The Industrial Landscape of Rio Tinto, Huelva, Spain

The archaeology of Anthropocene rivers: water management and landscape change in ‘Gold Rush’ Australia

“…Together, these features constitute an intensely modified anthropogenic landscape characteristic of industrial mining around the world, including California, the Klondike and New Zealand (Morse 2003;Isenberg 2005;Hearn 2013). These relatively recent mining activities replicate patterns produced by Roman and medieval mining in Cornwall and Spain (Willies 1989;Thorndycraft et al 2003), but their scale and global distribution exemplify the acceleration of Anthropocene change over the past 200 years.…”

Innovation, adaptation and technology as habitus: the origins of alluvial gold mining methods in Australia

“…A “level” or drainage channel on the lower margin of the works carried away fine sands and gravels, while the larger gravels and stones were forked up and to the side, forming distinctive patterns of linear waste dumps (tailings). This method of working mines in Germany was documented by Agricola in 1556 (Agricola : 336–9) and was also used from the Roman period in mines in Spain (Willies ).…”