Bronze Age lead mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth – fact or fantasy?
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Published
Jan 1, 2022
Abstract
In a recent paper, Bick (1999) questions whether the Bronze Age mines discovered in mid-Wales were exploited for lead, or lead and silver, instead of copper and re-considers whether the ores were used for metal smelting. We present a short review of recent archaeological evidence and geochemical data from a blanket peat located close to the Bronze Age mine at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth in order to consider the ideas presented by Bick. Increased copper concentrations in the peat profiles coincide with the known tenancy of the Bronze Age mine suggesting that the miner’s primary interest was to obtain copper. Archaeological evidence suggests that copper was extracted in the form of chalcopyrite from the copper-lead-zinc sulphide veins. Only low concentrations of lead and silver are recorded in the peat and this evidence raises doubts over the mining of lead and silver at Copa Hill in antiquity.
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References
Alloway B J and Davies B E 1971, ‘Trace element content of soils affected by base metal mining in Wales’, Geoderma 5, 197-208.
Baker D E 1990, ‘Copper’, in B J Alloway (ed) Heavy metals in soils (London), 151-76.
Baker D E and Chesnin L 1975, ‘Chemical monitoring of soils for environmental quality and animal and human health’, Advances in Agronomy 27, 305-74.
Barnatt J and Thomas G 1998, ‘Prehistoric mining at Ecton, Staffordshire: a dated antler tool and its context’, Mining History: Bulletin Peak District Mines Historical Society 13(5), 72-8.
Bick D 1976, The Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales Part 3: Cardiganshire - North of Goginan (Newent).
Bick D 1999, ‘Bronze Age copper mining in Wales - fact or fantasy?’ Historical Metallurgy 33(1), 7-12.
Chapman D 1998, ‘Smelting site on the Great Orme (SH78 83)’, HMS News 38, 2-3.
Craddock P T 1990, ‘Copper smelting in Bronze Age Britain: problems and possibilities’, in P Crew and S Crew (eds), Early Mining in the British Isles, (Maentwrog: Plas Tan y Bwlch Occasional Paper 1), 69-71.
Craddock P T 1994, ‘Recent progress in the study of early mining and metallurgy in the British Isles’, Historical Metallurgy 28(2), 69-85.
Damman A W H 1978,’ Distribution and movement of elements in ombrotrophic peat bogs’, Oikos 30, 480-95.
Davies O 1947, ‘Cwmystwyth Mines’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 99, 57-63.
Dutton A and Fasham P 1994, ‘Prehistoric copper mining on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Gwynedd’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60, 245-86.
Foster I D L, Dearing J D, Charlesworth S M and Kelly I A 1987, ‘Paired lake catchment studies: a framework for investigating chemical fluxes in small drainage basins’, Applied Geography 7, 115-33.
Foster-Smith J R 1979, The Mines of Cardiganshire, (Sheffield: British Mining No12).
Fuge R, Palmer T J, Pearce N J G and Perkins W T 1992, ‘ICP-MS techniques’, Environmental Monitoring and Testing 2, 28-30.
Hughes S J S 1981, The Cwmystwyth Mines (Sheffield: British Mining Series No17).
Hunter F and Davis M 1994, ‘Early Bronze Age lead - a unique necklace from southeast Scotland’, Antiquity 68, 824-30.
Hutcheson A 1891, ‘Notice of the discovery and examination of a burial cairn of the Bronze Age at the farm of Gilchorn near Arbroath’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 25, 447-63.
Jenkins D A and Timberlake S 1997, Geoarchaeological Research into Prehistoric Mining for Copper in Wales, A report to the Leverhulme Trust (unpubl), University of Wales, Bangor, 141pp.
Jones J M 1987, ‘Chemical fractionation of Cu, Pb and Zn in ombrotrophic peat’, Environmental Pollution 48, 131-44.
Jones J M and Hao J 1993, ‘Ombrotrophic peat as a medium for historical monitoring of heavy metal pollution’, Environmental Geochemistry and Health 15(2/3), 67-74.
Jones K C 1986, ‘The distribution and partitioning of silver and other heavy metals in sediments associated with an acid mine drainage stream’, Environmental Pollution (series B) 12, 249-63.
Jones K C, Davies B E and Peterson P J 1986, ‘Silver in Welsh soils: physical and chemical distribution studies’, Geoderma 37, 157-74.
Jones K C, Lepp N W and Obbard J P 1990, ‘Other metals and metalloids’, in B J Alloway (ed) Heavy metals in soils (London), 280-321.
Jones O T 1921, Lead and Zinc. The Mining District of North Cardiganshire and West Montgomeryshire (London: Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, Memoirs of the Geological Survey 20).
Lindsay W L 1979, Chemical equilibria in soils (Chichester).
Livett E A 1988, ‘Geochemical monitoring of atmospheric heavy metal pollution: theory and applications’, Advances in Ecological Research 18, 65-177.
Livett E A, Lee J A and Tallis J H 1979, ‘Lead, Zinc and Copper analyses of British blanket peats’, Journal of Ecology 67, 865-91.
Macklin M G 1992, ‘Metal pollution of soils and sediments: a geographical perspective’, in M D Newson (ed), Managing the human impact on the natural environment: patterns and processes (London), 172-95.
Mighall T M and Chambers F M 1993, ‘The environmental impact of prehistoric mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Wales’, The Holocene 3(3), 260-4.
Mighall T M, Grattan J P, Forsyth S and Timberlake S in press, ‘Tracing atmospheric metal mining pollution in blanket peat’, in I D L Foster (ed), Tracers in Geomorphology (Chichester).
Mighall, T M Grattan J P Forsyth S and Timberlake S forthcoming, Geochemical evidence for atmospheric pollution derived from prehistoric copper mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, mid-Wales, UK.
Morris L1744, An account of the Lead and Silver mines in Cwmmwd y Perveth (National Library of Wales MSS).
Morris L 1751, ‘A short history of the Crown Manor of Creuthyn in the County of Cardigan, South Wales’, in S R Meyrick (ed), 1810, A History of the County of Cardiganshire.
O’Brien W F 1994, Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age mining in Ireland (Galway).
O’Brien W F 1995, ‘Ross Island and the origins of Irish-British metallurgy’, in J Waddell and E Shee-Twohig (eds), Ireland in the Bronze Age (Dublin), 38-48.
Parker A J 1982, ‘Introduction: the chemistry of copper’, in J F Loneragan, A D Robson and R D Graham (eds), Copper in soils and plants (London), 1-22.
Perkins W T, Pearce N J G and Jeffries T E 1993, ‘Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry: a new technique for the determination of trace and ultra-trace elements in silicates’, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 57, 475-82.
Pickin J 1988, ‘Stone tools and early mining in Wales’, Archaeology in Wales 28, 18-19.
Prag J Garner A & Housley R1991, ‘The Alderley Edge shovel: an epic in three acts’, Current Archaeology 137, 172-5.
Reaves G A and Berrow M L 1984, ‘Total lead concentrations in Scottish soils’, Geoderma 32, 1-8.
Rohl B and Needham S 1998, The circulation of metal in the British Bronze Age: the application of lead isotope analysis, (London: British Museum Occasional Paper 102).
Shotyk W 1988, ‘Review of the inorganic geochemistry of peats and peatland waters’, Earth Science Reviews 25, 95-176.
Shotyk W 1996a, ‘Peat bog archives of atmospheric metal deposition: geochemical evaluation of peat profiles, natural variations in metal concentrations, and metal enrichment factors’, Environmental Reviews 4, 149-83.
Shotyk W 1996b, ‘Natural and anthropogenic enrichments of As, Cu, Pb, Sb and Zn in rainwater-dominated versus groundwater-dominated peat bog profiles, Jura Mountains, Switzerland’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution 84, 1-31.
Shotyk W, Nesbitt H W and Fyfe W S 1992, ‘Natural and anthropogenic enrichments of trace metals in peat profiles’, International Journal of Coal Geology 20, 49-84.
Shotyk W, Norton S A and Farmer J G 1997, ‘Summary of the workshop on peat bog archives of atmospheric metal deposition’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution 100, 213-9.
Smythe W W1848, ‘On the Mining District of Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire’, Memoirs Geological Survey of Great Britain 2(2), 655-84.
Stewart C and Fergusson J E 1994, ‘The use of peat in the historical monitoring of trace metals in the atmosphere’, Environmental Pollution 86, 243-9.
Timberlake S 1987, ‘An archaeological investigation of Early mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth’, Archaeology in Wales 27, 18-20.
Timberlake S 1988, ‘Excavations at Parys Mountain and Nantyreira’, Archaeology in Wales 28, 11-17.
Timberlake S 1990a, ‘Excavations at an early mining site on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed 1989 and 1990’, Archaeology in Wales 30, 7-13.
Timberlake S 1990b, ‘Excavations and fieldwork on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, 1989’, in P Crew and S Crew (eds), Early mining in the British Isles. (Maentwrog: Plas Tan y Bwlch Occasional Paper No 1), 22-9.
Timberlake S 1992a, ‘Llancynfelin Mine’, Archaeology in Wales 32, 90-1.
Timberlake S 1992b, ‘Prehistoric copper mining in Britain’, Cornish Archaeology 31, 15-34.
Timberlake S 1993, ‘Cwmystwyth, Wales: 3500 years of mining history - some problems of conservation and recording’, Journal of the Russell Society 5(1), 49-53.
Timberlake S 1994, ‘Archaeological and circumstantial evidence for early mining in Wales’, in T D Ford and L Willies (eds), Mining Before Powder (Matlock Bath: Peak District Mines Historical Society 12(3) and Historical Metallurgy Society Special Publication), 133-43.
Timberlake S 1995, ‘Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth’, Archaeology in Wales 35, 40-3.
Timberlake S 1996, ‘Tyn y fron Mine, Cwmrheidol’, Archaeology in Wales 36, 61-3.
Timberlake S 1998, ‘Survey of early metal mines within the Welsh Uplands’, Archaeology in Wales 38, 79-81.
Timberlake S in press, ‘Archaeological excavations at Engine Vein’, in J Prag (ed), The Archaeology of Alderley Edge (Oxford: BAR).
Timberlake S and Mason J 1997, ‘Ogof Wyddon (Machynlleth Park Copper Mine)’, Archaeology in Wales 37, 62-5.
Timberlake S and Switsur R 1988, ‘An archaeological excavation of early mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: new evidence for prehistoric mining’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
54, 329-33.
Tylecote R F 1986, The prehistory of metallurgy in the British Isles (London).
Urban N R, Eisenreich S J, Grigal D F and Schurr K T 1990, ‘Mobility and diagenesis of Pb and 210Pb in peat’, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54, 3329-46.
Van Geel B, Bregman R, Van der Molen P C, Dupont L M and Van Driel-Murray C 1989, ‘Holocene raised bog deposits in the Netherlands as geochemical archives of prehistoric aerosols’, Acta Botanica Neerlandica 38(4), 467-76.
Baker D E 1990, ‘Copper’, in B J Alloway (ed) Heavy metals in soils (London), 151-76.
Baker D E and Chesnin L 1975, ‘Chemical monitoring of soils for environmental quality and animal and human health’, Advances in Agronomy 27, 305-74.
Barnatt J and Thomas G 1998, ‘Prehistoric mining at Ecton, Staffordshire: a dated antler tool and its context’, Mining History: Bulletin Peak District Mines Historical Society 13(5), 72-8.
Bick D 1976, The Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales Part 3: Cardiganshire - North of Goginan (Newent).
Bick D 1999, ‘Bronze Age copper mining in Wales - fact or fantasy?’ Historical Metallurgy 33(1), 7-12.
Chapman D 1998, ‘Smelting site on the Great Orme (SH78 83)’, HMS News 38, 2-3.
Craddock P T 1990, ‘Copper smelting in Bronze Age Britain: problems and possibilities’, in P Crew and S Crew (eds), Early Mining in the British Isles, (Maentwrog: Plas Tan y Bwlch Occasional Paper 1), 69-71.
Craddock P T 1994, ‘Recent progress in the study of early mining and metallurgy in the British Isles’, Historical Metallurgy 28(2), 69-85.
Damman A W H 1978,’ Distribution and movement of elements in ombrotrophic peat bogs’, Oikos 30, 480-95.
Davies O 1947, ‘Cwmystwyth Mines’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 99, 57-63.
Dutton A and Fasham P 1994, ‘Prehistoric copper mining on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Gwynedd’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60, 245-86.
Foster I D L, Dearing J D, Charlesworth S M and Kelly I A 1987, ‘Paired lake catchment studies: a framework for investigating chemical fluxes in small drainage basins’, Applied Geography 7, 115-33.
Foster-Smith J R 1979, The Mines of Cardiganshire, (Sheffield: British Mining No12).
Fuge R, Palmer T J, Pearce N J G and Perkins W T 1992, ‘ICP-MS techniques’, Environmental Monitoring and Testing 2, 28-30.
Hughes S J S 1981, The Cwmystwyth Mines (Sheffield: British Mining Series No17).
Hunter F and Davis M 1994, ‘Early Bronze Age lead - a unique necklace from southeast Scotland’, Antiquity 68, 824-30.
Hutcheson A 1891, ‘Notice of the discovery and examination of a burial cairn of the Bronze Age at the farm of Gilchorn near Arbroath’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 25, 447-63.
Jenkins D A and Timberlake S 1997, Geoarchaeological Research into Prehistoric Mining for Copper in Wales, A report to the Leverhulme Trust (unpubl), University of Wales, Bangor, 141pp.
Jones J M 1987, ‘Chemical fractionation of Cu, Pb and Zn in ombrotrophic peat’, Environmental Pollution 48, 131-44.
Jones J M and Hao J 1993, ‘Ombrotrophic peat as a medium for historical monitoring of heavy metal pollution’, Environmental Geochemistry and Health 15(2/3), 67-74.
Jones K C 1986, ‘The distribution and partitioning of silver and other heavy metals in sediments associated with an acid mine drainage stream’, Environmental Pollution (series B) 12, 249-63.
Jones K C, Davies B E and Peterson P J 1986, ‘Silver in Welsh soils: physical and chemical distribution studies’, Geoderma 37, 157-74.
Jones K C, Lepp N W and Obbard J P 1990, ‘Other metals and metalloids’, in B J Alloway (ed) Heavy metals in soils (London), 280-321.
Jones O T 1921, Lead and Zinc. The Mining District of North Cardiganshire and West Montgomeryshire (London: Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, Memoirs of the Geological Survey 20).
Lindsay W L 1979, Chemical equilibria in soils (Chichester).
Livett E A 1988, ‘Geochemical monitoring of atmospheric heavy metal pollution: theory and applications’, Advances in Ecological Research 18, 65-177.
Livett E A, Lee J A and Tallis J H 1979, ‘Lead, Zinc and Copper analyses of British blanket peats’, Journal of Ecology 67, 865-91.
Macklin M G 1992, ‘Metal pollution of soils and sediments: a geographical perspective’, in M D Newson (ed), Managing the human impact on the natural environment: patterns and processes (London), 172-95.
Mighall T M and Chambers F M 1993, ‘The environmental impact of prehistoric mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Wales’, The Holocene 3(3), 260-4.
Mighall T M, Grattan J P, Forsyth S and Timberlake S in press, ‘Tracing atmospheric metal mining pollution in blanket peat’, in I D L Foster (ed), Tracers in Geomorphology (Chichester).
Mighall, T M Grattan J P Forsyth S and Timberlake S forthcoming, Geochemical evidence for atmospheric pollution derived from prehistoric copper mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, mid-Wales, UK.
Morris L1744, An account of the Lead and Silver mines in Cwmmwd y Perveth (National Library of Wales MSS).
Morris L 1751, ‘A short history of the Crown Manor of Creuthyn in the County of Cardigan, South Wales’, in S R Meyrick (ed), 1810, A History of the County of Cardiganshire.
O’Brien W F 1994, Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age mining in Ireland (Galway).
O’Brien W F 1995, ‘Ross Island and the origins of Irish-British metallurgy’, in J Waddell and E Shee-Twohig (eds), Ireland in the Bronze Age (Dublin), 38-48.
Parker A J 1982, ‘Introduction: the chemistry of copper’, in J F Loneragan, A D Robson and R D Graham (eds), Copper in soils and plants (London), 1-22.
Perkins W T, Pearce N J G and Jeffries T E 1993, ‘Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry: a new technique for the determination of trace and ultra-trace elements in silicates’, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 57, 475-82.
Pickin J 1988, ‘Stone tools and early mining in Wales’, Archaeology in Wales 28, 18-19.
Prag J Garner A & Housley R1991, ‘The Alderley Edge shovel: an epic in three acts’, Current Archaeology 137, 172-5.
Reaves G A and Berrow M L 1984, ‘Total lead concentrations in Scottish soils’, Geoderma 32, 1-8.
Rohl B and Needham S 1998, The circulation of metal in the British Bronze Age: the application of lead isotope analysis, (London: British Museum Occasional Paper 102).
Shotyk W 1988, ‘Review of the inorganic geochemistry of peats and peatland waters’, Earth Science Reviews 25, 95-176.
Shotyk W 1996a, ‘Peat bog archives of atmospheric metal deposition: geochemical evaluation of peat profiles, natural variations in metal concentrations, and metal enrichment factors’, Environmental Reviews 4, 149-83.
Shotyk W 1996b, ‘Natural and anthropogenic enrichments of As, Cu, Pb, Sb and Zn in rainwater-dominated versus groundwater-dominated peat bog profiles, Jura Mountains, Switzerland’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution 84, 1-31.
Shotyk W, Nesbitt H W and Fyfe W S 1992, ‘Natural and anthropogenic enrichments of trace metals in peat profiles’, International Journal of Coal Geology 20, 49-84.
Shotyk W, Norton S A and Farmer J G 1997, ‘Summary of the workshop on peat bog archives of atmospheric metal deposition’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution 100, 213-9.
Smythe W W1848, ‘On the Mining District of Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire’, Memoirs Geological Survey of Great Britain 2(2), 655-84.
Stewart C and Fergusson J E 1994, ‘The use of peat in the historical monitoring of trace metals in the atmosphere’, Environmental Pollution 86, 243-9.
Timberlake S 1987, ‘An archaeological investigation of Early mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth’, Archaeology in Wales 27, 18-20.
Timberlake S 1988, ‘Excavations at Parys Mountain and Nantyreira’, Archaeology in Wales 28, 11-17.
Timberlake S 1990a, ‘Excavations at an early mining site on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed 1989 and 1990’, Archaeology in Wales 30, 7-13.
Timberlake S 1990b, ‘Excavations and fieldwork on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, 1989’, in P Crew and S Crew (eds), Early mining in the British Isles. (Maentwrog: Plas Tan y Bwlch Occasional Paper No 1), 22-9.
Timberlake S 1992a, ‘Llancynfelin Mine’, Archaeology in Wales 32, 90-1.
Timberlake S 1992b, ‘Prehistoric copper mining in Britain’, Cornish Archaeology 31, 15-34.
Timberlake S 1993, ‘Cwmystwyth, Wales: 3500 years of mining history - some problems of conservation and recording’, Journal of the Russell Society 5(1), 49-53.
Timberlake S 1994, ‘Archaeological and circumstantial evidence for early mining in Wales’, in T D Ford and L Willies (eds), Mining Before Powder (Matlock Bath: Peak District Mines Historical Society 12(3) and Historical Metallurgy Society Special Publication), 133-43.
Timberlake S 1995, ‘Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth’, Archaeology in Wales 35, 40-3.
Timberlake S 1996, ‘Tyn y fron Mine, Cwmrheidol’, Archaeology in Wales 36, 61-3.
Timberlake S 1998, ‘Survey of early metal mines within the Welsh Uplands’, Archaeology in Wales 38, 79-81.
Timberlake S in press, ‘Archaeological excavations at Engine Vein’, in J Prag (ed), The Archaeology of Alderley Edge (Oxford: BAR).
Timberlake S and Mason J 1997, ‘Ogof Wyddon (Machynlleth Park Copper Mine)’, Archaeology in Wales 37, 62-5.
Timberlake S and Switsur R 1988, ‘An archaeological excavation of early mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: new evidence for prehistoric mining’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
54, 329-33.
Tylecote R F 1986, The prehistory of metallurgy in the British Isles (London).
Urban N R, Eisenreich S J, Grigal D F and Schurr K T 1990, ‘Mobility and diagenesis of Pb and 210Pb in peat’, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54, 3329-46.
Van Geel B, Bregman R, Van der Molen P C, Dupont L M and Van Driel-Murray C 1989, ‘Holocene raised bog deposits in the Netherlands as geochemical archives of prehistoric aerosols’, Acta Botanica Neerlandica 38(4), 467-76.
How to Cite
Bronze Age lead mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth – fact or fantasy?. (2022). Historical Metallurgy, 34(1), 1-12. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/291
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Bronze Age lead mining at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth – fact or fantasy?. (2022). Historical Metallurgy, 34(1), 1-12. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/291