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| Description in Pliny the Elder's | |
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"What happens is far beyond the work of giants. The mountains are bored with corridors and galleries made by lamplight with a duration that is used to measure the shifts. For months, the miners cannot see the sunlight and many of them die inside the tunnels. This type of mine has been given the name of Ruina Montium. The cracks made in the entrails of the stone are so dangerous that it would be easier to find purpurine or pearls at the bottom of the sea than make scars in the rock. How dangerous we have made the Earth!"
The metallurgic "Orellan" town in Las Médulas (I and II centuries B.C.)
The description could well have applied to Las Medulas. Since Pliny was a Procurator in the region in 74 AD, it is highly likely that he saw mining operations for himself, and his text reads like an eye-witness report. He also describes the methods used to wash the ores using smaller streams on riffle tables to enable the heavy gold particles to be collected. Detailed discussion of the methods of underground mining follows, once the alluvial placer deposits had been exhausted and the mother lode sought and discovered. Many such deep mines have been found in the mountains around Las Medulas. Mining would start with the building of aqueducts and tanks above the mineral veins, and a method called hushing used to expose the veins under the overburden.
Interior roads
The remains of such a system have been well studied at Dolaucothi in South Wales. Opencast methods would be pursued by fire-setting, which involved building fires against the rock and quenching with water. The weakened rock could then be attacked mechanically and the debris swept away by waves of water. Only when all opencast work was uneconomical would the vein be pursued by tunnelling and stoping.
Pliny also stated that 20,000 Roman pounds of gold were extracted each year. The exploitation, involving 60,000 free workers, brought 5,000,000 Roman pounds (1,650,000 kg) in 250 years.[citation needed]
[edit] Tags:Gold,Mine,Aqueducts,Edit,Procurator,Eye-witness,Alluvial,Placer Deposits,Hushing,Dolaucothi,South Wales,Fire-setting,Tunnelling,Stoping,Article,Read, | |
| Cultural landscape | |
| 2>
One of the passages of Las Médulas
Parts of the acqueducts are still well preserved in precipitous locations, and including some rock-cut inscriptions.
Research on Las Médulas had been mainly carried out by Claude Domergue (1990) [2]. Systematic archaeological studies of the area, however, have been carried out since 1988 by the research group Social Structure and Territory-Landscape Archaeology of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). As a result, Las Médulas ceased to be only a gold mine with its techniques and became a cultural landscape in which all the implications of Roman mining were made apparent. The survey and excavations of pre-Roman and Roman settlements throughout the area allowed for new historical interpretations that greatly enriched the study of Roman mining.[3].[4]
A positive result of these systematic studies was the inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site in 1997. Since then, the management of the Cultural Park has been monitored by the Las Médulas Foundation, which includes local, regional, and national stakeholders, both public and private. Currently, Las Médulas serves as an example of good research-management-society applied to heritage [5]
[edit] Tags:Inscriptions,Csic,Cultural Landscape,World Heritage Site,Gold Mine, | |
| See also | |
| 2>
Dolaucothi
Gold mine
Gold rush
Hydraulic mining
Naturalis Historia
Pliny the Elder
Roman technology
Roman aqueducts
[edit] Tags:Pliny The Elder,Hydraulic Mining,Gold Rush,Naturalis Historia,Roman Technology,Roman Aqueducts, | |
| References | |
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^ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/803/
^ Domergue, C. (1990) Les mines de la Penínsule Ibérique dans l'antiquité romaine. Ècole Française de Rome, Rome.
^ Sanchez-Palencia, F. J., ed., Las Médulas (León). Un paisaje cultural en la "Asturia Augustana" (León 2000).
^ Orejas, A. and Sánchez-Palencia, F. J., Mines, Territorial Organization, and Social Structure in Roman Iberia: The Examples of Carthago Noua and the Peninsular Northwest, American Journal of Archaeology 106.4 (2002): 581-599
^ Sánchez-Palencia, F. J. and A. Orejas (2006) "Mines et formes de colonisation des territoires en Hispanie occidentale". In L. Lévêque, M. Ruiz del Árbol, L. Pop and C. Bartels (eds.)
Lewis, P. R. and G. D. B. Jones, Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain, Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970): 169-85
Jones, R. F. J. and Bird, D. G., Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain, II: Workings on the Rio Duerna, Journal of Roman Studies 62 (1972): 59-74.
Domergue, C. and Hérail, G., Conditions de gisement et exploitation antique à Las Médulas (León, Espagne) in L'or dans l'antiquité: de la mine à l'objet, B. Cauuet, ed., Aquitania Supplement, 9 (Bordeaux 1999): 93-116.
Journeys Through European Landscapes/Voyages dans les Paysages Européens. COST-ESF, Ponferrada: 101-104.
[edit] Tags:Spain,Ponferrada,Unesco, | |
| External links | |
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Webpage of Fundación Las Médulas, with itineraries, virtual visit and practical information
UNESCO official website
Photo gallery and explanation of the explotaition system (Spanish)
"Las Médulas, the Roman El Dorado". (English) and (Spanish) Article by the Leonese writer Julio Llamazares.
Spanish site dedicated to Roman technology, especially aqueducts and mines
Social Structure and Territory-Landscape Archaeology research group
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Las Médulas
Action COST A27: Understanding pre-industrial rural and mining landscapes (LANDMARKS) European research project, a platform for scientific dissemination of Las Médulas
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World Heritage Sites in Spain
For official site names, see each article or the List of World Heritage Sites in Spain.
North West
Caves of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain1 · Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias · Roman Walls of Lugo · Route of Santiago de Compostela1 · Santiago de Compostela · Tower of Hercules
North East
Caves of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain1 · Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon · Pyrénées - Mont Perdu2 · Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula1 · Route of Santiago de Compostela1 · San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries · Vizcaya Bridge · Cave of Altxerri · Cave of Santimamiñe · Cave of Ekain
Community of Madrid
Aranjuez Cultural Landscape · El Escorial · University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares
Centre
Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida · Archaeological Site of Atapuerca · Ávila with its Extra-mural Churches · Burgos Cathedral · Cáceres · Cuenca · Las Médulas · Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula1 · Route of Santiago de Compostela1 · Salamanca · Santa María de Guadalupe · Segovia and its Aqueduct · Toledo · Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde
East
Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, Tarragona · Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí · Ibiza (Biodiversity and Culture) · Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona · Palmeral of Elche · Poblet Monastery · Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula1 · Silk Exchange in Valencia · Works of Antoni Gaudí
South
Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada · Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias, Seville · Córdoba · Doñana · Renaissance Monuments of Úbeda and Baeza · Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula1
Canary Islands
Garajonay · San Cristóbal de La Laguna · Teide National Park
1 Shared with other region/s · 2 Shared with France
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Roman aqueducts
Croatia
Diocletianus Aqueduct
France
Barbegal aqueduct • Pont du Gard • Gier aqueduct
Germany
Eifel Aqueduct
Italy
Anio Novus • Aqua Alexandrina • Aqua Alsietina • Aqua Appia • Aqua Augusta (Naples) • Aqua Augusta (Rome) • Aqua Claudia • Aqua Julia • Aqua Martia • Aqua Tepula • Aqua Traiana • Aqua Virgo • Pont d'Aël
Jordan
Gadara Aqueduct
Luxemburg
Raschpëtzer Qanat
Spain
Acueducto de los Milagros • Aqueduct of Segovia • Aqüeducte de les Ferreres • Las Médulas
Turkey
Valens Aqueduct
Wales
Dolaucothi Gold Mines
List of Roman aqueducts
Coordinates: 42°27′32″N 6°45′36″W / 42.45889°N 6.76°W / 42.45889; -6.76
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Las_M%C3%A9dulas&oldid=450679815"
Categories: World Heritage Sites in SpainRoman towns and cities in SpainGold miningHistory of miningGold rushesRoman aqueducts outside RomeRoman sites in SpainBadlandsEconomic history of SpainEl Bierzo regionUnderground mines in SpainHidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from January 2010All articles lacking in-text citationsAll articles with unsourced statementsArticles with unsourced statements from January 2010Articles with Spanish language external links
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Tags:External Links,El Bierzo,World Heritage Sites,List Of World Heritage Sites In Spain,Caves Of Altamira,Oviedo,Tower Of Hercules,Cave Of Ekain,Community Of Madrid,Alcalá De Henares,Ávila,Segovia,Siega Verde,Archaeological Ensemble Of Tarraco,Ibiza,Palau De La Música Catalana,Hospital De Sant Pau,Works Of Antoni Gaudí,Alhambra,Generalife,Albayzín,Cathedral,Alcázar,Archivo De Indias,Renaissance,Úbeda,Rock-art Of The Mediterranean Basin On The Iberian Peninsula,Canary Islands,Teide National Park,France,Diocletianus Aqueduct,Gier Aqueduct,Eifel Aqueduct,Pont D'aël,Gadara Aqueduct,Raschpëtzer Qanat,Valens Aqueduct,Dolaucothi Gold Mines,List Of Roman Aqueducts, | |
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