| Abstract: |
The Comet Lode Opencast, an upland primitive trench mine, and the surrounding archaeological landscape on Copa Hill have been the subject of a major long-term investigation by the Early Mines Research Group. Excavations have revealed an intact Early Bronze Age mining stratigraphy preserved under semi-waterlogged conditions, with stone, antler and wooden mining artifacts in situ, including examples of mine drainage equipment. The earliest exploitation of the copper-lead ores may have begun sometime before 2000 BC, with activity reaching its maximum almost 150 years later, thereafter continuing intermittently up to around 1600 BC. Evidence suggests that lead ores were also being systematically removed from the veins, and that in some cases these ores were being crushed and separated, but also apparently discarded, raising questions about metallurgical experimentation, and/or the first use of lead or leaded bronze alloying in Britain. Palaeo-environmental data was obtained from the sequence of peats and silts which seal the mining deposits, as well as from cores taken from the blanket peat above the mine. These have provided evidence as to the history of local woodland clearance, agriculture, and prehistoric-modern mining and metallurgical activity within an area of the uplands sparse in extant archaeological remains. Includes specialist reports on the radiocarbon chronology, palaeo-environmental evidence, wooden artefacts, wood technology, antler finds, hammer stones, and ore mineralogy and processing. |
