An Interdisciplinary Study on the Environmental Reflection of Prehistoric Mining Activities at the Mitterberg Main Lode (Salzburg, Austria)

Abstract

A multi‐proxy study by palynological, geochemical, archaeological and dendrochronological analyses discloses the mining activities at the Mitterberg Main Lode. By these means, several mining phases with varying intensity are recorded during the Bronze and Early Iron Age, whereupon a west to east shift of the mining activity at the Mitterberg Main Lode can be observed. The initial mining phase (Phase II), from the 21st to the 15th centuries bc, is characterized by an opening up of the forest vegetation and, additionally, by slightly elevated heavy metal deposition. Phase III shows a first bloom phase of the chalcopyrite mining during the 14th and 13th centuries bc. Pollen analyses disclose extensive clearings used for pasture and settlement. The increased human impact and higher heavy metal pollution suggest intensive mining activity, which is corroborated by the dendrochronological and archaeological data. Phase IV is characterized by mining activities in progress during the 12th century bc. The pollen data reflect a stabilization of the vegetation and slightly elevated As/Cu/Sb to Sc ratios. During Phase V, in the 11th century bc, new clearings indicate a re‐intensification of the mining activities at the Mitterberg Main Lode. Phase VI, from the ninth century bc onwards, describes a human impact with lower intensity at the mining site. This interdisciplinary study at the Mitterberg Main Lode contributes new environmental data for an important area of past metal mining and extends our understanding of the relationship between miners and their landscape.

Comment on “Next‐Generation Ice Core Technology Reveals True Minimum Natural Levels of Lead (Pb) in the Atmosphere: Insights From the Black Death” by More et al.

“…It is surprising that the authors discuss the alpine ice record mainly in terms of English Pb sources and discount all of the mining areas to be found in close proximity to the Alps. This would include the extensive mining and metallurgy that took place in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France, where Pb concentrations increase from the late tenth century (Forel et al, ; Jouffroy‐Bapicot et al, ; Mariet et al, ), as well as many areas in the Alps (Breitenlechner et al, ; Cattin et al, ; Py et al, ). That Pb levels do not return to background at any point in any of these regional records, which indicates that despite the rise and fall of mining and metallurgy at various time points, pollution never ceased.…”

Anthropogenic and climate signals in late-Holocene peat layers of an ombrotrophic bog in the Styrian Enns valley (Austrian Alps)

“…This also applies to the Austrian Alps, where a gradual intensification of human activity is assumed for the middle Bronze Age and the early part of the late Bronze Age in different areas in Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria and Lower Austria (e.g. Röpke and Krause, 2013;Breitenlechner et al, 2014;Haubner et al, 2015;O'Brien, 2015;Pichler et al, 2018). Several studies have aimed to reconstruct the prehistoric human impact in the Mitterberg region in Salzburg, which was possibly the largest copper producer in Europe in the middle of the second millennium BCE (e.g.…”

“…Several studies have aimed to reconstruct the prehistoric human impact in the Mitterberg region in Salzburg, which was possibly the largest copper producer in Europe in the middle of the second millennium BCE (e.g. Stöllner, 2011;Breitenlechner et al, 2014;Pernicka et al, 2016). In contrast, relatively few detailed palaeoenvironmental studies exist regarding prehistoric settlement development and early mining in the Eisenerz Alps and the Gesäuse area.…”

Early mining and smelting lead anomalies in geological archives as potential stratigraphic markers for the base of an early Anthropocene

“…However, Cu preserves a more local record (e.g. Breitenlechner et al, 2014; De Vleeschouwer et al, 2010) and a more complex depositional pathway in some of the archives, especially in peat bogs (e.g. Bobrov et al, 2011).…”