The traces of roman metallurgy in Eastern Serbia

Abstract

The archaeological traces of the Roman mining and metallurgy in eastern Serbia are rather frequent but insufficiently studied and published. Three mining-metallurgical regions abounding in gold, silver, copper, iron and lead could be distinguished there: 1. the upper course of the Pek river, metalla Pincensia, 2. the area between Bor, Zlot, Crna Reka and Rgotina and 3. the area in the river basin of Beli Timok, two latter ones had been organized as territoria metallorum. The archeometallurgical sites confirmed by investigations are: Kraku lu Jordan at the confluence of the Brodica river and the Pek river, Rudna Glava, Tilva Roš in Bor, Gamzigrad - Romuliana, Rgotina near Zaječar and Timacum Minus in the village Ravna near Knjaževac. Roman mining-metallurgical activities in eastern Serbia flourished from the end of the 3rd century, were interrupted by the invasion of Huns in AD 441. and restored in the time of emperors Anastasius and Justin I, in the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. The Roman mining-metallurgical centers functioned in the 6th century until the Slav invasion in the beginning of the 7th century

Use of enzymatic tools for biomonitoring inorganic pollution in aquatic sediments: a case study (Bor, Serbia)

“…TE loadings in sediments accurately reflect pollution history [44], but, as shown in the present study, they may fail to disclose the recent status of aquatic pollution. One plausible explanation for such high TE accumulation in aquatic sediments may be related to the disaffected Roman mines from the Ravna River Basin and the upper course of the Pek River, such as those uncovered at Donja Bela Reka [45]. …”

Environmental impact of mining activity in Bor area as indicated by the distribution of heavy metals and bacterial population dynamics in sediment

“…Both rivers flow north to south, passing nearby major sources of inorganic contamination; the Bor River passes nearby the Bor open pit mine and the Kriveljska River passes nearby the Krivelj open pit mine. The fifth sampling point (S5) is the Ravna River; although this water stream was not affected by anthropic pollution during the past decades or so, there is strong evidence to suggest this site was also exposed to inorganic contamination during the Roman Empire (Petković, 2009). …”

“…As a result, the Bor River, which collects the water from most water streams in this region, is one of the most contaminated rivers in Europe (Simić, 2007;Petrović et al, 2013) being exposed to long-term inorganic contamination (Petković, 2009).…”

Blood lead levels in children living close to the antimony and lead mining-milling-smelting complex in Serbia

“…In a number of countries, results have been published from the surveys of biological monitoring of children's BLLs [10][11][12][13]. Some relevant investigations have, also, been carried out in children living around point-sources of lead pollution [14][15][16].…”