10 Roman Exploitation and New Road Infrastructures in Asturia Transmontana (Asturias, Spain) (original) (raw)
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1.8. Configuring the landscape: Roman mining in the conventus Asturum (NW Hispania)
Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science, 2012
The Conventus Iuridicus Asturum (mainly, though not only, modern Asturias and León provinces in Spain) was created after the Cantabrian Wars carried out by Augustus himself, which finished in 19 BC. Even though the NW quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula was rich in gold, the C. Asturum concentrated the greatest deposits in the western ends of both Asturias and León. The exploitation of gold was a strategic need for Augustus' new Imperial coin, the aureus. Those areas with rich pre-Roman goldwork were systematically prospected and mined during the first two centuries of the Christian Era. As a consequence, local populations were subjected to a special form of imperialist policy directed at ensuring the maximum output of minerals. Settlement form and function was radically changed and a tributary system was put in place, thereby changing local society completely. This policy had a major effect on the landscape in two ways: the mines brought about important geomorphological changes, and the territorial policy changed the rural exploitation of the area with a new landscape management and an increasing importance of cereal cultivation. In this paper these changes are brought forth as what they are: a measure of the impact that Roman gold mining had on the landscape.
Configuring the landscape: Roman mining in the conventus Asturum (NW Hispania)
The Conventus Iuridicus Asturum (mainly, though not only, modern Asturias and León provinces in Spain) was created after the Cantabrian Wars carried out by Augustus himself, which finished in 19 BC. Even though the NW quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula was rich in gold, the C. Asturum concentrated the greatest deposits in the western ends of both Asturias and León. The exploitation of gold was a strategic need for Augustus’ new Imperial coin, the aureus. Those areas with rich pre-Roman goldwork were systematically prospected and mined during the first two centuries of the Christian Era. As a consequence, local populations were subjected to a special form of imperialist policy directed at ensuring the maximum output of minerals. Settlement form and function was radically changed and a tributary system was put in place, thereby changing local society completely. This policy had a major effect on the landscape in two ways: the mines brought about important geomorphological changes, and the territorial policy changed the rural exploitation of the area with a new landscape management and an increasing importance of cereal cultivation. In this paper these changes are brought forth as what they are: a measure of the impact that Roman gold mining had on the landscape.
Mining in the Inland of the Roman province of Dalmatia in the 3 rd and 4 th centuries
Na obzorju novega: območje severnega Jadrana ter vzhodnoalpski in balkansko-podonavski prostor v obdobju pozne antike in zgodnjega srednjega veka: posvečeno Rajku Bratožu ob njegovi sedemdesetletnici, 2022
The paper starts with a short overview of the mining activities in the inland of the Roman province of Dalmatia during the first two centuries of the Roman rule, followed by a detailed analysis of Roman mining in this province in the 3 rd and 4 th centuries. The interpretation of narrative sources and texts carved on ancient epigraphic monuments presents the administration in the mines in the context of gold, lead, silver, and iron mining. It should be noted that the most important mines in the province of Dalmatia are located around Domavia. This mining settlement was the administrative centre of the largest Dalmatian mining district of Argentaria, whose name we know from the itinerary Tabula Peutingeriana from Late Antiquity. Under the Severan dynasty (198-235), Domavia got its municipal status. Epigraphic monuments corroborated that Domavia was declared colonia metalla during the period of barracks emperors. Using the official title, we concluded that the mines and colonies were mutually dependent primarily on state interests in order to maintain a high level of silver and lead production. During the 3 rd and 4 th centuries, Domavia was the centre of procurator argentariarum, i.e., procurator metallorum Pannonicorum et Delmaticorum. Apart from Argentaria in the eastern part of present-day Bosnia, other important mining centres of Dalmatia were in central Bosnia, southwestern Serbia, and northwestern Montenegro. Sources suggest that Dalmatian mines of the 3 rd and 4 th centuries were part of a single mining administration that, in different time periods,
The village of Tresminas, in the municipality of Vila Pouca de Aguiar, at Vila Real Distric at the North of Portugal, owes its name to the mining archeology set of " Three Mine " , property of public interest since 1988 by order of the Portuguese Culture Secretary of State based on the dec-Law No. 181/70 of 18 April. Considered, according J.e R. Wahl, " one of the most important mining archeology sets from Roman times, it was probably during the reign of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD), which began its systematic exploration which lasted until second half of the second century AD, since the time of Septimius Severus (193-211 AD). " The first and second centuries AD were of intense mining activity, a system that complemented the extraction of gold in the open external mining space, with the geared underground infrastructure for the transportation of the mineral and waste. One of the most interesting aspects of this monumental complex lies in the gold treatment process, described further in the first century AD by the naturalist Plínius " the Old " (Gaius Plinius Secundus) Indeed, the devices used in the early stages of this auriferous enrichment-crushing and grinding of rock-are assumed to be identity elements of the Roman Mining Complex Tresminas, the amount and homogeneity of the remains identified over the past centuries. The internal dynamics of this mining area is one of the central themes of the exhibition recreate in the Interpretive Center Tresminas, involved two separate building bodies that articulate with the Romanesque church of São Miguel de Tresminas, forming a museum center with several areas of historical cultural and natural background of this region. The auriferous enrichment of primary deposits assumed in Roman times, according to the classic documentation (Naturalis Historia XXXIII: 69), operations such as crushing and grinding of rock, washing and metallurgical treatment for purification of gold.
The Springs Graduate Historical Review (Fall), 2018
By combining the critical analysis of ancient literature with archaeology and modern atmospheric data, this paper explores the limitations of ancient source material treating the topic of mining in Roman Spain from the beginning of third century B.C. during the outbreak of the second major Punic War (c. 218-201 BC) until the end of the first-century CE. By evidencing historical treatments by ancient authors writing on mining as sparse and devoid of detail, an interdisciplinary approach combining ancient with modern empirical data is posited as a viable method that can be used to overcome ancient source limitations on mining. Ultimately, this study supports an empirically founded idea: that for the Roman mining enterprise, a proto-industrial revolution occurred at around 100 B.C. that would not be rivaled in size and scope until the modern industrial revolution in Europe in the 18th-century.
Roman Quarries in the Northeast of Hispania (Modern Catalonia)
2009
This book, based on the PhD thesis of the author, focuses on the main Roman quarries in modern Catalonia. On the one hand, it analises their geographic location, their context (their place within the ancient territory), the evidences of work at the quarries by detecting traces of tools, volume stone extracted, etc; and the other, it attempts to date their life-span through the study not only of the traces but also the use of their stone at the most significant Roman towns of northeastern Hispania(Tarraco Dertosa, Barcino, Gerunda among others). All this is the basis for further considerations on the exploitation, use, distribution and organization of quarrying in Roman times.
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