Ancient Mining

This book represents an attempt to survey the history of extractive industries throughout a period from prehistory to the final years of the Roman Empire in the west. It is intended as a sequel to an earlier work by Shepherd, "Prehistoric Mining and Allied Industries". The areas covered by the current study include Western Europe, the Middle East, Southwest Asia and North Africa. The mining of minerals and, to a lesser extent, the quarrying of rocks have been of vital importance to the economy and even the culture of many countries. Therefore this study is careful to take into account the effects of outside influences such as invasions and internal strife when considering how mining has influenced local economies and social development. Where written sources exist, such as Greek and Roman mining, these are referred to frequently, but in other cases, where there is little extant written material but greater physical evidence of the remains of mine workings, modern methods such as isotopic analysis are considered. the results of recent work on possible Roman sites such as Cym Ystwith, Great Orme, Llanmech, Alderley Edge, Rio Tinto and others are also taken into account.

Comprehensive maps, together with many previously unpublished illustrations and a series of appendices of historical background such as units of ancient money and short biographies of ancient authors should ensure that this book is of interest to archaeologists and ancient historians, as well as the general reader concerned with this period of early history.