Reconstructing an ancient mining landscape: a multidisciplinary approach to copper mining at Skouriotissa, Cyprus

Abstract

Abstract

Ceramic Assemblages and Material Connections in Late Roman North-Western Cyprus and Beyond

“…7). This correlates well with recent finds suggesting that this is also the period of greatest activity of the Cypriot copper industry (Kassianidou, Agapiou and Manning 2021). For the distribution map, the Late Roman pottery has been functionally differentiated into three categories: table wares, transport amphorae and others.…”

“…This is important new knowledge because it was previously believed that the mines were not exploited during the Late Antique period (Walsh 1927, 105; des Gagniers 1985, XXVII). Recently, a Late Hellenistic–Early Roman section, which was part of a different slag heap, was discovered higher up in the crater of the open cast mine (Kassianidou, Agapiou and Manning 2021). On the basis of proportional distribution, ratios of the different classes of ceramics, identified features, location, and context, Litharkies and Mavrovouni have been identified as non-agricultural production sites associated with mining and Sanidhia and Katalasharis as small agricultural production sites (Winther-Jacobsen 2010, 71–97; see also Graham, Winther Jacobsen and Kassianidou 2006; Graham et al 2013, 160–72, 177–94; Sollars et al 2013).…”

“…at Katydata and possibly also at Pano Limna: Boutin et al 2013, 98, 114). Kassianidou, Agapiou and Manning (2021, fig. 4) were recently able to identify a large cemetery adjacent to the Skouriotissa slag heap; although its location suggests a Roman date, there is no way to prove this since the area is buried under the leaching heaps.…”

A contribution to the study of copper production in the Iron Age polity of Paphos in Cyprus

“…Several slag heaps of the Paphos catchment were visited and sampled by the Canadian Palaepaphos Survey Project, but none of them were absolutely dated with radiocarbon (Fox et al 1987). In some of these slag heaps samples were collected that were found to contain manganese, the presence of which offers a relative date for their formation: systematic recording of slag heaps undertaken over the last twenty-five years within the framework of a series of projects enabled the diachronic study of smelting technology on the island and showed that in Cyprus manganese was used as a flux only in the Roman period and in Late Antiquity (Kassianidou 2003a(Kassianidou , 2013a(Kassianidou , 2021Socratous et al, 2015;Shaar et al 2015). A single radiocarbon date for the Pera Vasa heap (H8989-8882), which was published by Zwicker (1986), places the smelting activities there in the 4th c. AD (315 ± 50AD).…”

Combining geophysical prospection and core drilling: Reconstruction of a Late Bronze Age copper mine at Prigglitz‐Gasteil in the Eastern Alps (Austria)

“…An example is the world's oldest known salt mine in Hallstatt, Upper Austria (Kern et al, 2009 ). In many instances, discovery is regrettably accompanied by destruction, as, for example, in the cases of the Copper Age gold mine at Sakdrissi in Georgia (Gambashidze & Stöllner, 2016 ), the Late Bronze Age gold mine at Ada Tepe in Bulgaria (Alexandrov et al, 2018 ; Haag et al, 2017 ) and the prehistoric copper mines in Cyprus (Kassianidou et al, 2021 ; O'Brien, 2015 ).…”