| Abstract: |
Most papers are concerned with mining in Wales. First is a reprint of Duncan James' 'Prehistoric copper mining on the Great Orme's Head' (pp 1-4), in which extensive underground mining was assigned to the Bronze Age. A Lewis (5-10) continues this work in 'Underground exploration of the Great Orme copper mines', identifying bone and stone tools as well as evidence of firesetting and other mining techniques. 19th century mining has not destroyed all surface traces of Bronze Age activity, as L A Dutton (11-14) describes in 'Surface remains of early mining on the Great Orme', and excavation of early infill yielded large numbers of bone and stone artefacts. Two papers by Simon Timberlake deal with excavations of mining tips, 'Excavations at Parys Mountain and Nantyreira' (15-21) and an opencast mineworking, 'Excavations and fieldwork on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, 1989' (22-9), producing stone hammers and evidence of firesetting but no dating evidence. Tim Mighall (65-8) reports on a project to define the impact of prehistoric mining on local vegetation in 'Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: preliminary palaeoecological observations'. William O'Brien, Robert Ixer, & Michael O'Sullivan (30-5) contribute 'Copper resources in prehistory - an Irish perspective', concentrating on the Mt Gabriel mines of Co Cork and stressing the importance of oxidized ores in early metallurgy. Dates in the 17th century BC are presented by A L Brindley & J N Lanting (64) in 'Radiocarbon dates for the Mount Gabriel copper mines'. Field survey by David Gale and Barbara S Ottaway (36-8) yielded surface evidence of 'An early mining site in the Mitterberg ore region of Austria', including large numbers of stone tools. Surface collection of stone tools as an indicator of early mining sites is also discussed by John Pickin (39-42) in 'Stone tools and early metal mining in England and Wales' and by J A Thorburn (43-6) in 'Stone mining tools and the field evidence for early mining in Mid-Wales'. Hammerstones are the main artefact type and are studied by David Gale (47-8) in 'Prehistoric stone mining tools from Alderley Edge', while Brenda Craddock (58) discusses 'The experimental hafting of stone mining hammers'. The firesetting technique of softening a rock face is the subject of four papers, two by Simon Timberlake with a 'Review of the historical evidence for the use of firesetting' (49-52) and 'Firesetting and primitive mining experiment, Cwmystwyth, 1989' (53-4); Andrew Lewis (55-6) contributes 'Firesetting experiments on the Great Orme, 1989' and Peter Crew (57) describes 'Firesetting experiment at Rhiw Goch, 1989'. Janet Ambers' paper (59-63) on 'Radiocarbon, calibration and early mining: some British Museum radiocarbon dates for Welsh copper mines' confirms their early to middle Bronze Age date and examines problems of calibration. In 'Copper smelting in Bronze Age Britain: problems and possibilities', Paul Craddock (69-71, 74) discusses the lack of slag in the archaeological record, arguing that the low iron content of Bronze Age metalwork suggests that it was produced by poorly reducing and possibly non-slagging smelting methods. Laboratory-based experiments lead A M Pollard, R G Thomas and P A Williams (72-4) to support this conclusion from different observations in 'Experimental smelting of arsenical copper ores: implications for early Bronze age copper production'; they also conclude that the level of arsenic in copper alloys is an unreliable indicator of provenance. The way forward in early mining studies is outlined by David Bick (75-7) in 'Observations on ancient mining in Wales', and George Hall (78-80) draws attention in 'Reflections on the difficulties of early miners' to the enormous practical problems facing miners prior to the 20th century. AR |
