Ores were mined for centuries in the Montafon Valley in Vorarlberg, Austria – until the late Middle Ages. Now new excavations reveal that this mining tradition began as early as Celtic and Roman times. The remains of Roman shafts carved into the rock and fragments of Roman crockery testify to this. Some wooden support planks even date from the second to third centuries BC and thus from the late Celtic period.
The 39-kilometer-long Montafon Valley in Vorarlberg is not only attractive in terms of landscape – the subsoil of this mountain region also contained rich mineral resources in the form of copper, silver and iron ore. In historical documents, a silver mine on Mount Muntafune is mentioned as early as 1319, other sources suggest that silver mining in this valley had a heyday as early as the Carolingian period in the 9th century.
Shafts from Roman times
But when did mining start in this region? To clarify this, an archaeological team led by Rüdiger Krause from the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at the Goethe University in Frankfurt has been carrying out excavations in the Montafon Valley for several years. The excavations, as well as archaeobotanical investigations and heavy metal analyzes of the soils have now significantly expanded the sparse historical sources on early and high medieval mining in the Montafon and provided astonishing insights into new and previously unknown phases of mining history on the Bartholomäberg.
The excavations on the steep mountain slope of Knappagruaba in particular brought a small sensation to light: They uncovered mining archaeological findings from Roman times for the first time, including spoil heaps made of waste rock, round shafts carved into the rock and evidence of iron ore veins even deeper. Two backfilled mining shafts have already been excavated up to three meters below the surface, which were sunk in the area of mineralization. In the future, ram core drillings are to reveal how deep the shafts extend into the subsurface.
Ore mining began in late Celtic times
“We didn’t expect that,” says Krause. “Iron ore was extracted here in shaft mining as far back as Roman times. The chronological classification is underpinned by ten small fragments of typical Roman ceramic vessels, and that was a big surprise Activities have taken place. The current finds confirm this on the basis of finds that are unique not only for the small mining district, but also far beyond that for the Eastern Alps, as the archaeologists report.
However, it remains unclear whether the ancient miners of Montafon were also Romans themselves. However, there is evidence that the local population apparently began mining ores in this valley before Roman times. The analysis of fossil pollen, heavy metals and the radiocarbon dating of wood and charcoal showed that it was already in the late Celtic period in the 3rd to 2nd century BC. there were previously unknown phases of mining. The archaeologists therefore assume that the local population has been mining ore since the late Iron Age and later acted on behalf of the Romans.
The history of mining in the Montafon is therefore characterized by a great continuity: Starting from the late Celtic period, copper, silver and iron ore were mined in this valley into the late Middle Ages – for more than 1500 years. These new findings make the mining district one of the most remarkable in the Alps, as Krause and his team explain. Mining only declined in the Montafon around 1600 and finally ended completely. The unusually well-preserved dump and mining landscape has been registered as an outstanding cultural monument in the monuments book of the Republic of Austria since 2012.
Source: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main