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Aibunar—a Balkan copper mine of the fourth millennium BC: (Investigations of the years 1971, 1972 and 1974)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

E. N. Černych
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Extract

As a result of surveys carried out by the Bulgarian-Soviet archaeological expedition, Eneolithic copper mines were discovered in southern Bulgaria in October 1971. The most interesting of these mines, Aibunar, constitutes, without doubt, one of the rarest discoveries in the history of mining not only of Europe, but also of other parts of the Old World. In the same year, Jovanović published news of finds, unique for the Balkan peninsula, of characteristic Vinač pottery found together with a zoomorphic figurine at the Rudna Glava mine in north-eastern Serbia. On the basis of these finds, he suggested an Eneolithic date for the mine. However, the remains of ancient shafts at Rudna Glava were very small, and extensive and historically well-documented mining activities of the Classical Antiquity and the Medieval period made the dating of the extant areas of ancient mining very problematic.

In contrast to this, from the moment of its discovery, the large amounts of Eneolithic pottery of Karanovo VI—Gumelnitsa type and antler tools, which were found in the mine at Aibunar, and in particular the well-dated shafts were startling. Interest in Aibunar was further increased by the discovery of seven settlement sites in an area of 15 km around the mine, with Eneolithic layers containing more than 100 pieces of oxidic copper ore. Spectral analysis showed that these pieces of ore came from Aibunar.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 44 , December 1978 , pp. 203 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1978

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References

1. Černych, E. and Radunčeva, A.. Starite medni rudnici okolo gr. Stara Zagora. Archeologija 1, 1972Google Scholar.

2. Jovanović, B.. Metalurgija eneolitskog perioda v Jugoslavije. Beograd 1971, 18–21, Tab. IIIGoogle Scholar.

3. Ibid., 18; e.g. shafts No. 3 and No. 4 had a diameter of 40 to 60 cm and a length of not more than 3 m.

4. Davies, O.. Roman Mines in Europe. Oxford 1935Google Scholar; B. Jovanović, see (2), 18.

5. The results of the excavations (1970–1974) by M. Dimitrov of the museum at Stara Zagora are not yet published.

6. A very similar copper composition has not only been found in Bulgarian finds but also in those of the Karbuna hoard from Moldavia (Černych, E. N.. Istorija drevnejšej metallurgii Vostočnoj Evropy. Moscow 1966, 53–57, 115, 116Google Scholar, Tab. V).

7. From notes in his diaries which were kept by his brother's widow, Z. Azmanova.

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11. E. Černych and A. Radunčeva, see (1), 64, Fig. 5, 6.

12. The preliminary numbering of the mining sites indicated the sequence in which they were found and described. But as a result of the 1974 excavations they were re-numbered to indicate the positions of the mining sites relative to each other.

13. E. Černych and A. Radunčeva, see (1), 64, 65, Figs. 4–6.

14. This is not the final number. New mining sites could be situated beneath areas to be excavated in a north-easterly direction.

15. M. Čičikova. Nouvelles données sur la culture Thrace de l'époque du Hallstatt en Bulgarie du Sud. Thracia, Serdicae 1972, 79–100.

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18. The rock overhanging the opencast at the extreme south-western section is taken to be the beginning of the mining site (fig. 7 and 9). It is possible that a gallery existed which continued from herein a north-westerly direction.

19. Some of these stone slabs were preserved in situ in the profile of the excavation at the 18-m-point of the grid (fig. 8).

20. For instance the cemeteries around Varna (see Simeonova, Ch.T.. K-snoeneolitnijat nekropol kraj grad Devnja-Varnensko. Izvestija na narodnija muzej Varna VII (XXII), 3–40Google Scholar.

21. Vajsova, H.. Einige Fragen über die Chronologie der Gumelnita-Kultur. Studijne zvesti 17, Nitra 1969, 481–494, Fig. 2, 7–12Google Scholar.

22. H. Vajsova, see (21), 489, 493, Fig. 12.

23. E. Černych. Ai bunar—drevnejšij rudnik Evropy, see (10), 144.

24. Vulpe, A.. Inceputurile metalurgiei aramei ǐn Spatiul Carpato-Dunǎrean. SCIV 24, No. 2, 1973, 225, Fig. 3Google Scholar.

25. A. Vulpe, see (24), Fig. 2, 18, p. 228.

26. E. Černych. Ai bunar—drevnejšij rudnik Evropy, see (10), 144; the alteration of the numbering of the opencasts has to be taken into account here.

27. G. Konjarov, see (9), 9–12, Figs. 3, 4.

28. E. Sangmeister. The Copper of the Cemetery. Results of spectroanalytical investigations (Bognar-Kutzian, I., The Copper Age Cemetery of Tiszapolgar-Basatanya. Budapest 1963), 559Google Scholar; B. Jovanović, see (2), 22.

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Commentary note by C. Renfrew:

In the paper cited the case was firmly made, I think for the first time, for the independent invention of metallurgy in the copper age Balkans, including annealing, smelting from ores and casting in open moulds, the last being documented by Dr J. A. Charles's metallurgical examination of two shaft-hole tools. The predominance of objects of native copper was not asserted, although the use of native copper in many cases was argued, from the high purity of the copper documented by published trace-element analyses. I think the verdict still stands: “The conclusion must be that both native copper and copper smelted from its ores was used” (op. cit. p. 30). It is the great merit of the finds at Rudna Glava and now at Aibunar to document the hitherto unimagined scale of the ore extraction (by mining) in the Balkans copper age, whose precocity is further emphasised by the recent rich finds in the contemporary cemetery at Varna.

30. C. Renfrew, see (29), 30.

31. Hartmann, A. and Sangmeister, E.. The Study of Prehistoric Metallurgy. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition 11, No. 7, 1972, 624Google Scholar.

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33. Schubert, F.. Zu den südosteuropäischen Kupferäxten. Germania 43, H. 2, 1965Google Scholar.