Mining Archaeology and Micro‐Raman Analysis Associated with ESEM‐EDX: Toward a Chrono‐Spatial Definition of Ore Consumption in a Pyrenean Medieval Workshop, 14th–16th Centuries

Abstract

The rapid expansion of non-ferrous metallurgy in the late Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries) enhanced ore demand, which was supported by mining intensification. Metallurgical workshops developed various supply strategies based on geological, political and economic constraints. This is particularly true for the Pyrenean multi-metals workshop of Castel-Minier (Ariège, France), where recent excavations unearthed an exceptional corpus of non-ferrous ores. A specific analytical methodology combining micro-Raman spectroscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray (ESEM-EDX) was set up to study these artefacts. This composite methodology permitted the fast characterization of both mineral and gangue as well as a discussion of their economic potential. Ores identified were compared with ancient mines in neighbouring mining districts in order to sketch a geography of the mineral resources available to medieval metallurgists. Moreover, a chronostratigraphic study of ore distribution in Castel-Minier revealed the supply strategies, technological choices as well as spatializing of copper and lead metallurgies.

Alpine ice and the annual political economy of the Angevin Empire, from the death of Thomas Becket to Magna Carta,c. AD 1170–1216

“…Copper and lead-silver mining/smelting sites in the Chassezac Valley (Ardèche) also date from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, but were small in scale compared to British and Erzgebirge production; its pollution would have travelled south-east over the Mediterranean (Bailly-Maître et al 2013; see OSM 3). Contemporaneous evidence for lead-silver extraction is also absent in French regions that became major producers from the later Middle Ages, such as Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Vosges, and Castel-Minier, Ariège (Téreygeol 2009: 84-85;Flament et al 2019). Environmental records from other areas (e.g.…”

“…Contemporaneous evidence for lead-silver extraction is also absent in French regions that became major producers from the later Middle Ages, such as Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Vosges, and Castel-Minier, Ariège (Téreygeol 2009: 84–85; Flament et al . 2019). Environmental records from other areas (e.g.…”