Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:11:26.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prehistoric Copper Mining on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Gwynedd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Andrew Dutton
Affiliation:
Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, Ffordd y Garth, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, LL57 2SE
Peter J. Fasham
Affiliation:
Babtie Public Services Division, Shire Hall, Shinfield Park, Reading RG2 9XG
D. A. Jenkins
Affiliation:
School of Agroforestry Science, University of Wales College Bangor, Gwynedd
A. E. Caseldine
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, St Davids University College Lampeter, Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7ED
S. Hamilton-Dyer
Affiliation:
5 Suffolk Avenue, Shirley, Southampton

Abstract

The discovery of evidence to suggest that copper ore was exploited at the Great Orme on a considerable scale in prehistory is of great significance in our understanding of the development of metalworking technology in the British Isles.

In the past, the apparent absence from the archaeological record of a contemporaneous native mineral source for the production of copper and copper alloy artefacts during the Bronze Age has led to the assumption that raw materials, as well as metal technology, were imported from abroad. Alternatively, whilst accepting that local resources could have been exploited, it was assumed that these would have been obliterated by the mining operations of later centuries.

There are now several sites on the British mainland and in Ireland which have been identified and dated as having been exploited for copper ores during the Bronze Age, of which a number, as on the Great Orme, had since seen intensive working during the 18th and 19th centuries AD. AS yet, much of the evidence has come essentially from surface excavations, but at the Great Orme surface excavation combined with underground exploration has revealed a system of workings of truly remarkable size. A series of 10 radiocarbon dates has been obtained from within the mine complex, indicating that working was carried out for over a thousand years spanning the Early to Late Bronze Age.

The true extent of the surviving prehistoric workings is yet to be realized but present evidence indicates mining activity covering an area in excess of 24,000 square metres, incorporating passages totalling upwards of 5 km, penetrating to a vertical depth of 70 m.

Much of the archaeological evidence contained within this report has been gained from detailed excavation carried out within surface workings, which in their own right constitute a sizeable part of the prehistoric mine. From the surface area presently exposed it is conservatively estimated that 40,000 cubic metres of material was removed during the Bronze Age. Much of the early technology represented within the surface workings reflects the technology employed in the deep workings, with the additional evidence of ancillary operations which would seem to relate solely to surface locations.

Whilst the excavations reported in this paper relate to surface, or near surface, workings, they must be seen in the context of a labyrinthine complex of prehistoric workings recorded at depths of over yom (Jenkins & Lewis 1991; Lewis 1994). These deep workings are the subject of parallel studies to be reported elsewhere. The known underground and surface prehistoric workings are on a scale so far unparallelled in Britain and are of international significance. Elsewhere in Europe there is evidence for the mining of copper ores at Ai Bunar in Bulgaria dated to 5840 BC (Cernych 1978) and at Rudna Glava in former Yugoslavia dated to 4715 BC (Jovanovic 1979). Evidence for subsequent copper mining has been dated to 3785 BC in southern Spain (Rio Tinto area: Rothenburg & Blanco Freijeiro 1980) and to 3330 BC in Austria (Mitterberg; Pittioni 1951), marking an apparent development and extension westwards and northwards of copper technology. More recently, the dating of two sites in the south of France to around 3330 BC, at Cabrieres (Ambert et al. 1990) and Bouche Payrol, near Brusque (Barge 1985), has confirmed another area of Bronze Age working.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1994

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ambert, P., Barge, H., Bouris, -R., Esperou, J-L. and Hules, N. 1990. Cabrieres Herault: Le plus vieux centre minier metallurgique de France (2500 av. J. C); Le Chalcolithique en Languedoc: ses relations extra-regionales; and SaintMathieu de Treviers, 2022 sept., 1990. Archaeologie en Languedoc: Colloque International.Google Scholar
Ball, D. F. & Whittow, J. B. 1970. North west Wales. In Lewis, C. A. (ed.), The Glaciations of Wales and Adjoining Regions. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Barge, H. 1985. Les indices de minerai de cuivre et les traces des anciennes exploitations minieres de la Bordure Meridionale du Massif Central. Bulletin de la Société Meridionale de Speleologie et de Prehistoire 25.Google Scholar
Bevins, R. E. 1994. A Mineralogy of Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. 1969. Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linné) and goat (Capra hircus Linné). In Brothwell, D. & Higgs, E. S., Science in Archaeology, 331358. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Briggs, C. S. 1983. Copper mining at Mt Gabriel, Co. Cork: Bronze Age bonanza or post-famine fiasco. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49, 317335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C. S. 1990. Some Processes and Problems in Later Prehistoric Wales and Beyond. In L'Age du Bronze Atlantique. L'Association des Musées du Sarladais.Google Scholar
Brown, E. H. 1960. The Relief and Drainage of Wales. Cardiff.Google Scholar
Cernych, E. N. 1978. Ai-Bunar — a Balkan copper mine of the fourth millennium BC. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 44, 203217.Google Scholar
Craddock, P. T. 1986. Bronze Age metallurgy in Britain. Current Archaeology 99, 106109.Google Scholar
Craddock, P. T. & Gale, D. 1988. Evidence for early mining and extractive metallurgy in the British Isles: problems and potential. In Slater, E. A. & Tate, J. O. (eds), Science and Archaeology, Glasgow, 1987, 175192. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 196.Google Scholar
Craddock, P. T. & Hook, D. R. 1991. Report on the Composition of Three Copper Alloy Artefacts From Within the Mine on the Great Orme's Head, Llandudno. London: British Museum Research Laboratories Report.Google Scholar
Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990. Early Mining in the British Isles. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Davies, O. 1937. Mining sites in Wales. Report of the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Section 4, 13.Google Scholar
Davies, O. 1948. The copper mines on the Great Orme's Head, Caernarvonshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 100, 6166.Google Scholar
Dutton, L. A. 1990. Surface remains of early mining on the Great Orme. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 1114. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Done, G. 1980. The animal bone. In Longley, D. & Needham, S. Runnymede Bridge 1976: Excavations on the Site of a Late Bronze Age Settlement. Surrey Archaeological Society Research Volume 6, 7479.Google Scholar
Driesch, von den A. 1976. A guide to the measurement of animal bones from archaeological sites. Harvard, Peabody Museum Bulletin 1.Google Scholar
Driesch, von den A. & Boessneck, J. 1974. Kritische Anmerkungen zur Widerristhöhenberechnungaus Längenmasen vor und frühgeschichtlicher Tierknochen. München.Google Scholar
Evans, A. M. 1980. An Introduction to Ore Geology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Gale, D. 1990. Prehistoric stone mining tools from Alderley Edge. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 4748. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Gale, D. 1993. Prehistoric mining at Alderly Edge. Cheshire Past 2. Cheshire County Council.Google Scholar
Gale, D. & Ottaway, B. S. 1990. An early mine site in the Mitterberg ore region of Austria. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 3638. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Ineson, P. R. & Mitchell, J. G. R. 1970. K–Ar isotope age determinations from some Welsh mineral localities. Transactions of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 84, 716.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. S. 1968. Bronze Age copper mines on Mt Gabriel, west County Cork, Ireland. Archaeologia Austriaca 43, 92114.Google Scholar
James, D. 1988. Prehistoric copper mining on the Great Orme's Head, Llandudno, Gwynedd. In Ellis-Jones, J. E. (ed.), Aspects of Ancient Mining and Metallurgy, Acta British School at Athens Centenary Conference, Bangor, 1986, 115121.Google Scholar
Jenkins, D. A. & Johnson, D. B. 1993. Abandoned metal mines: a unique mineralogical and microbiological resource, Journal of the Russell Society 5, 4044.Google Scholar
Jenkins, D. A. & Lewis, C. A. 1991. Prehistoric mining tor copper in the Great Orme, Llandudno. In Budd, P. (ed.), Archaeological Sciences 1989. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 9.Google Scholar
Jovanovic, B. 1979. The technology of primary copper mining in south-east Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 45, 103110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyde, H. A. & Harrison, S. C. 1977. Welsh Timber Trees. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. A. 1990. Underground exploration of the Great Orme Copper Mines. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 510. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. A. 1994. Early Mining at the Great Orme's Headland — some observations and implications. In Ores to Artefacts: Papers Given in Honour ofH. N. Savory. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Northover, P. J. 1980a. Bronze in the British Bronze Age. In Oddy, W. A. (ed.), Aspects of Early Metallurgy. London: British Museum Occasional Paper 17.Google Scholar
Northover, P. J. 1980b. The analysis of Welsh Bronze Age metalwork. In Savory, H. N., Catalogue of the Welsh Bronze Age Collections, 229241. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
O'Brien, W. F. 1987. The dating of the Mt Gabriel-type copper mines of West Cork. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 92, 5070.Google Scholar
O'Brien, W. F. 1990. Prehistoric copper mining in south-west Ireland: the Mt Gabriel-type mines. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56, 269290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickin, J. 1988. Stone tools and early mining in Wales. Archaeology in Wales 28, 1821.Google Scholar
Pickin, J. 1990. Stone tools and early metal mining in England and Wales. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 3942. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Pittioni, R. 1951. Prehistoric copper-mining in Austria. Problems and facts. Institute of Archaeology 7th Annual Report, 1643.Google Scholar
Rothenberg, B. & Blanco Freijeiro, A. 1980. Ancient copper mining and smelting at Chinflon, Huelva, SW Spain. In Craddock, P.T. (ed.) 1980, Scientific Studies in early Mining and Extractive Metallurgy, London: British Museum Occasional Paper 20.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales 1956. The Graig Lwyd Group of Axe Factories. Inventory, Caernarvonshire, Volume I East, xli1.Google Scholar
Sangster, D. F. 1976. Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposits. In Wolf, K. H. (ed.), Handbook of Stistabound and Stistaform Deposits 6, 447456. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Sieveking, G. de, G. 1960. British Museum Quarterly 35, 330350.Google Scholar
Smith, W. D. F. 1989. The Great Orme Copper Mines. Creuddyn Publications.Google Scholar
Stanley, H. M. 1850. Untitled note. Archaeological Journal 7, 6869.Google Scholar
Thorburn, J. A. 1989. Stone mining tools and the field evidence for early mining in mid-Wales. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 4346.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. 1987. An archaeological investigation of early mine workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth. Archaeology in Wales 27, 7576.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. 1988a. Excavations at Parys Mountain and Nantyreira. Archaeology in Wales 28, 1117.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. 1988b. Bronze Age mining at Cwmystwyth: the radiocarbon dates. Archaeology in Wales 28, 50.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. 1990a. Excavations at Parys Mountain and Nantyreira. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 1521. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. 1990b. Excavations and Fieldwork on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, 1989. In Crew, P. & Crew, S. (eds), 1990, Early Mining in the British Isles, 2229. Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Occasional Paper 1.Google Scholar
Timberlake, S. & Switsur, R. 1988. An archaeological investigation of early mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cymystwyth: new evidence for prehistoric mining. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 329333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tylecote, R. F. 1986. The Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles. London: Metals Society.Google Scholar
Vivian, 1856a. On arborescent native copper in the Llandudno Mine near Great Ormeshead, north Wales. Quarterly Journal of the Geographical Society 15, 109110.Google Scholar
Vivian, 1856b. Mine Managers Report. Unpublished, in UCNW Archives, Bangor.Google Scholar
Warren, P. T., Price, D., Nott, M. J. C. & Smith, E. G. 1984. The Geology of the Country Around Rhyl and Denbigh. British Geological Survey — NERC; London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Williams, C. J. 1979. The Llandudno copper mines. British Mining 9, Northern Mines Research Society Monograph.Google Scholar