The beginnings of metal production in Britain: a new light on the exploitation of ores and the dates of Bronze Age mines
Abstract
Archaeological investigations have identified eleven sites of Early-Middle Bronze Age copper mining. Including the Great Orme, there are now more than 100 radiocarbon dates from these prehistoric workings in England and Wales, which when statistically modelled have provided some indications of the sequence of exploitation, and a chronology of production. Prospection and small scale mining for copper begins in west-central Wales at the end of the third/early second millennium cal BC, and then spreads eastward, with mining on the Great Orme reaching its peak in the Middle Bronze Age. The subsequent decline in production may coincide with the
arrival of recycled metal from the continent, much of which may be coming from new Alpine sources. The indigenous development is then compared with those in Ireland, Iberia and the Alps. Britain’s fairly unique pathway in this respect is interesting, with seemingly no evidence for the mining of chalcopyrite and the consequential development of sulphide metallurgy during the British Bronze Age.
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