Lavria mines , Lavrion mines ( Greek Μεταλλεα Λαυρροο ) are mines in Greece , one of the largest silver deposits in the era of antiquity (silver-containing polymetallic ores ). The name was obtained by location - on Mount Lavrion or Lavry ( ancient Greek Λαύριον, Λαύρειον, Λαύρεον , Latin Laurium ) [1] , in the south-east of Attica , not far from Cape Sounion [2] [3] . The name Lavrion comes from ancient Greek. λαύρα “passage, gorge” and is associated with Lavria mines [4] .
Mineralization (the presence in the rock of ore minerals) is developed in the contact zone of marbles and shale with granodiorites , to a lesser extent confined to intrusions. There are mixed sulfide ores of lead, zinc, iron and copper. The main ore minerals are: silver-containing galena , sphalerite , pyrite , chalcopyrite , gersdorfite , marcasite and other sulphides. Many sites are enriched with silver [6] . Silver minerals on Lavrione are galena ( lead (II) sulfide ) and a mixture of cuprous sulfosalt tennantite (copper arsenide sulfide) and tetrahedrite (copper antimonide sulfide) —the so-called falorite [7] .
Ancient workings are marked on an area of about 200 square kilometers [6] . Currently, there are more than a thousand mine shafts and tunnels, reaching a depth of 119 meters (mostly 25-55 meters). Ancient trunks have a rectangular or square section of less than 2 meters in diameter, with very smooth walls. There are strictly vertical, twisted, zigzag, inclined trunks. Narrow galleries (50–60 cm wide, 60–90 cm high) with a total length of 120–150 km are located on six levels and occupy several dozen hectares. Mines belong to the classical period [7] [9] .
Operation of the Lavria mines began, apparently, at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. [10] (this beginning is confined to DeMouy Forik ), although there is no hard evidence of such early mining: its traces were destroyed during the development of mines in subsequent epochs. Lavrian mines were definitely already used in the early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) [6] . In 1954, the archaeologist Dimitrios Teokharis excavated an early Bronze Age copper-smelting furnace in Rafine , not far north of Lavrion. Lavria mines were the main source of copper in the late Bronze Age. During the Minoan period , silver, copper, and lead were mined and exported from the Lavria mines [7] .
From the VI century BC. e. Lavrian mines were owned by Ancient Athens [11] . The Lavrian mines belonged to the Athenian state, however they surrendered to private entrepreneurs by special officials on the delivery of state revenues, by flights ( ancient Greek πωλητής ). There were ten flights, one from each phylum. Inscriptions of flights from 367 to 307 BC have been preserved. e. containing the terms of the lease. The mines could be leased for a period of 3, 7 and 10 years. It was mainly from the silver of the Lavria mines that Athens minted a coin that had enjoyed great prestige in ancient and ancient Eastern states for centuries, most likely part of silver and lead was exported. Revenues from the mines of Lavria have long been the basis of the financial system of Athens. Part of the income went to the treasury, and part was distributed among the full Athenian citizens [11] [3] .
In the V century BC. e. rich ore deposits were discovered in the region of Maroney ( Μαρνεια , now Ayios Konstantinos ) [7] [12] . Before the beginning of the second Greek-Persian war , in 483 BC. e., the Athenian state had about one hundred talents (2.5 tons) of silver at its disposal. Herodotus reports that Themistokles proposed not to divide silver among citizens, but to build a fleet with these funds [9] . In 480 BC. e. At the Battle of Salamis, Athens had 200 triremes, each worth 2 talents, out of all 314 Greek ships. The victory at Salamis and, subsequently, the rise of Athens and the Union of Delos are a direct consequence of this decision [7] [13] .
The maximum level of production falls on the 5th — 4th centuries. BC e. BV — IV centuries. BC e. Lavria mines smelted at least several thousand tons of lead and 10 tons of silver annually [6] . The main labor in the mines of Lavria were slaves, whose numbers in the 5th — 4th centuries. BC e. estimated from 20 to 35 thousand people [11] . Sinking was carried out mainly with the help of bronze, and then mainly iron picks, hammers, chisels and wedges. Ha surface ore raised on wooden stairs in leather bags. Traces of dry and wet ore dressing have been found [7] . Ore smelting was carried out on site. Silver was extracted by cupellation [6] . In deep mines (up to 110 meters), slaves manually cut the rock, which was crushed and washed on the surface, then metal was smelted. Severe working conditions and a high concentration of slaves in the mines of Lavria led at the end of the second century BC. e. to one of the largest slave uprisings [3] . Athenaeus reports of a slave uprising in the 130s BC. e. [14]
At the direction of Xenophon, the annual income from the Lavrian mines during the Peloponnesian War was 1000 talents [15] [16] . After the Darthele captured by the Spartans during the Dekelean War (413 BC), many slave workers in the mines fled to the Spartan camp [9] . The defeat of Athens in the Peloponessian War was largely predetermined by their loss of control over Lavrion [7] .
In the IV — III centuries. BC e. mining in Lavria mines is reduced due to exhaustion, military operations in Attica and the inflow of treasures from conquered Persia, which made the extraction of local silver less relevant and profitable. In the I century BC. e. Athens is declining, revenues from the Lavria mines become insignificant, the mint works rarely, and the area is deserted [7] .
By the end of I century BC. e. the mines were exhausted, and the Athenians began smelting old slag to extract metal. In the I century AD e. Lavrian mines are abandoned [11] [3] . Strabo reports that the mines are completely exhausted, but it is still possible to extract some amount of pure silver from old slags and dumps [17] . Pausanias reports mines as being gone [18] .
Near Lavria mines, huge slag heaps and waste rock were found. The total volume of rock extracted to the surface is about 100 million tons [6] . According to experts, in Lavrion in ancient times about 1200 tons of silver and 400 thousand tons of lead were smelted [3] . There are traces of the later developments of the Roman time (II century BC. E. - V century BC. E.), a of the period of Byzantium (VI-XIII centuries) [6] . There are reports that silver from the mines of Lavria was used in the 6th century to decorate Hagia Sophia in Constantinople [7] .
Lavria mines in the XIX — XX centuries.
In 1860, mining engineer Andreas Kordelas ( Ανδρέας Κορδέλλαα , 1836-1909) visited Lavrion and wrote a note to the Ministry of Development of Greece about the possibility of processing ancient slags to extract silver [19] [7] .
Italian businessman Giovanni Battista Serpieri (1815–1887), the son of a Sardinian miner, visited the region of the Lavrian mines, met Cordelas and his report in October 1863, and founded Serpieri, Roux de Fraissinet in 1864 together with the banker Hilarió Roux , 1819–1898 from Marseille et cie. The company received a concession from the Ministry of Finance of Greece in April 1864 [19] . In 1865, the company Serpieri, Roux de Fraissinet et Cie resumed the production of metal on the basis of the ancient giant slag heaps [9] [3] . At the same time began archaeological research [9] [7] .
Serpieri, Roux de Fraissinet et Cie was the largest company in Greece at the time, employing 1,200 workers, there were 18 Spanish castellano type low shaft kilns, a large lathe workshop and its own locomotive [19] . The company was engaged in smelting silver-containing lead (60 thousand tons were produced) from slags and poor ores (850 thousand tons were processed) [7] .
But the company had only permission to develop new ore deposits, and not ancient slag. The political question about the slag of the Lavria mines, which occupied the Greek government and the parliament in 1869-1875, was called the “Lavriac” ( Λαυριακά ή Λαυρεωτικ ). The agreement was reached in 1873 under the premiere of Epaminondas Deligeorgis [20] , when Andreas Syngros from Constantinople bought the company and renamed it to The Lavrion Metallurgical Company. In 1875, Serpieri founded the French company Compagnie Française des Mines du Laurium [19] [21] [22] . The Serpieri company built a mine in Camariza (now Ayios Constandinos) [23] .
In the 19th century, 7 million tons of so-called waste rock and 1.5 million cubic meters of ancient slags were used to extract lead, silver and zinc from them [6] . The small village of Ergastiria grew to a city of 10,000 inhabitants [2] . In 1908 ( ΦΕΚ 28Α ) the city was renamed Lavrion [24] . Both companies owned houses and shops. They also took care of the schools and churches of the city, as well as pharmacies and hospital treatment for workers [19] .
The Greek company was the first in Greece to use electricity, telephone and other modern technologies. She also built the Lavrion-Ayi-Anariri railway (1882-18585). The company operated until 1917, when the ancient slags were exhausted [19] .
The French company worked until 1983, when it was sold to a British company that did not continue to mine metal [19] .
Notes
- ↑ Thucydides . Story. Ii. 55; Vi. 9
- ↑ 1 2 Lavrion // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1896. - T. XVII. - p. 213.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Laurus mines / A. Strelkov // Baptism of the Lord - Lastochkovye. - Moscow : The Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2010. - P. 553. - (The Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 tons.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004–2017, vol. 16). - ISBN 978-5-85270-347-7 .
- ↑ Τζεφέρης, Π. Πό πού πήρε το όνομά του το Λαύρ (ε) ιο (Greek) . Ελληνικός Ορυκτός Πλούτος (2 κτωβρροο 2015). The appeal date is August 5, 2018.
- ↑ Ardaillon, Edouard. Les Mines du Laurion dans l'Antiquité. - Paris: Fontemoing, 1897. - P. 14.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 EH Black. Lavrion Mines // Mountain Encyclopedia : [in 5 volumes]. - M .: " Soviet Encyclopedia ", 1984-1991. - ISBN 5-85270-007-X .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dolotov Yu. A. Spelestological survey of the Lavrion mining region (Greece) // Speleology and speleology. Collection of materials of the VI International Scientific Conference (To the 170th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society). - Naberezhnye Chelny: NGPU, 2015. - p . 232—247 . - ISBN 978-5-98452-130-7 .
- ↑ Daremberg Ch., Saglio E. Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines. T. 3. - Paris: Hachette, 1904. - Vol. 2. - P. 1850. - 1860 p.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Laurus mines // Dictionary of antiquity = Lexikon der Antike / Trans. with him. Editorial: V.I. Kuzishchin (otv. Ed.) And others. - M .: Progress, 1989. - 704 p. - ISBN 5-01-001588-9 .
- ↑ Erlich, Edward Natanovich. Lavrion - the field that created the Athenian democracy and brought victory in the Greco-Persian wars // Deposits and History. - SPb. : Publishing House of the Polytechnic University, 2006. - 174 p.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Lavria mines // Kuhn - Lomami. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - ( Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. Ed. AM Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, v. 14).
- ↑ Kuznetsov K. F., Panfilov R. V. Silver deposits // Ore deposits of the USSR: V 3 t. / Red. Acad. V.I. Smirnov. - M .: Nedra, 1974. - T. 3. - 471 p.
- ↑ Herodotus . Story. VII 144
- ↑ Athenaeus . Feast of the wise men. Iv. 272 E, F
- ↑ Xenophon . On income. four
- ↑ Xenophon . Anabasis. VII. 1. 27
- ↑ Strabo . Geography. III, 2, 9
- ↑ Pausanias . Description of Hellas. I, 1, 1
- 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Katerinopoulos, A. The Lavtion Mines // Natural Heritage from East / West / Evelpidou, N., de Figueiredo, T., Mauro, F., Tecim, V., Vassilopoulos, A. (( Eds.). - Heidelberg: Springer Verlag Berlin, 2010. - ISBN 918-3-642-01577-9.
- ↑ Deligeorgis // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1905. - T. ext. Ia. - p. 668.
- ↑ History (English) . Lavrion Technological & Cultural Park. The appeal date is August 4, 2018.
- ↑ Λαυρεωτικό ζήτημα (Greek) . EraNET (1998). The appeal date is August 4, 2018.
- Μεταλλευτικό Συγκρότημα Καμάριζας Λαυρίου (Greek) . Πουργείο Πολιτισμού και θλητισμο (2012). The appeal date is August 4, 2018.
- Γργαστήρια (Αττικής και Βοιωτίας) (Greek) . ΕΕΤΑΑ. The appeal date is August 4, 2018.
Literature
- Gluskin, Liya Mendelevna . Problems of the socio-economic history of Athens IV century BC: Special Course. - L .: Leningr. state ped. Inst them. A.I. Herzen. - T. 1975. - 179 p.
- Frolov, Edward Davidovich . Political Trends of the Treatise of Xenophon “On Incomes” // Problems of the Socio-Economic History of the Ancient World: Collection of Memories by Acad. A.I. Tyumenev / Acad. Sciences of the USSR. Separate ist. sciences. Institute of the Peoples of Asia; [Ed. College: Acad. V. V. Struve (prev.) Et al.]. - M .; L .: Publishing House Acad. Sciences of the USSR. [Leningr. Separation], 1963. - p. 212-219. - 375 s.
- Dovatur, Aristide Ivanovich . Slavery in Attica in the VI-V centuries. BC er / A.I. Dovatur; Ed. A. A. Neuhardt. - L .: Science: Leningrad. Separation, 1980. - 135 p.