WorldWide Drilling Resource

18 NOVEMBER 2016 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Ancient Mineworks Discovered in Greece Adapted from a Public Release by Ghent University A team of mining archaeologists has just discovered a complex net- work of galleries, shafts, and chambers indicating an ancient mine site. This incredible discovery was made in Thorikos, Greece, and it is the widest underground network ever explored in this part of the Aegean world with more than 16,000 feet of shafts dug in the marble and limeschists of the Attica district. Despite the extremely low ceilings throughout this complex labyrinth of mining works, the Team has been working hard to collect data and map the incredible discovery. These mining investigations are part of a larger archaeological research program on the site of Thorikos di- rected by Professor Roald Docter of Ghent University under the backing of the Belgian School at Athens, the Ephorate of Eastern Attica, and the University of Utrecht. Under the leadership of Professor Dr. Denis Morin of the University of Lorraine, the archaeological data gathered thus far, indicate this could be representation of the earliest phase of mining activities in the area (Late Neolithic/Early Helladic period around 3200 B.C.). If this theory is confirmed, the chronological framework of mining in the region of Attica and the Aegean world would be changed drastically. Dr. Morin said, "Today, it is difficult to imagine the extreme conditions in which the miners had to work in this maze of galleries. A smothering heat reigns in this mineral environment. The progress of the underground survey requires a constant vigilance in this stuffy space where the rate of oxygen must be permanently watched. Tool marks on the walls, graffiti, oil lamps, and crushing areas give evidence of the omnipresent activity of these underground workers. The hardness of the bedrock and the mineraliza- tions show the extreme working conditions of these workers . . . Mapping these cramped, complex, and braided underground networks, the ramifications of which are sometimes located at several levels, represent a real challenge in scientific terms." Fragments of pottery and oil lamps, even a Greek inscription engraved on a wall, are good indication the activities are from this period. Tunnels cut with pointed tools, of quadrangular shape, cutting of the rock in successive stages, are the character- istics of these particularly well-organized mining works. This resumption of the works at the end of Classical period (4 th century B.C.) is dated by the tool marks in the galleries and the ceramic remains. Shafts discovered inside this network connect two main levels of mineralizations. With perfect geometrical ar- chitecture executed to the millimeter, the construction techniques are still being investigated by the archaeologists. Today, these shafts are only accessible using techniques of alpine caving. A certain number of these abandoned galleries has remained untouched for the last 5000 years. Others, which are now inaccessible, had been entirely banked up during se- quential phases of mining. Advancing to these galleries remains difficult for the experienced archaeologists, wearing high-tech equipment, with temperatures up to 70ºF (21 C). This mine is also exceptional in its layout and extension. Until now, mining archaeologists working in the Laurion area have not explored such a complex network of galleries and mining infrastructure. It shows the physical capacities and skills of the ancient miners to exploit these complex ore deposits and to assure ore dressing activities outside the mine from prehistory on. It testifies to a deliberate strategy and to perfect tech- nological and spatial control over the process: an exceptional concentration of means to extract silver and a sophis- ticated technical system that in its scale is unique within the ancient world. Already exploited since the 4 th /3 rd millennium B.C., by the 5 th and 4 th cen- turies B.C., these silver mines constituted the most important mining district of Greece, laying the basis of Athens' domination of the Aegean world. The ongoing researchwill not only sur- vey these subterranean remains, but will also help us understand the mining technologies of these early periods, the management of mineral resources, their extraction and processing, as well as the circulation of the end products. The achieve- ments of human ingenuity witnessed by the team so far, suggests technological advances more along the line of those of the Middle Ages. A mining archaeologist at work in the 5000-year-old mine in Thorikos, Greece. Photo courtesy of Ghent University.