemented by gathering wild plants, e.g. Corylus avellana (hazelnuts) and Quercus sp. (acorns). Anthracological analyses provide information about the use of wood which was primarily taken from a mixed conifer forest composed of Picea abies (spruce), Abies alba (fir) and some Fagus sylvatica (beech). The surrounding woodland was only moderately affected by exploitation for construction and energy purposes even in epochs when smelting activities took place.

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Section: Charcoal Analysissupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource usage of the hilltop settlement on the Kiechlberg near Thaur (Tyrol, Austria) from Late Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age

Schwarz

Oeggl

2015

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…These mining activities were first verified by archaeological excavations in the 1990s (Goldenberg and Rieser, 2004). More intensive excavations on prehistoric mining in the Lower Inn Valley have taken place since 2007 (Schibler et al., 2011). We conducted a detailed investigation of one of these small mines, the so-called Mauk E mine, which had initially been explored in the 1990s (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charcoal from a prehistoric copper mine in the Austrian Alps: dendrochronological and dendrological data, demand for wood and forest utilisation

Pichler

Nicolussi

Goldenberg

et al. 2013

Journal of Archaeological Science

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During prehistory fire-setting was the most appropriate technique for exploiting ore deposits. Charcoal fragments found in the course of archaeological excavations in a small mine called Mauk E in the area of Schwaz/Brixlegg (Tyrol, Austria) are argued to be evidence for the use of this technology. Dendrochronological analyses of the charcoal samples yielded calendar dates for the mining activities showing that the exploitation of the Mauk E mine lasted approximately one decade in the late 8th century BC. Dendrological studies show that the miners utilised stem wood of spruce and fir from forests with high stand density for fire-setting and that the exploitation of the Mauk E mine had only a limited impact on the local forests.

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“…There is therefore a need to create a detailed inventory, mapping early mining history. Such an inventory could improve our understanding of the interactions between the actors of the chaîne opératoire (Schibler et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking archaeological and historical mines using mineral prospectivity mapping

Monna¹,

Camizuli²,

Nedjaï³

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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The present study proposes a technological transfer from modern mining prospection to the field of archaeology, providing a methodology to facilitate the discovery of ancient mining sites. This method takes advantage of the thousands of geochemical analyses of streambed sediments, performed by national geological surveys to inventory mineral substances. In order to delineate geochemical anomalies, the datasets are treated following two different approaches: Exploratory Data Analysis and a fractalbased method often recognised as more powerful. Mineral prospectivity maps are then obtained by combining the results with a geographical information system. The surroundings of the Celtic oppidum of Bibracte, French Massif Central, known to have been mined at least since the Late Bronze Age until Modern Times, have been chosen to exemplify the method's potential in archaeology. First, an exhaustive record of the mining sites was undertaken over a pilot area by pedestrian prospection. If mineral prospectivity maps had been used as guidelines, w70% of these mines would have been discovered by prospecting only w15e20% of the whole area whatever the method used to treat the dataset. At least for our specific case, the multifractal approach is as powerful as EDA. Besides saving a significant amount of time and effort, the methods described here may supply clues for determining the nature of mineral substances exploited in the past, when such information cannot be straightforwardly obtained from the field or from textual archives. It should however be noticed that this approach is proposed as a first step before peer archaeological investigation following more conventional methods. Technically, there is no real obstacle to the application of the methodology proposed here, because (i) software and associated packages are freely available from the web, as well as original geochemical datasets (at least in France), and (ii) minimal mathematical skills are required.Ó

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Miners and mining in the Late Bronze Age: a multidisciplinary study from Austria

Cited by 21 publications

References 4 publications

Resource usage of the hilltop settlement on the Kiechlberg near Thaur (Tyrol, Austria) from Late Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age

Resource usage of the hilltop settlement on the Kiechlberg near Thaur (Tyrol, Austria) from Late Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age

Charcoal from a prehistoric copper mine in the Austrian Alps: dendrochronological and dendrological data, demand for wood and forest utilisation

Tracking archaeological and historical mines using mineral prospectivity mapping

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