Early Metal Mining and Production

A comprehensive history of the early development of extractive metallurgy, drawing on archaeological evidence, historical texts, laboratory analysis, and experimental replication. Widely regarded as a foundational textbook in the field, it traces the origins of mining and smelting from prehistoric times to the technologies that led to the Industrial Revolution. Though first published in 1995, its core findings remain highly relevant, with many early hypotheses since confirmed by advances in archaeometallurgical research.

This book provides a comprehensive history of the early development of extractive metallurgy, and has become the standard textbook for many students of ancient metallurgy. The author draws on historic documentary sources, laboratory investigation, archaeological discoveries and experimental replication from across the world to provide a comprehensive description of the mining and smelting of metals. For millennia, technical advancement has been intimately linked with the production of metals and this work brings together evidence for the very inception of mining and smelting, showing that early techniques were often different from what had previously been believed. Interpretations and insights are given into many aspects from the very earliest metal production right through to the blast furnaces and high temperature distillation units which heralded the Industrial Revolution. There has been a considerable advance in archaeometallurgical research since this book was first published but the main statements remain valid and most of the more speculative judgements made at that time have been shown to be correct. This paperback edition is an unchanged reprint of the original edition, published in 1995.

List of illustrations

List of tables

Acknowledgements

Introduction, history and methological approaches

History of research into early metallurgy

Problems and potentials in archaeometallurgical studies

The development of early mining technology

Mining geology

Prospection

Mining

Some early mines

The mines of the developed Bronze Age

Mine systems of the Iron Age civilisations

Hydraulic mining

Native metals and their treatment

Native copper

Telluric iron

Meteoric iron

Gold

The platinum group metals in antiquity

The inception and development of metal smelting processes

The inception of metallurgy

The nature of the earliest smelting processes

Metal composition as an indicator of the smelting process

The inception and spread of metallurgy in Europe

The development and principles of the slagging process

The matte smelting process

Hydrometallurgy

The smelting process

Beneficiation

Roasting

Furnace types

Air supply

Fuel

Furnace operation

Refining

Lead and silver

Lead

Silver

Amalgamation: the extraction of silver from the dry ores with mercury

The production of silver from jarosite ores

The production of silver from argentiferous lead

Liquation

Iron and steel

Principal types of iron and steel

Processes of making iron and steel

The origins of iron and steel

Pattern welding

Crucible steel and the Damascus blades

The production of volatile metals and their alloys

Co-smelting and cementation

Production of arsenical copper

Brass

The production of metals by distillation

Zinc

Bibliography

Index

• By (author) Paul T. Craddock