Copper tools were better than the stone tools of the ear-
lier Stone Age because copper can be hammered and molded
into many diff erent shapes. Copper, however, is a relatively
soft metal with limited usefulness. Early in the fourth millen-
nium b.c.e. metalworkers discovered that they could toughen
copper by mixing it with tin. Th e resulting alloy, bronze, gave
its name to the Bronze Age, which extended roughly between
2500 and 800 b.c.e. Settlements where bronze played a promi-
nent role in the culture and technology of the community have
been found in islands of the Aegean Sea, home to the earliest
European civilizations, the Minoans and Mycenaeans, as well
as in central Europe, Spain, Britain, and Scandinavia.
While bronze was an advance on copper, it still was less
durable and more expensive to make than the metal that sup-
planted it, iron. While iron came to be used extensively in
the Near East, it was not until about 1100 b.c.e. that it found
its way to Europe. In discussing European Iron Age cultures,
historians and archaeologists refer to two primary periods.
Th e fi rst was the Halstatt Period, named aft er a town near
Salzburg, Austria, where extensive salt-mining operations
were conducted beginning about 1000 b.c.e. About 500 years
later the La Tène culture developed in modern-day Switzer-
land. Th is culture produced an enormous amount of iron,
and archaeologists have discovered numerous Iron Age arti-
facts from this region.
Mining for metals was a backbreaking business. While
some metals such as gold could be found in nuggets in sandy
soil or in water, the mining of copper and iron was more dif-
fi cult, because the ore had to be dug out of the earth. First, a
deposit had to be found. Ancient mining engineers were oft en
able to locate a vein of metal by looking for stains in rock for-
mations, riverbeds, and even in the water itself. Copper oxi-
dizes (combines with oxygen) to form a greenish hue, while
iron oxidizes to form brownish-red rust. Once a site had been
located, workers dug shaft s with picks and shovels. Th e shaft s
were generally not very deep, perhaps about 30 feet, but deeper
mines—some as deep as 300 feet—have been found.
Bronze Age miners then used stone hammers to break up
the rock, but they also used picks and levers made from hard-
wood or antler. Archaeologists have discovered many hun-
dreds of broken stone hammers at ancient mining sites, and
the large number of such tools suggests that a separate group
of men were on hand to make and repair tools; otherwise,
the miners would not have been able to carry on their work.
Another technique that ancient miners used was to heat the
rock by building large fi res against it. Th e heating and cool-
ing cracked the rock, oft en to a thickness of a foot, making it
easier to break it into pieces and haul it to the surface.
Iron Age mining was not radically diff erent. Again,
shaft s were dug using picks and shovels. Th e ore was broken
up with hammers and then carried in sacks up ladders to the
surface, where it was further broken down, washed (that is,
the ore separated from smaller bits of rock and sand), and
made ready for smelting. Large cisterns of water were kept on
hand for the washing process.
An important activity in ancient Europe was the mining
of salt. Salt was a valuable commodity, for it was used in the
preservation of food; it was so valuable that ancient Roman
soldiers were oft en paid with salt, the origin of the modern
word salary, and the ancient Greeks readily traded slaves for
salt (giving rise to the modern expression that people “are
not worth their salt”). A major center of salt production in
ancient Europe was the area around Salzburg, Austria and
the lakes to the east in a region called Salzkammergut (note
the syllable Salz-, the German word for “salt”). Also, many
German and Austrian place names contain the syllable hall,
the ancient Celtic word for “salt.” Th is salt was left behind
by ancient seawaters that covered the continent before they
receded.
When salt occurs in large concentrations and is easily
accessible, it can be mined just like any other mineral and
carried out of the mine in large blocks, as at Hallstatt, where
the miners had special leather backpacks for bringing out the
salt. Where it is less concentrated or where groundwater fl ows
through the salt deposits, it can be extracted by an evapora-
tion process. Salt is highly soluble in water, so it can be ex-
tracted easily from the ground by dissolving it. Some ancient
European salt mines consist of deep shaft s dug into the earth,
oft en into mountainsides. Aft er the shaft s were dug, ancient
salt miners let groundwater do much of the work. Large cham-
bers were opened and then allowed to slowly fi ll with water,
a process that could take up to 15 years. When the chamber
was fi lled with brine, or salty water, it would be pumped out
of the mine. At that point, the salty water was placed in large,
shallow containers so that the water could evaporate. Th e salt
left behind was fashioned into cakes for transporting. Over
the centuries, numerous road systems were built principally
for the transportation of salt. Th e Via Salaria in Italy is a good
example.GREECE
BY JOHN W. HUMPHREY
Mining was fi rst practiced in the lands bordering the Medi-
terranean long before the Mycenaean Greeks of the late
Bronze Age excavated shallow pits at Laurium, southeast of
Athens, where silver reserves were later to become the engine
that drove the golden age of the fi ft h century b.c.e. As early as
the upper Paleolithic (aft er ca. 30,000 b.c.e.), nomadic hunt-
ers were digging vertical shaft s to recover fl int, their principal
material for fl aked tools and weapons, while others in south-
ern France and northern Spain excavated ochres, those natu-
ral earths that they used to paint the walls of deep caves with
images of their hunting culture. Some metals were available
in a pure and native state—gold and copper are two—and
could simply be gathered from the surface or sluiced from
rivers and worked by Neolithic farmers (8000–3000 b.c.e.)
into decorative shapes without the invention of special tech-
niques. Later, the new empires of the Bronze Age (3000–1000
b.c.e.), like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mycenaean Greece,mining, quarrying, and salt making: Greece 747