Guide – Bronze Age Mining

Mining in the Bronze Age

In the last twenty years or so, some thirty copper mining sites of Bronze Age date have been identified. This has allowed us to create a reasonably accurate picture of the tools and techniques used during the extraction of copper ores in this distant prehistoric period.

It is only recently the date of such “old Man’s” workings has been verified with carbon dating, prior to this, antiquarians of the past tended to point to a Roman origin for these works.

One of the key sites has been the Munster mines in north central Wales. Here carbon dating of charcoal deposits found in mining spoil in galleries and surface dumps proved the Bronze Age date, these were the remains of fire setting.

It appears that Bronze Age miners exploited visible outcrops of ore. These non ferrous ores where subjected to fire setting, this technology was still in use in the nineteenth century, fires were lit against the surface of the ore, which was then rapidly cooled by the application of water, this caused the rock face to crack so allowing the easier reduction of the ore by hammering.

Hammer stones are often the only visible remains from these very early mines, here natural hard stone cobbles of a handy size are bruised at the ends from use, often they have shallow pecked grooves around their central girth either to secure rope or as a result of hammering. Such cobbles can acquire percussion bruising at any date and on their own cannot form conclusive proof of early mining activities.

The natural occurrence of copper ores, along with tin, lead and zinc in the British Isles tend to be restricted to the Pre Triassic date strata, these are today well known and mapped, although there os also the probability of an even larger number of ore sites available to the Bronze Age peoples, sites that may have been worked out by the time historic mining activity allowed the mapping of ore deposits.