crown in the second half of the fourth century and for the next two
hundred years.^85
Stone and timber can be identified and evaluated, even by those
comparatively unfamiliar with the local geography of an area. Not so
metals and minerals. These require specialist knowledge,first to identify
the kinds of formations that could produce the desired minerals, and
then to adopt an appropriate strategy for exploiting promising deposits.
Even today, despite the existence of geological maps and data sets,
mining is still a highly specialized activity, because theoretical knowledge
can differ from practical experience. Ancient exploitation of minerals is
connected with the exploration of mountain ridges and especially caves,
whose early decoration and human appropriation reflects the dynamic
relationship between people and rocks, rocks and people. The‘Cave of
Polyphemos’at Maroneia is one recently studied example of long-term
cave use in the north Aegean.^86
Most of the specialist interest in early mineral exploitation in this
region has come from geologists and mineralogists familiar with more
recent extraction of metal deposits, rather than from archaeologists. So
the synthetic studies of mines and mineral deposits by Georgiv on copper
and Avdev on gold provide what might be considered‘maximalist’
approaches to ancient knowledge about particular ore deposits, even
though in many cases such locations have been confirmed by evidence
of ancient tools in underground passages; or more directly by scientific
analysis, such as the pioneering work of Chernykh and more recently by
Pernicka and others on early copper in eastern Bulgaria.^87 Examination
of slag accumulations, alongside evidence based on modern mineral
deposits, has enhanced the resource base for archaeological study. Only
the systematic scientific analysis of artefacts, in the context of what we
know about local slag deposits (the most obvious evidence of past
exploitation at particular ore sources), can actually demonstrate how
particular metals were used in given localities.
(^85) Krenides: Diod. 16.3.7; App. Syr. 105; Collart 1937, 39–71; Koukouli-Chrysanthaki
2011b, 438–9; Philip V and Philip II: Photios claimed that Philip V had Theopompos’
Philippikaabridged to 16 books, focusing on Philip II (176, p. 121a, 35).
(^86) Cave of Polyphemos, Maroneia: A. Panti and M. Myteletsis,AEMY20 (2006), 21– 29
(Early Bronze Age to Byzantine use).
(^87) Georgiv 1987; Avdev 2005, 23–70 and 37fig. 16, 219–87, Appendix (known gold
working sites); cf. Tonkova 2000, 138, map 2; Chernykh 1978; K. Dimitrov and I. Vajsov in
Durankulak 2(Sofia 2002), 127–58, 159–76, respectively; see now the Bulgaro-German
project on tracking ancient gold and iron mining activities, Chr. Popov et al.,AOR 2008
[2009] 215–18; 2009 [2010] 133–5 (Ada tepe, Krumovgrad region, evidence for Late Bronze
Age/Early Iron Age gold production); Craddock 2008, 96–108 on mining technology in the
first millenniumbc.
174 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean