Jovanović Borislav - The Origins of Copper Mining in Europe
Jovanović Borislav - The Origins of Copper Mining in Europe
Jovanović Borislav - The Origins of Copper Mining in Europe
in Europe
The age of metals began with the use of "native" copper in the Old
by Borislav Jovanovic
M
an's earliest mastery of metal a well-developed art in Neolithi.c times.
lurgy, the evidence for which per mining elsewhere in the Balkans, in It had even been done regularly, al
is a variety of copper artifacts other parts of Europe and in western though on a comparatively small scale,
found in Europe and in western Asia, Asia. in late Paleolithic times, at least as far
marked the end of one great cycle of back as 10,000 years ago.
prehistory and the beginning of another.
In terms of technology the cycle that T he copper first exploited by prehis
toric man was doubtless "native"
The Paleolithic miners and those who
followed them were mainly in search of
ended might be called the cycle of ,pri copper, that is, the metal in a pure form flint for stone tools, but they also dug
mary discoveries and basic innovations. rather than in the form of various ores. out other desirable minerals, For exam
That cycle began with man's control of In many areas where rich copper-ore ple, close to the site of Vinca outside
fire and concluded with the Neolithic deposits exist it is quite easy to collect Belgrade the reu mercury ore cinna
revolution: man's mastery of plant and nuggets of native copper lying on the bar was extracted to serve as a pig
animal husbandry. surface. Such supplies of the metal, ment. Elsewhere the iron oxide ocher
Until recently studies of the origin however, are limited, and so the first was mined for the same purpose. On the
and development of copper metallurgy metallurgists must soon have exhausted Greek islands and in the mountains of
in southeastern Europe, the area where them. Thereafter they had to dig for ore Hungary deposits of the volcanic glass
I work, have focused on early copper and to smelt it. obsidian were exploited. A wide variety
tools, weapons and ornaments and have One might think in view of the fact of igneous rocks were collected as the
neglected how the metal was obtained. that copper mining played such a cru raw material for heavy-duty axes and
These studies are nonetheless of prime cial role in human history early copper chisels. Wh ite marble and other semi
importance. After all, copper was man's mines would have been an important precious minerals were made into amu
first abundant metal, and tools made component of the studies of interested lets. Fossilized seashells, mined along
of it gave rise to almost as many ba prehistorians. They have not been, and the Mediterranean, were transported to
sic transformations in human existence for good reason: most of the early mines southeastern and central Europe, Early
as the adoption of agriculture or even were obliterated by later mining opera miners everywhere exploited local de
man's more ancient mastery of fire. One tions. Such was nearly the fate of Rudna posits of clay for the manufacture of
important difference between the most Glava. pots and similar fire-hardened artifacts.
recent of these crucial events and the The veins of copper ore at Rudna Gla Hence long before the rise of copper
earlier two should be kept in mind: the va run through a massif of limestone. metallurgy prehistoric Europe had an
exploitation of fire and the domestica They were formed by the slow decom advanced mining technology all its own,
tion of plants and animals were based on position of chalcopyrite, a copper-iron Mining, then, like hunting and gather
clearly apparent natural resources. Es sulfide associated with the iron ore mag ing, is a human activity much older than
sentially all that was needed to inspire netite that is present in th� limestone. agriculture. One might even propose an
the mastery of these practices was the Magnetite was mined in open-pit oper adage: The husbandry of minerals long
recognition of how advantageous to hu ations at Rudna Glava until as recently preceded that of animals and plants.
man activities their adoption could be, as 1968. These operations destroyed a
The processing of metal calls for a more number of the ancient copper-ore mine n Paleolithic times flint was mined
radical change in the natural state of af shafts before anyone recognized them I by the digging of shallow pits or
fairs: the profound and permanent alter as the works of prehistoric man. Since trenches, In Neolithic times vertical
ation of materials, Once the new tech then the site has been intensively investi shafts and horizontal galleries were dug
nology had been developed it enabled gated under the combined auspices of into flint deposits. The technology of
human communities to make desirable the Museum of Mining and Metallurgy mining copper at Rudna Glava was
artifacts out of a substance that had en in Bor and of the Archaeological Insti much the same. Flint-bearing strata are
tirely novel properties, tute in Belgrade. generally horizontal and the copper-ore
Here I shall tell what has been learned Mining was practiced long before the veins at Rudna Glava are vertical, but
about early copper mining, the earliest age of metals. Moreover, contrary to the the miners got the ore out by digging a
known anywhere in Europe, at one acci opinion of those who regard most tech horizontal access platform into a slope
dentally discovered site in Yugoslavia: nological advances in the area north of where a vein reached the surface and
Rudna Glava, near the border with Ro the shores of the Mediterranean as bor then excavating narrow vertical shafts
mania 140 kilometers east of Belgrade. rowings from the more progressive cul into the vein. The basic tool of excava
At the same time I shall attempt to relate tures to the south, mining in Europe was tion was a stone maul. In the flint mines,
152
© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
a
COPPER ARTIFACTS typical of the Vinca culture that flourished long. At the bottom are two chisels; the longer one (c) is 17 centime
in the central Balkans during the fifth and fourth millenniums B.C. ters and the shorter (d) is 12.6 centim eters. To their right is a bracelet
come from Plocnik, a site in Serbia 165 kilometers south-southeast (e), one of the variety of copper ornaments made by Vinca craftsmen.
of Belgrade. At the top (a) is a socketed axe shown in front and side The demand for copper tools, weapons and ornam ents at the end of
view; it is 17 centimeters long. Below it (b) is a second axe that is dec the Neolithic period and the start of the Chalcolithic promoted the
orated with an elaborate herringbone pattern; it is 16.5 centimeters local mining of copper ores such as that discovered at Rudna Glava.
153
RUDNA GLAVA
A
EARLY COPPER MINES that have survived obliteration by later in Bulgaria) and one in Spain were active during the Chalcolithic pe.
mining operations are known from Ireland and Spain eastward to riod, the interval separating the Neolithic period from the start of the
Turkey and Iran. Of the five mines (triangles) on this map, however, Bronze Age. Of these three Rudna Glava is the earliest, as is demon.
only two in the Balkans (Rudna Glava in Yugoslavia and Ai Bunar strated by the discovery there of pottery typical of the Vinca culture.
MODERN OPEN·PIT IRON MINE at Rudna Glava exposed this the veins of copper ore in the rock. The miners of Vinca times exca·
sheer rock face seen from above. The limestone of the mine is rich in vated the ore by digging down along the veins; the modern iron min·
the iron ore magnetite, with which is associated the copper.iron suI. ers, by cutting horizontally into the rock, exposed the copper miners'
fide chalcopyrite; the decomposition of the chalcopyrite gave rise to vertical shafts. The bottom of one such shaft is seen at the center.
154
some split apart where there were rifts in AFRIKAANS DANISH HEBREW POLISH SPANISH
the limestone matrix. At places where ARABIC DUTCH HINDI PORTUGUESE (latin American)
(Modern Standard) ENGLISH ICELANDIC RUSSIAN SWAHILI
'an excavated shaft appeared to be in FINNISH IRISH SERBO-CROAT SWEDISH
CHINESE
danger of collapse the miners built dry (Mandarin) FRENCH ITALIAN SPANISH ZULU
CHINESE GERMAN JAPANESE (Castillian) and many others
stone supporting walls, utilizing the rub
(Cantonese) GREEK NORWEGIAN
ble left by their own digging. The maxi
Over 4 million people have
mum depth of excavation seems to have
learned to speak a foreign
been set by the availability of fresh air. language the Linguaphone FREE
The air supply was important not only way. You can. too.
for the miners' own well-being but also RECORDED
Linguaphone is the easy,
because they used a technique of alter interesting, natural method DEMONS TRATION!
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fires against the face of the ore, and a
good air supply was necessary if the fires
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well heated, the miners splashed it with I want to learn a new language I
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Name Age
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dust) came into play as the miners wid obligation.
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Linguaphone
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CACHE OF POTS was one of three caches found at Rudna Glava. and then cooling them by throwing water on them. The water was
The miners broke up the ore by heating the veins with a small fire brought to the ore in the pots. The vessel is typical of Late Vinca wine.
BOTTOM OF MINE SHAFT contained a miner's maul (left fore abandoned at different depths in the mine shafts suggest that mining
ground),
perhaps abandoned when the ore was worked out. Mauls at Rudna Glava was not a year-round activity but a seasonal one.
162
© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
fact, of the kind called an "altar" be
PHOTOGRAPHY
cause offerings could be burned in its
basin-shaped back, It seems more prob
able that in the mine such effigies served
as lamps, Of the amphoras, one was
WlTHOU...
black, had a burnished surface and was
ornamented with a motif of spirals. Pot
tery of this kind is characteristic of the
COMPROMISE
final phase of the earlier Vinca culture, a
phase that is contemporaneous with the
end of the Neolithic period in southeast
ern Europe some 6,000 years ago.
The other two pottery accumulations
were found on the access platform for There are some disciplines in which compromise is
shaft No. 7. The first accumulation con necessary. With the Bronica ETR-System, photography is no longer
sisted of one pot of coarse ware and one among them.
amphora. The amphora was black, Begin with the professional sharpness of a 4.5 x 6cm negative
burnished and ornamented with a shal nearly 3-times larger than 35mm .. . in a camera nearly as small. Add
low spiral motif. The second accumula
the convenience of an automatic exposure prism finder that selects
tion consisted of two amphoras with a
the correct shutter speed for any aperture you choose. And the
conical neck, both of them gray and
creative freedom of a lens system ranging from 40mm wide-angle to
burnished. Both accumulations are
characteristic of the initial phase of the 500mm telephoto, including zoom lenses and a unique perspective
later Vinca culture, a phase that is gen control optic that brings view camera-like movements to medium
erally contemporaneous with what Eu format. Each lens has an electronically-accurate leaf shutter for
ropean archaeologists call the Eneolith electronic flash synch at every shutter speed to 1I500th. There's also
ic or Chalcolithic, a transition period be the flexibility of interchangeable magazines for 120, 220, 70mm and
tween the Neolithic and the subsequent PolarpicFM films. And viewfinder and accessory systems to meet
Bronze Age. The Chalcolithic (literally
virtually any photographic challenge.
"copper and stone") varied in duration
Bronica - the camera system without compromise, now
in different parts of the Old World and
costs less . . . so you need compromise no more! See it at your
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163
© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
was done in the Late Bronze Age. Out Turkey is another early copper mine in
side Europe a copper-mining site in the western Asia; its shafts are said to be
Veshnoveh area of Iran, featuring un more than 50 meters deep. Again the
derground galleries 40 meters long, was mining was done in the Early Bronze
worked by miners with the same kind of Age, specifically in about 2800 B.C.
stone mauls that were found at Rudna Is Rudna Glava perhaps the world's
Glava. The Veshnoveh miners also did oldest copper mine? It is most unlike
not begin their work until the Early ly. The copper artifacts of western Asia
Bronze Age. The site of Kozlu in central are much older than those of the Bal-
Cultivating
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POTTERY FIGURE IN THE SHAPE OF A ER was found in the earliest cache of pottery
DE
discovered at Rudna Glava. Seen reconstructed in this photograph, it is 21 centimeters high.
Its rectangular body forms a shallow basin. It may therefore have served as a miner's lamp.
164
© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
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© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
kans, and they cannot all have been has shown that the neglected ores are copper to the peoples of prehistoric Eu
fashioned out of native copper. What poor in the particular minerals (azurite, rope must deal with two separate phe
can be asserted, however, is that the Vin malachite and cuprite) the Vinca min nomena: on the one hand the earliest
ca people, and perhaps even earlier in ers prized. knowledge of copper and on the other
habitants of the Balkans, developed the One may also ask what need provid the earliest ability to obtain and use it.
technology of copper production entire ed the strong motivation for undertak The existence of copper metallurgy in
ly on their own. This ability to extract a ing this kind of heavy and hazardous western Asia at an early date suggests
new kind of raw material with methods work. A few decades ago the question that knowledge of the metal would have
developed millenniums earlier to win would have been difficult to answer. To diffused to Europe, perhaps at the same
flint was not, as some have supposed, a day, however, archaeological findings time the early farmers of the Mediter
technology merely borrowed by Balkan throughout the central Balkans bearing ranean basin first moved northward. It
barbarians from the more technically on the Vinca culture indicate that these follows that copper would have been
advanced inhabitants of the Mediterra people were notably active in the manu known in Europe long before the metal
nean shore. facture of copper tools, weapons and or was actually mined, smelted and made
naments. One example is four hoards of into tools, weapons and ornaments.
ow might the Vinca people have Vinca copper axes and chisels recently In this sequence of events the earliest
H developed a talent for finding cop unearthed at Plocnik in southern Serbia. mining of copper ore in Europe would
per ore? At Rudna Glava even an un There can be little doubt that the Rudna be conclusive evidence for the smelting
trained eye would have sufficed. On Glava mines came into existence in re and utilizing of copper-for copper met
that bare limestone massif the places sponse to a heavy demand for copper allurgy-in Europe at the same time.
where veins of ore reach the surface among the Vinca people. How many The Rudna Glava mine provides just
show up as bright patches of color. It other Balkan copper mines were being such evidence dating back some 6, 000
was exactly at such sites that the miners worked in the same period may never be years, to the end of the fifth millennium
began their excavations. They were not, known. As is the case elsewhere in Eu S . c . One must therefore conclude that
however, undiscriminating about the rope and in western Asia, later mining advanced copper metallurgy, supported
sites they chose. They left some ore has probably obliterated them. by its own mining industry, had evolved
veins untouched, and modern analysis Any analysis of the introduction of in the Balkans by that date.
YEARS
CULTURE
BEFORE PHASE
P R ESENT
CAC H E NO. 3
C I RCA TRANSITION
(j 61 00 B.P. FROM EARLY
ai TO LATE
:::; VIN CA
::J
Z
Z
w (END OF
...J
...J
BALKAN
� NEOLITH IC)
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DATING OF POTTERY found in the Rudna Glava mines is possi Glava are typical of the first phases of the Late Vinca culture, which
ble because many residential sites of the Vinca culture, containing flourished in the first half of the fourth millennium B.C., during the
pottery of the sam e types, have been dated precisely by m eans of car Chalcolithic period in the Balkans. The wares of cache No. 3 are typ
bon-1 4 analysis. Thus the wares of caches No. 1 and No. 2 at Rudna ical of the transition from the Early Vinca to the Late Vinca culture.
167
© 1980 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC