Las Médulas
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2010) |
UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
---|---|
Location | Province of León, Castile and León, Spain |
Includes |
|
Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) |
Reference | 803 |
Inscription | 1997 (21st Session) |
Area | 2,208.2 ha (5,457 acres) |
Coordinates | 42°28′9.8″N 6°46′14.7″W / 42.469389°N 6.770750°W |
Las Médulas (Spanish pronunciation:
The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from the
What became the Roman province of
Mining technique
What happens is far beyond the work of giants. The mountains are bored with corridors and galleries made by lamplight with a duration that is used to measure the shifts. For months, the miners cannot see the sunlight and many of them die inside the tunnels. This type of mine has been given the name of ruina montium. The cracks made in the entrails of the stone are so dangerous that it would be easier to find purpurine or pearls at the bottom of the sea than make scars in the rock. How dangerous we have made the Earth![7]
Pliny also describes the methods used to wash the ores using smaller streams on riffle tables to enable the heavy gold particles to be collected. Detailed discussion of the methods of underground mining follows, once the
The remains of such a system have been well studied at
Pliny also stated that 20,000 Roman pounds (6,560 kg) of gold were extracted each year.[8] The exploitation, involving 60,000 free workers, brought 5,000,000 Roman pounds (1,640,000 kg) in 250 years.
Cultural landscape
Parts of the aqueducts are still well preserved in precipitous locations, including some rock-cut
Research on Las Médulas had been mainly carried out by Claude Domergue (1990).[9] Systematic archaeological studies of the area, however, have been carried out since 1988 by the research group Social Structure and Territory-Landscape Archaeology of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). As a result, Las Médulas ceased to be only a gold mine with its techniques and became a cultural landscape in which all the implications of Roman mining were made apparent. The survey and excavations of pre-Roman and Roman settlements throughout the area allowed for new historical interpretations that greatly enriched the study of Roman mining.[10][11]
A positive result of these systematic studies was the inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site in 1997. Since then, the management of the Cultural Park has been monitored by the Las Médulas Foundation, which includes local, regional, and national stakeholders, both public and private. Currently, Las Médulas serves as an example of good research-management-society applied to heritage.[12]
Environmental impact
The massive scale of mining at Las Médulas and other Roman sites had considerable
The inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site was controversial for similar reasons. The delegate from Thailand opposed the designation because he considered the site "a result of human destructive activities as well as harmful to the noble cause of environmental promotion and protection."[14]
See also
- Air pollution
- Dolaucothi
- Gold mine
- Gold rush
- Hydraulic mining
- Naturalis Historia
- Pliny the Elder
- Roman technology
- Roman aqueducts
References
- ^ El parque cultural | Paisaje cultural
- ^ LIDAR surveys at Las Médulas.
- ISBN 978-3-319-44476-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-957287-8.
- ISBN 978-0-19-814687-2.
- ^ "Las Médulas".
- Naturalis Historia, XXXIII, 70.
- Naturalis Historia, XXXIII, 78.
- ^ Domergue, C. (1990) Les mines de la Penínsule Ibérique dans l'antiquité romaine. Ècole Française de Rome, Rome.
- ^ Sánchez-Palencia, F. J., ed., Las Médulas (León). Un paisaje cultural en la "Asturia Augustana" (León 2000).
- ^ Orejas, A. and Sánchez-Palencia, F. J., Mines, Territorial Organization, and Social Structure in Roman Iberia: The Examples of Carthago Noua and the Peninsular Northwest, American Journal of Archaeology 106.4 (2002): 581-599
- ^ Sánchez-Palencia, F. J. and A. Orejas (2006) "Mines et formes de colonisation des territoires en Hispanie occidentale". In L. Lévêque, M. Ruiz del Árbol, L. Pop and C. Bartels (eds.)
- PMID 29760088.
- ^ "21 COM VIII.C - Decision". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
Further reading
- Lewis, P. R. and G. D. B. Jones, Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain, Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970): 169-85
- Jones, R. F. J. and Bird, D. G., Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain, II: Workings on the Rio Duerna, Journal of Roman Studies 62 (1972): 59–74.
- Domergue, C. and Hérail, G., Conditions de gisement et exploitation antique à Las Médulas (León, Espagne) in L'or dans l'antiquité: de la mine à l'objet, B. Cauuet, ed., Aquitania Supplement, 9 (Bordeaux 1999): 93–116.
- Journeys Through European Landscapes/Voyages dans les Paysages Européens. COST-ESF, Ponferrada: 101–104.
- Pipino g. "Lo sfruttamento dei terrazzi auriferi nella Gallia Cisalpina. Le aurifodine dell'Ovadese, del Canavese-Vercellese, del Biellese, del Ticino e dell'Adda". Museo Storico dell'Oro Italiano, Ovada 2015
External links
- Media related to Las Médulas at Wikimedia Commons
- Webpage of Fundación Las Médulas, with itineraries, virtual visit and practical information (in Spanish)
- UNESCO official website
- Photo gallery and explanation of the exploitation system (in Spanish)
- "Las Médulas, the Roman El Dorado". (in English) and (in Spanish) Article by the Leonese writer Julio Llamazares.
- Spanish site dedicated to Roman technology, especially aqueducts and mines
- Social Structure and Territory-Landscape Archaeology research group
- Action COST A27: Understanding pre-industrial rural and mining landscapes (LANDMARKS) European research project, a platform for scientific dissemination of Las Médulas