Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T17:46:48.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Roman Mines at Riotinto

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

G. D. B. Jones
G. D. B. Jones
Affiliation:
Manchester University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although the name of Riotinto has become synonymous with mining throughout the world and the site was very clearly exploited in antiquity, the Roman mines have received relatively little archaeological attention at the analytical level. The reasons for this situation are complex, not least perhaps the impression amongst archaeologists that there now remains little or nothing from antiquity capable of examination. The two major expansions of large-scale open-cast mining by the old Riotinto Company have led to a general impression that modern mining has removed all worthwhile archaeological evidence. Furthermore, in the last century a massive study by Rua Figueroa appeared at the time to offer a comprehensive survey of all that was known of ancient and more recent exploitation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 70 , November 1980 , pp. 146 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © G. D. B. Jones 1980. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For example, the mine is not even mentioned in the survey of mineral resources in CAH XI, 493, although Riotinto is the largest source of silver, gold and copper in the south-western Spanish minefield.

2 Figueroa, R. Rua, Ensayo sobre la História de las Minas de Rio Tinto (Madrid, 1859)Google Scholar.

3 Rickard, T. A., ‘The Mining of the Romans in Spain’, JRS 18 (1928), 129Google Scholar ff.; EMJ 124 (1927), 13 ff.; R. E. Palmer, TIMM 36 (1926–1927), 299 ff.

4 Davies, O., Roman Mines in Europe (1934), esp. pp. 126 ffGoogle Scholar. There is evidence from Davies' notes (now in the possession of the author) that the working restrictions of the time prevented him from making any close analysis of the Corta Dehesa-Corta Lago area. The recent study by Healy, J. F., Mining and Metallurgy in the Greek and Roman World (1978), 9, 69 f.Google Scholar, incorporates recent geological work.

5 Blazquez, J. M., ‘Explotaciones Mineras en Hispánia durante la República y el alto Império Romano: Problemas Económicos, Sociales y Técnicos’, Anuario de Historia económica y sócial 2 (1969), 9Google Scholar ff. for an excellent survey of the evidence. See also his survey, ‘Economia de la Hispánia Romana Republicana: Minas, Agriculture, Ganaderia, Caza, Pesc y Salazones’, Hispánia, Revista Española de Historia 33 (1973), 205Google Scholar ff.

6 Blanco, A. and Luzón, J. M., Antiquity 43 (1969), 124CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.

7 That this exercise in salvage archaeology was conducted is due to the initiative of the present mining company, Riotinto Patino S.A., which financed the project through the courtesy of Sr. Dn. Juán Eugenio Morera and other members of the management. My particular thanks are due to Sr. J. P. Hunt, the Company Secretary, and his family for organizing the logistics of the operation and making the stay so pleasant in a host of ways. The team consisted of my wife, Mrs. V. A. Jones, who acted as draftsman, and Messrs. P. Reynolds and P. Bennett, who kindly collated the tables in Appendix A; we are deeply grateful for all the help and attention received from the staff of the Riotinto Patino S.A. Company Office at Dehesa, notably those members who assisted the project from the Survey Office and made Company archives available. Thanks are also due to the labour force, mainly drawn from the village of La Dehesa.

On the archaeological side our most grateful thanks are due to Prof. A. Blanco who authorized the work and to the Curator of Huelva Museum. Our indebtedness to the pioneer work of Prof. Blanco and J. M. Luzón on Cerro Salomon will be apparent from the text.

On the metallurgical side Prof. R. H. Tylecote, who initiated the scheme, provided great support with his advice and technical assessments. We are also grateful to Mr. L. U. Salkeld, a former geologist at the mine, and Prof. R. N. Pryor for their help in a variety of ways.

Mr. J. Sharpies, Keeper of Numismatics at the Melbourne Museum, Dr. Richard Reece and Mr. M. H. Crawford, very kindly provided information on coinage, while Prof. A. R. Birley, Mr. H. F. Cleere and Dr. G. P. Burton commented on various aspects of the text.

8 Information from Prof. Tylecote.

9 For the history of the modern mine Avery, V. D., Not on Queen Victoria's Birthday (1974)Google Scholar.

10 D. Williams, TIMM 43 (1933–1934), 593 ff.; ibid. 59 (1950). 63; 84 (1975), 73 ff.; R. N. Pryor, H. N. Rhoden and M. Villaon, TIMM 81 (1972), 143 ff. for the latest work on Cerro Colorado.

11 D. Williams et al., TIMM 84 (1975), 73 ff.

12 Salkeld, L. U., ‘Ancient Slags in the South-West of the Iberian Peninsula’, La Mineria Hispánica e Ibero-Americana I (1970)Google Scholar; Allan, J. C., Bull. Hist. Metallurgy Group 2 (1968), 47Google Scholar ff.; cf. idem, Considerations on the Antiquity of Mining in the Iberian Peninsula, R. Anth. Inst. Occas. Paper 27 (1970).

13 Jarosite is chemically K2SO4. 3Fe2SO6H2O. Perhaps one of the most important elements in the argument is contained in the 1890 map of the slag deposits which draws a careful distinction between the great majority of silver slags (around Corta Lago) and the minority of copper slags (from the Planes area). The figures support the developmental scheme for the Roman mine set out in this paper and are printed in Appendix B.

14 A. Blanco and J. M. Luzón, op. cit. (n. 6), 127 ff.

15 Detailed publication forthcoming.

16 For an up-to-date summary of the prehistoric evidence see Huelva : Prehistória y Antiguedád (1974), with a summary of the evidence for Romanization by J. M. Luzón (pp. 271 ff.).

17 The recent detailed publication of the Carmona tombs has not been available to the writer; for Merida, see Almagro, M., Guida di Merida (1965)Google Scholar.

18 The siting of the mining settlement is in principal the same as that at Charterhouse-on-Mendip, i.e. on higher ground away from the ore body (Britannia 2 (1971), 278), and Rescue Archaeology, ed. Rahtz, P. A. (1974), 137 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Palmer, op. cit. (n. 3).

20 See n. 14.

21 J. M. Luzón, op. cit. (n. 16), 299; cf. Luzón, and Ruiz, D., ‘El Poblado Minero romano de Rio Tinto’, Habis I (1970)Google Scholar.

22 M. A. Mezquiriz, Terra Sigillata Hispanica (1961); Soto-Major, M., ‘Andujar (Jaën), Centro de Producción y Explotación de Sigillata’, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico I (1972), 263Google Scholar ff.

23 Wood supply, either as timber or charcoal, was a major issue in any kind of mining on the scale of Riotinto and it is unfortunate that there is no reliable comparative material from which to work, although some comparative evidence can be deduced from sixteenth and seventeenth century mining in the Harz Mountains of Saxony. Whilst timber was obviously required for pit props, drainage wheels (on which see most recently Weisberger, G., ‘Das römische Wasserheberad aus Rio Tinto in Spanien im British Museum London’, Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur im Bergbau 2–3 (1979), 37Google Scholar ff.) and timber buildings, the greatest demand must have been for charcoal. J. C. Allan (op. cit. (n. 12)) has argued that fifty tons of silver slag produced each day would have required about two acres to be cut each day. If this approximation is accepted as realistic, then allowing slightly over one hundred trees to the acre, roughly 730 acres would be consumed each year to supply charcoal. A forty-year regrowth cycle would therefore assume the cutting of over 29,000 acres, or about 44 square miles, i.e. a plantation of less than seven by seven miles (L. U. Salkeld, op. cit. (n. 12), 94). Against these rough estimates, however, several imponderables have to be weighed. The lightness of charcoal allows considerable quantities to be imported from a distance on horseback. Whole trees need not necessarily be destroyed in the charcoal-making process. We have very little idea of the forest cover in antiquity; Strabo III. 3. 3 mentions ‘lofty trees’ south of the Baetis, whereas the present countryside around Riotinto is relatively denuded of larger trees (save in recent afforestation), but contains extensive patches of scrub woodland.

I am grateful for discussion with J. S. Bromwich and S. J. S. Hughes on these and related points.

24 HA, M. Antoninus 21. I; HA, Septimius Severus 2. 4. For a full review of previous literature and an assessment, cf. H. G. Pflaum, Carrières procuratoriennes (1960–1), no. 221.

25 HA, M. Antoninus 22. 9.

26 Alföldy, G., Fasti Hispanienses (1969), 38 ffGoogle Scholar.

27 ILS 1139; cf. G. Alföldy, op. cit., 122.

28 ILS 1327, reviewed by Pflaum, op. cit., no. 180.

29 HA, M. Antoninus 22. II. This area would have included the Vispasca (Aljustrel) mines in southeastern Portugal. Reference there in an inscription to a restitutor metallorum, apparently dating to this period or shortly after, may be related to this period of instability and the present argument, see Blazquez, J. M., Hispania desde el Año 138 al 235 (1974), 7Google Scholar.

30 Inscription now at Antequera (Baetica) near the valley of the Genil (Singilis), a tributary of the Guadalquivir; ILS 1354a, the date of the procuratorship previously thought to be Severan can now be shown by new evidence from Morocco to date to A.D. 177, cf. Pflaum, , Carrières procuratoriennes III, 985, no. 221Google Scholar.

31 ILS 1354.

32 H. Mattingly, BMCRE v, xxii.

33 G. D. B. Jones and J. H. Little, ‘Excavations at Pumpsaint’, Carmarthenshire Ant. 9 (1973), 3 ff.; 10 (1974), 3 ff.

34 I am grateful to Professor K. Hopkins for permission to reproduce his graph. For a recent study of the problem see Walker, D. R., The metrology of the Roman silver coinage I. From Augustus to Domitian (B.A.R. suppl. series, 5) (1976)Google Scholar. The following discussion has benefited greatly from the advice of Mr. M. H. Crawford, Dr. R. Reece and Mr. J. A. Sharples.

35 For the Rio Duerna mines see Bird, D. G. and Jones, R. F. J., ‘Roman Mines in North-West Spain II: the Rio Duerna’, JRS 62 (1972), 59Google Scholar ff., esp. 74. The epigraphic evidence is further discussed by the latter author in ‘The Roman Military Occupation of North-West Spain’, JRS 66 (1976), 45Google Scholar ff., particularly inscriptions from Villalis and Luyego in the Rio Duerna; at the latter, higher up the valley, activity is attested in June 181 (AE 1967, 230). The epigraphic evidence now appears to be very well supported by the recent excavations at La Corona de Quintanilla and Huerna, both mining settlements along the Duerna, see C. Domergue and T. Martin, Minas de Oro Romanas de la Provincia de León I (Excavaciones Arqueoloǵicas en España, 93) and C. Domergue and P. Sillieres, Minas de Oro Romanas de la Provincia de León II (Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España, 94). Both sites show second-century occupation but in the latter case the evidence for a fresh burst of operations in the last quarter of the second century is particularly clear from both numismatic and samian evidence (p. 19).