Ada Tepe Hill and the secrets of ancient gold mining

published on 1/27/12 1:12 PM

Photo: archive

The Thracians who lived in the lands of today’s Bulgaria were known to be skillful miners and metallurgists. One of the places where traces of their activity are found is the Ada Tepe Hill in the Eastern Rhodopes, near the town of Krumovgrad. This is the oldest gold mine in Europe known to archaeologists. The mine dates back to the 2nd millennium BC – the time of Mycenae and Troy. Scientists have discovered that gold could still be extracted in the mine these days. Bulgarian archaeologists started work for revealing the secrets of Ada Tepe Hill in 2005. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences launched a project for the research of the ancient mine in 2010. The project was financed by a gold mining company working in the region. Foreign archaeologists also work on the site due to its importance for science. Foreign experts, laboratories, and universities are also part of the project. Housing remains, pottery, artifacts, tools, workplaces have been discovered so far. Archaeologist have discovered more than 5 tons of pottery during the past year and scientific work on it continues. We can imagine the place as an old mine where the precious metal was extracted before reaching the Thracian kings, doctor Hristo Popov, leader of the project explains.

“For the first time a geophysical study of an ancient mine has been done, as well as high resolution laser scanning. This way we create digital topographic models, which are more accurate than topographic maps. This helps us find archaeological structures. We have used radiocarbon dating, which is very important as it helps us define the exact time when things were happening in Ada Tepe.”

For the first time in Bulgaria a team of scientists have conducted an experiment in the mine to show how ancient methods work.

“Our goal was extracting gold from the quartz veins in the mine using replicas of old Thracian tools,” Hristo Popov says. “The experiment was conducted in 2 stages. In the end of September we managed to uncover veins rich with gold using wooden tools. Then by using fire we made the quartz easier to work with. Through heating the rock for a whole night, we managed get 350 kg of ore. It was then ground to powder and cradled until 30 grams of gold were extracted. The experiment was very useful to us and we received answers to some of our questions regarding the technology of the Thracians.”

In the future scientists plan to create a modern open-air museum, dedicated to mining and metallurgy near the Ada Tepe Hill. Until March 11th a photo exhibition dedicated to partnership between archaeologists and the business in the case of Ada Tepe project can be seen in the museum of the Archaeology Institute of the BAS.

English: Alexander Markov

По публикацията работи: Rumyana Tsvetkova

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Ada Tepe Hill and the secrets of ancient gold mining

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