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Mines of Laurion
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Mines of Laurion
The mines of Laurion (or Lavrion) are ancient mines located in southern Attica between Thorikos and Cape Sounion, approximately 50 kilometers south of the center of Athens, in Greece. The mines are best known for producing silver, but they were also a source of copper and lead. A number of remnants of these mines (shafts, galleries, surface workshops) are still present in the region.
The mines were exploited in prehistoric times as a source of copper and galena, a lead ore. In the classical period, mining in the area resumed. The Athenians used large numbers of slaves to mine the area, with the silver produced contributing significantly to the city's wealth. Abandoned in the 1st century BC, the mines were reactivated in 1864 and mined for their lead by French and Greek companies until 1978.
The mines are older than recorded history. Even at the time of Classical Greece, they were older than historians could determine:
It is clear, I presume, to every one that these mines have for a very long time been in active operation; at any rate no one will venture to fix the date at which they first began to be worked.
— Xenophon, Ways and Means (354 BC)
Modern archaeology has demonstrated that the mines were exploited since at least the Bronze Age: isotopic analyses of various objects produced in Greece's Mycenaean period indicates that they contain lead extracted from the Laurion mines.
The earliest evidence for mining activity at Laurion comes from the Late Neolithic period, around 3200 BC. Mining became more systematic starting from the late 6th century BC, and in the 5th century it was an important source of revenue for Athens. During this period, the city began to mine a new and particularly rich vein, which unlike the two which had previously been exploited did not appear on the surface. During the tyranny of Peisistratos systematic exploitation of the mineral resources of Athens began. Shafts were driven down into the ground and galleries opened where slaves, chained, naked, and branded, worked the seams illuminated only by guttering oil lamps.[citation needed] An unrecorded number were children. It was a miserable, dangerous, and brief life.
This discovery meant that at the beginning of the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC), the Athenian state had at its disposal a hundred talents of silver (about 2.6 tonnes) from the aforementioned vein. Rather than distribute this wealth amongst the citizens of Athens, Themistocles proposed that this money should be used to construct 200 triremes, which were used to conduct the naval campaign against Persia which culminated in victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Although lead, mercury, cinnabar, red chalk, and ochre were considered to be byproducts of silver production, they were still useful. After the Persians fled Athens around 479 BCE, the city needed to be rebuilt. Over the next century lead from the mines would be brought to make countless different water pipes and clamps that would aid in the rebuilding of Athens.
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Mines of Laurion
The mines of Laurion (or Lavrion) are ancient mines located in southern Attica between Thorikos and Cape Sounion, approximately 50 kilometers south of the center of Athens, in Greece. The mines are best known for producing silver, but they were also a source of copper and lead. A number of remnants of these mines (shafts, galleries, surface workshops) are still present in the region.
The mines were exploited in prehistoric times as a source of copper and galena, a lead ore. In the classical period, mining in the area resumed. The Athenians used large numbers of slaves to mine the area, with the silver produced contributing significantly to the city's wealth. Abandoned in the 1st century BC, the mines were reactivated in 1864 and mined for their lead by French and Greek companies until 1978.
The mines are older than recorded history. Even at the time of Classical Greece, they were older than historians could determine:
It is clear, I presume, to every one that these mines have for a very long time been in active operation; at any rate no one will venture to fix the date at which they first began to be worked.
— Xenophon, Ways and Means (354 BC)
Modern archaeology has demonstrated that the mines were exploited since at least the Bronze Age: isotopic analyses of various objects produced in Greece's Mycenaean period indicates that they contain lead extracted from the Laurion mines.
The earliest evidence for mining activity at Laurion comes from the Late Neolithic period, around 3200 BC. Mining became more systematic starting from the late 6th century BC, and in the 5th century it was an important source of revenue for Athens. During this period, the city began to mine a new and particularly rich vein, which unlike the two which had previously been exploited did not appear on the surface. During the tyranny of Peisistratos systematic exploitation of the mineral resources of Athens began. Shafts were driven down into the ground and galleries opened where slaves, chained, naked, and branded, worked the seams illuminated only by guttering oil lamps.[citation needed] An unrecorded number were children. It was a miserable, dangerous, and brief life.
This discovery meant that at the beginning of the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC), the Athenian state had at its disposal a hundred talents of silver (about 2.6 tonnes) from the aforementioned vein. Rather than distribute this wealth amongst the citizens of Athens, Themistocles proposed that this money should be used to construct 200 triremes, which were used to conduct the naval campaign against Persia which culminated in victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Although lead, mercury, cinnabar, red chalk, and ochre were considered to be byproducts of silver production, they were still useful. After the Persians fled Athens around 479 BCE, the city needed to be rebuilt. Over the next century lead from the mines would be brought to make countless different water pipes and clamps that would aid in the rebuilding of Athens.
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