# Ancient Mining



## evolution_rex (Aug 26, 2015)

Alright, so I have a few scenes that will take place in a mine in a prison. Technology is Middle-Ages level, setting is similar to Africa and the Middle East. I have a few scenes that take place in the prison's mine. Here are my questions.

1. What are they mining? This is largely unimportant to the plot but important because different materials require different forms of mining. So I can't come up with it on my own until I fully understand mining itself.
2. What kind of mining involves pickaxes? I need pickaxes because they're an important plot element. So the material (question number 1) would need to be need to be required through a process that has pickaxes.
3. What kind of roles are needed in the process of mining? Because it's a prison I imagine that it would be like an assembly line, each person doing one part of the process. I just don't know the steps and the different jobs people would have.


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## X Equestris (Aug 26, 2015)

Athens was famous for its silver mines.  This link has some relevant info down at the bottom under "Iron Age Mining":

Chapter 6: Ancient Silver and Gold


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## skip.knox (Aug 27, 2015)

Precious metals. Silver, as X Equistris said. That was big right through the Middle Ages. But also copper.

Techniques were about the same: you dug (yes, pickaxes) a shaft. Ideal was to go into the side of a mountain, as digging horizontally is easier than digging vertically (it's all about removing stuff). Ore processing was usually done on-site, at or near the foot of the mountain, preferrably with a good water supply. Water was also the problem--most mining operations sooner or later ran into the water table, making it impossible to go deeper until some sort of efficient pumping system was worked out (this didn't happen until the end of the MA).

As for roles, there were supervisors down in the mines, along with the simple laborers. There were engineers who saw to construction and placement of supports. There were carters, to haul out stuff. If vertical shafts were involved then there were lifting mechanisms, so there were carpenters and other mechanics to maintain those. Outside were people who refined the ore. Then there were the bookkeepers and managers who ran the operation, and back in a city somewhere the boys with the capital to finance it all. Mining in the Middle Ages was a *very* expensive proposition.

I have a copy of De Re Metallica (not about the band), so if you need more specifics, just let me know.


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## evolution_rex (Aug 27, 2015)

Both very helpful posts. Thank you!


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## Russ (Aug 27, 2015)

Don't forget "Salt" where Salzburg got its names. Lots of medieval salt mining sites and museums etc around that magnificent city and I suspect plenty of info on the internet on them.


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## skip.knox (Aug 27, 2015)

What Russ said. Plus, some really extraordinary pictures of the salt mine in ... Hungary? Poland?  Can't come up with the name. One name I can come up with, though, is Rammelsberg. In the Harz Mountains. It's a preserved medieval silver mine, open to tourists.


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## FifthView (Aug 27, 2015)

Because you had mentioned Africa and the Middle East, I had focused some attention to trying to find something on those areas for the Medieval period yesterday.  I found many references but few that actually described methods of mining.

Here's an excerpt from an encyclopedia on Medieval Islamic Civilization on Google Books that lists a great many different things that were mined: https://books.google.com/books?id=LaV-IGZ8VKIC&lpg=PA504&ots=OnC5rl315v&dq=medieval%20mining%20africa&pg=PA504#v=onepage&q=medieval%20mining%20africa&f=false

As others have mentioned, salt was a very big deal.  See: Salt Trade - Oxford Reference.  But I "think" that strategies of evaporation, more so than pickaxes and deep mining, were used, either through evaporating sea water or in running water over areas that were high in salt content and then evaporating that water.  I forgot the term for that process — it's from something I read yesterday but have lost the link.  OTOH, large slabs of salt were often cut for easier transportation, and perhaps pickaxes were a part of that process?  [Edit: Actually, some preferred rock salt, mined, while other preferred salt from evaporation.]


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## Butterfly (Aug 27, 2015)

If you have any form of smithery going on in your world you will need coal. It has been mined for thousands of years and is very dirty stuff.

Also copper, bronze, tin.

The oldest mine open to the public are in Great Orme, a bronze age copper mine dating back 4,000 years.

I found this... Welsh Gold in Roman Times - Welsh Gold - Aur Cymru Limited which seems likely to be useful to you.


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## skip.knox (Aug 27, 2015)

Another good mining one is the tin mines in Cornwall. Some of those actually extended *under the sea*.  Gives me the jeebies just thinking about it.


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