Dolaucothi Gold Mines

52.0413 - 3.95224Koordinaten: 52 ° 2 ' 29 " N, 3 ° 57 ' 8 " W

The Dolaucothi gold mines, also known under the name Ogofau gold mines, are Roman mining facilities above and below ground, lying in the valley of Cothi, near Saint pumping in Carmarthenshire, in Wales.

They are the only mines for Welsh gold outside the Dolgellau Gold Belt called and have the official status of a designated archaeological monument ( Scheduled Ancient Monument ). They are also the only known Roman gold mines in the UK, although the possibility can not be excluded that the Romans also exploited other sources, for example in Devon, North Wales and Scotland. The facility is important because it provides an insight into the sophisticated technology of Roman mining mining methods.

• 2.1 degradation with hydropower

• 3.1 The mine
• 3.2 Melin -y- Milwyr
• 3.3 Carreg Pumsaint
• 3.4 underground mining

History of gold mining

Archaeological studies suggest that gold mining has probably begun at this point in the Bronze Age, possibly. By washing the auriferous gravels of the river Cothi, the most basic method of gold - prospecting

Roman gold mining

Sextus Julius Frontinus was 74 A.D. sent into the Roman England to replace Quintus Petilius Cerialis as governor. He subdued the Silures, Demeter and other hostile tribes in Roman Wales and set up a new military base in Caerleon for Legio II Augusta and a network of small Roman forts, which were 15 to 20 kilometers apart and served in support of the Roman auxiliary troops. During his tenure, he was probably in West Wales the Fort of Pumsaint build, exploit mainly to the gold deposits of Dolaucothi. After his tenure, he later led the restoration of the aqueducts of Rome. The Romans probably used slaves for many of the works, although the Roman army was probably directly involved in the mining operations, especially on the basis of engineering knowledge in the planning and construction of aqueducts, storage and water tanks or cisterns.

Show the duration of the habitation of the fort ( Luentinum for details on Claudius Ptolemy ) and the associated Vicus that the Romans operated the mine throughout the 1st and 2nd centuries (from about 78 AD to 125 AD). Various pottery - including Samian ware which were salvaged from the reservoir Melin -y- Milwyr within the mine complex - show that the mine was operated until at least the late 3rd century. After the end of military occupation of the mine of Romano-British civilian contractors could have been operated, although the later history of the mine still needs to be clarified.

Later history of the mines

After the departure of the Romans from Britain in the 5th century the mine was abandoned for centuries. That occurred in the area of gold, was the discovery of a Roman gold treasure again generally known until the 18th century, which contained, among other things, the gold wheel pictured above from Dolaucothi. Other articles in this gold treasure were snake bracelets that could be easily wrapped around the arm due to the softness of the gold. These items are in the British Museum and will be exhibited there in the Roman Britannic Department. A piece of gold ore that was found in 1844 by Henry Thomas de la Bèche in the field of gold mining, proved the existence dortiger gold deposits.

The degradation was revived, and in the early 20th century, attempts were made to make the gold mining a worthwhile enterprise, but they were abandoned before the First World War. In the 1930s, a 130- meter deep shaft was sunk to find new gold veins. Due to neglect and the flooding of the deeper parts of the mine was finally closed in 1938.

In this last period, the discovery of the ancient underground structures as well as the remains of the old drainage devices falls. The extensive remains of the plant at the surface, especially the degradation by water power, were only discovered in the 1970s by thorough field work and collection. Even if no other such system was found in England, so it is likely that other mines can be found by following the remains of aqueducts and reservoirs. They are often discovered because they cast distinct shadows in oblique incident light. So water pool A was first observed when the morning light fell on the sloping hill Allt Cwmhenog on which the building is located.

Roman mining methods

The Romans made extensive use of water that has been introduced by means of aqueducts and ditches (the longest of its origin in a gorge of the river about 11 km measured up to the mine ) to exploit the gold veins that are under the ground on the slopes above the present village pump Saint plants. Small rivers on the slopes of Mynydd Mallaen, the Annell and Gwenlais were used at the beginning, to provide water for mining. Several basins for receiving the water are still a isolated lying open pit, which was dug north of the main degradation in the side of the hill visible. The large, dissipating from the river Cothi aqueduct crosses the open pit, thereby proving that it was applied afterwards.

Degradation by water power

The water was collected in the water tank and then drained at once to wegzusschwemmen the top layer of soil, and thus expose the bedrock underneath and the gold veins perhaps in this. Pliny the Elder describes this method of hydraulic prospecting in a dramatic way in his Naturalis historia, probably after his experiences in Spain. The method was in England later than hushing, flushing or referred booming and survived as a decomposition method to the 17th century. A not dissimilar method is used today to relieve soaps such as alluvial tin deposits (hydraulic mining ). A smaller version of this mining method is the gold panning, and both versions of the methods could have been used for the degradation of alluvial gold near the Cothi itself. This is indicated by a large aqueduct which almost two kilometers upstream taps into the river and reached the system at a low compared to the other aqueducts height level.

The approach brought by the aqueduct water was also used to wash crushed gold ore and in addition possibly for driving ramming mills for crushing the gold ore ( Lewis and Jones, 1969).

The aqueducts of Dolaucothi

One of the first aqueducts was built high on the eastern slope of Allt Cwmhenog and was connected to a small stream in about three kilometers away. At the point where it abschwenkt from the front of the hill to the west side of the hill, is located at its end a large pool of water. Here a large vein of gold must have been discovered, because beneath the basin is a large open pit. Later, the great aqueduct, which taps into the Cothi about 11 kilometers north-east, out with a gradient of 1 to 800 across the open pit and therefore must - as already mentioned above - younger than the open pit to be. The system of mining sites and water basin is connected to the aqueduct system and thus goes back to the Romans. Radiocarbon dates gradually the aqueducts as the oldest remains of the mining activities a.

In contrast to this open pit gold search no vein of gold found by means of several pools that were found in the area of the plant, on, and the basins were abandoned. The water basin A (see photo above and the situation, the development scheme of the mines in the Roman period ) in the vicinity of the northern open pit was probably intended to explore the end of the exploited on a large open pit gold deposit. It hit the gold deposits obviously not in and was abandoned. The water supply was probably ensured by a small moat that branched off from a small creek upstream in the valley of Cothi before the great aqueduct was built.

The mine

The exploration in the area of the mine was successful, and so various open excavation sites below the large pool of water are visible along the aqueduct. The only exception is the last and very large pool of water, under which there are two reservoirs. Probably, this complex was used to wash out of finely ground ore to win gold dust from it. More moats and pools are located on the line of the great aqueduct, some of which are listed on the map at the plant.

They surround the edge of the very large open pit and the water pool C in the photo is one that was built on the main aqueduct. This gap was the discovery of a vein of gold when one including proceeds from degradation. The basin was changed later to feed a basin, which was placed on his left side was used (close to the person in the photo ) and probably to wash the ore gained here. Similar water basin placed to the Romans, as they continued down the slope following the great vein of gold the street and the main degradation. Just off the road itself the Carreg Pumsaint (see below) was later erected in the open space next to a large mound of earth, which is interpreted as a deposit of waste rock.

The ponds on the side street of Pumsaint after Caeo were probably part of a cascade to Erzwaschen. The upper basin has supplied a large quantity of Roman pottery, which dates from 78 to at least 300 AD were dated ( Lewis, 1977; Burnham 2004). This upper pond is called Melin -y- Milwyr ( soldiers mill) denotes a fascinating name, which might suggest the use of water mills in Roman times.

A large mill plant is known by the mills of Barbegal from southern France, as many as 16 mills were built (in two rows of eight mills ) into the side of a hill and supplied with water from a single aqueduct. In the two series oberschlächtiger water wheels, the waterwheel each higher -lying led his water to the underlying. The mill supplied the area with flour. Similar systems with sequences oberschlächtiger water wheels were, however, also used by the Romans to drain mines. The sequence of water wheels allowed the transport of coal mine water over greater heights. A great unit for drainage of 16 water wheels was discovered in the 1920s in old Roman mines at Rio Tinto in the 1920s. The water wheels were arranged in pairs and the water nearly 25 feet could lift. In Dolaucothi were remains of a water wheel, which might belong to such a system, discovered in the resumption of mining activities in the 1930s.

Melin -y- Milwyr

The water basin at the top of the narrow street of Pumsaint after Caeo was kept for latter day, as it still contains water. However, when the water level in 1970 was particularly low, in a large quantity of Roman pottery was found. This finding proves the Roman origin of the basin and its construction during the Roman mining operations at the mine.

The above section shows that it was connected by a subterranean, dry walled water pipe with a smaller pool of water directly below the present street. The lower basin has still water, but it is already very heavily silted. Among the fragments found himself next to Terra sigillata also use ceramic total of over 100 different pots that have fallen into the pool when the mine was in full operation. An analysis of the fragments shows a distribution of fragments from the late 1st to the end of the 4th century. Since the large and small fort were abandoned under the present village Pumsaint in the middle of the 2nd century, the operation must be continued for a longer time even after the withdrawal of the Roman military. This suggests that in the neighborhood of the village Pumsaint a large mining settlement must exist which has yet to be found.

The actual function of the cascade is associated with the methods to extract the broken ore and the last remnants of gold. Between the two basins probably were washbasins, so that a gentle stream of water could be used to wash the ore on the rough surfaces so that the fine gold particles gathered in the wells and could be taken after the end of the process there. The cascade may have been built towards the end of the 1st century, when the degradation of Tagbaubetrieb moved into the subsoil.

Carreg Pumsaint

The mining plant of Dolaucothi provides one of the earliest evidence at all for the use of water-driven hammer mills by the Romans for crushing ore ( Burnham 1997). The ore was probably broken on the famous Carreg Pumsaint, one many years ago after the departure of the Romans erected stone. There are parallels to similar rocks in other ancient Roman mining sites in Europe, and the depressions in the stone caused by a hammer mill which was probably driven by a water wheel. Such a hammer was moved at regular intervals, as soon as the wells on the serving as an anvil stone had become too deep. In this way, a series of overlapping recesses created on the surfaces of the stone. The hammer must have been of considerable size, considering the dimensions of the cavities, which can be seen on the figure above. The stone is so far the only one of its kind to be found in the area of ​​investment, as such, is not unique, as Burnham refers to other stones of similar shape from Spain. Was one side of the stone too worn, it was simply rotated so that another side faced upward, so that the stone could be reused several times. When the stone was found many years after the departure of the Romans in the Dark Ages, it gave rise to the legend of the five saints, who left the imprint of their heads in stone, when they were asleep surprised by the devil.

Underground mining

The miners followed the ore veins underground with shafts and tunnels, some of which are still preserved in the area of the plant. Remains of Roman art water were found in the 1930s, when the mine was re-opened for a short time. The most interesting discovery was that of a sweeping overshot wheel, which now houses the National Museum of Wales. It was together with charred logs found what the conjecture suggests that the technique of fire setting was being used to break up the hard quartz, where the gold was contained. A similar, but larger wheel was rediscovered mining activities near the Rio Tinto in Spain, it is now in the British Museum on display in a prominent place in the Roman department. The Spanish plant comprised no less than 16 water wheels, one of which passed it be any water to the next in sequence. Each waterwheel was probably operated as a treadmill, rather than from the side from the top. This was a hard and lonely work for the miners, who served the wheels to lift water from the bottom of the mine.

As the remains of the waterwheel was found in Dolaucothi in almost 25 meters depth among all known studs or Abbauhöhlungen, it must have been like device part of a plant in Spain. Gold mining by Dolaucothi was technologically well developed and sophisticated, what the conjecture suggests that the Roman army drove forward even the exploitation of the mine. The construction of such drainage machines and their widespread use for irrigation and lifting water in spas was in the year 25 AD described by Vitruvius.

Elsewhere in the mine, at Pen -lan -wen, water will probably have been scarce. A culvert could water from the main aqueduct or have taken there one of his pool, but this is not yet proven. The lode runs up the hill from a considerable distance back and was exploited by means of a trench. This method was applied by the vein of gold was mined at depth, while the trench was kept open at the top. In this case, the ventilation of the trench will increasingly cause problems, especially if the method of fire setting was used. For this reason, three long ventilation tunnels were driven from the hillside to the north. They are much wider than normal studs, so that their use appears likely as a deduction of the air out of the ditch and the safe ventilation during the fire setting. The top two ventilation tunnels have still a connection to the ditch, and the third is currently blocked.

Further processing of gold

There are indications that at least a part of the gold was processed before the place, as, among others, the completely finished brooch Goldrads of Dolaucothi suggests that is shown above. The production of workpieces such as only partially finished jewelry stone that was found nearby, requires considerable expertise, have the only trained people, not slaves. So far, no such workshops or furnaces were found, but it is likely that these existed in the system.

Gold bars are easier to carry than gold dust or nuggets, even if a high-temperature furnace is required for their production, to melt the gold with a melting point of 1064 ° C. Pliny mentions such special furnaces in his Naturalis Historia. A workshop was essential for the production and maintenance of mining tools such as water wheels, skid gutters of vanities, end cap for aqueducts, Equipment for crushing rock and finally mine timber. Official mints could have produced gold coins.

Other Roman mines

The abundant 12 km to the north of Dolaucothi lying lead mines of Nantymwyn near the village Rhandirymwyn may have been also first exploited by the Romans. A hint on the aqueducts and water basins for hydraulic prospecting, were doing there in the 1970s by both field work and by means of aerial photographs. They are on the top of the mountain Pen Cerrig - mwyn, and the gold-bearing veins have been developed by several tunnels that led down to the mine sites. There the veins of ore have been mined and the overburden was carefully filled into the evacuated cavity reduction. These mining sites are far above the now-defunct art mine - once the largest lead mine in Wales - and the associated processing plant.

Although no other system in England is known, which would be comparable in terms of the extensive hydraulic systems with Dolaucothi so, however, many other Roman mines are known, some of which have remnants of hydraulic mining equipment, including the extensive remains of lead mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Halkyn in Flintshire and many plants in the Pennines.

Dolaucothi is perhaps best comparable to the gold mines in the Carpathian Mountains in Rosia Montana in Romania today, and with the Roman gold mines in northwest Spain as the mines of Las Médulas and Montefurado where alluvial gold was mined on a much larger scale.

National Trust

The National Trust of the United Kingdoms is the plant since 1941 owned and operated. The universities of Manchester and Cardiff were involved in exploring the extensive remains in the 1960s and '70s. Currently, the University of Wales, with its branch office in Lampeter closer involved in the archaeological investigation of the facility. The National Trust organizes guided tours for visitors and show them the mine and the Roman excavations.