Prehistoric Ochre Mining

Cette recherche offre une synthèse sur les anciennes exploitations d'oxydes et d'hydroxydes de fer connus sur le continent européen. L'objectif est de synthétiser les informations publiées pour chaque site. Les sites préhistoriques d'extraction de ces minéraux sont rares. En Europe, on compte cinq mines préhistoriques d'oxydes de fer connues : Tzines (Grèce), Rydno (Pologne), Lovas (Hongrie), Bad Sulzburg (Allemagne) et Grotta della Monaca (Italie). Ces cinq mines couvrent une période entre la phase finale du Paléolithique supérieur et le Néolithique final. Ces mines, qui ont survécu aux destructions liées aux exploitations ultérieures, donnent un aperçu de la distribution géographique et du cadre chronologique de cette activité, de même qu'elles livrent des informations sur les techniques d'extraction et les outils utilisés. Par contre, en l'absence de liens avec des habitats bien identifiés, l'état actuel des recherches ne permet pas de comprendre l'organisation sociale et économique des groupes qui ont développé ce type d'exploitation, exception faite du site de la mine de Rydno. Malheureusement, peu de choses sont connues à ce jour sur le traitement de la matière première après son extraction. Seule une phase de broyage direct in situ ou à proximité du site d'extraction a pu être observée. Un nombre important de sites en grotte et de plein air livrent des évidences de l'utilisation d'oxydes de fer comme pigments, abrasifs et agents siccatifs. D'autres hypothèses sont possibles mais, en l'absence de preuves directes, elles sont tirées de sources historiques et de comparaisons ethnographiques : peinture du corps, travail de la peau, conservation de substances organiques, remèdes médicaux, entre autres. Quoiqu'il en soit, l'importance évi-dente de ces matériaux durant la Préhistoire laisse à penser que les sources d'approvisionnement étaient très activement recherchées.

is a smaller cave, about 60 metres in length, located 500 metres above sea level. It is composed by an entrance area, called "Antegrotta", and an uphill gallery from which depart three dead-end branches (Figs. 6-7). Both cavities were frequented during Prehistory for the exploitation of iron hydroxides, such as goethite, and copper carbonates, such as malachite and azurite. The evidence identified within them has allowed the reconstruction of ancient exploitation techniques. The main mining process feature is surely the use of natural cavities as profitable means of access to metalliferous resources, therefore avoiding fully artificial excavations. The tools used for mining iron hydroxides have not been found but left several digging traces, preserved thanks to the soft goethite nature due to its high hydration. These imprints can be found both on veins and on small goethite boulders scattered on the ground and inside archaeological deposits. It is possible to identify blows left by picks made of deer antler and goat horn, small hoes and scapulas used as shovels ). These implements utilization was allowed by the low hardness degree of this hydrous goethite variety preferred by prehistoric miners, whilst the

This paper provides a comprehensive review of underground mining evidence of the Pleistocene. After briefly considering the properties of silica minerals mined, the topic of ochre mining is examined. The subterranean Pleistocene mining of flint in Egypt, Europe and especially Australia are reviewed, including the detailed technology of these activities in Australian caves.

Geochemical sourcing of archaeological materials has long been employed as a means toward understanding resource acquisition and patterns of trade and exchange. However, there are limited examples of how such data can be effectively re-integrated into broader conceptual approaches that explore tradition, history and landscape. By re-humanizing such empirically driven approaches, we create the capacity for more insightful interpretations of archaeological patterns. Neutron activation analyses of ochre from village sites on the central coast of British Columbia indicate long-term histories of selective ochre acquisition. This study is a unique example of how patterns of acquisition, as evidenced through geochemistry, can be conceptualized in terms of traditional knowledge and behaviour towards landscape and resources.

Ochre is the common archaeological term for prehistoric pigments. It is applied to a range of uses, from ritual burials to cave art to medications. While a substantial number of Palaeolithic paint mining pits have been identified across Europe, the link between ochre use and provenance, and their antiquity, has never yet been identified. Here we characterise the mineralogical signature of core-shell processed ochre from the Palaeolithic paint mining pits near Lovas in Hungary, using a novel integration of petrographic and mineralogical techniques. We present the first evidence for core-shell processed, natural pigment that was prepared by prehistoric people from hematitic red ochre. This involved combining the darker red outer shell with the less intensely coloured core to efficiently produce an economical, yet still strongly coloured, paint. We demonstrate the antiquity of the site as having operated between 14-13 kcal BP, during the Epigravettian period. This is based on new radio...

Worldwide applications of ochre analysis continue to develop at a rapid pace, highlighting a number of analytical and interpretative issues. As regional source databases continue to grow, researchers have turned to the thornier issues of source allocation. In this study, we utilize LA–ICP–MS and NAA to examine archaeological pigments, ceramic paints and experimental tiles from geological sources and Hohokam ceramics in central Arizona. Archaeological pigments and paint on sherds are successfully source matched based on trace element content, with implications for understanding paint production, sociocultural relations governing trade in pigment and the use of different resource landscapes over time.

Prehistoric mining contexts can sometimes be rather miserly in giving back the remains of mining tools used by ancient miners. In fact mining tools only seldom were left where they were used. This happened mostly when they were broken and so no longer usable, or when they were set aside in view of a next return to the mine. Archaeologists working in the prehistoric mining sites should therefore use also indirect evidence to trace the type of tools employed. The mining imprints are in that case one of the most important indicators, able to provide often very detailed information on a range of tools used during the ancient mining activities. The case presented in this work is about Grotta della Monaca in Calabria (Italy), a cavity rich in iron and copper mineralization and therefore intensely frequented during the Prehistory for the exploitation of its valuable resources. In this cave the existence of very soft and malleable iron hydroxides veins has allowed a perfect preservation, lasted till now, of several hundreds of prehistoric mining tool marks. They have different shapes and refer to the use of various mining implements. We recognize tools with sharp edges but also flat and slightly curved. Often the imprints furnish information on the longitudinal profile or cross sections of the same tools, even reaching to provide data about the microscopic structure of the striking surfaces. The sample of analyzed imprints provides an interesting overview of the tools used in the Calabrian site during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age (end of the V - beginning of the IV millennium BC).