Introduction

Figure 1.

Location of the four HiMAT key areas in prominent mining areas of the Eastern Alps: the Mitterberg (1) region in Salzburg, Kitzbühel/Kelchalpe (2b), Schwaz and Brixlegg (2a) in the Tyrol and the Montafon (3) in Vorarlberg. In addition, studies on Mesolithic transit routes should detect if they provide the basics for Neolithic ‘trade’ connections.

In prehistoric times the exploitation of copper ore deposits in the Eastern Alps led to complex technological developments. During the Bronze Age and again with the beginning of the later Middle Ages, technological know-how became more widespread, which enabled ore exploitation – particularly of copper and silver, respectively – at many different sites over a wide area. Consequently, local and supra-regional metal production territories were established during the second and first millennia BC and again between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries AD. The advanced pyrotechnical knowledge brought about the establishment of a large-scale techno-complex extending from the Grisons in eastern Switzerland to Upper Styria in eastern Austria. The conformity in the technology of mining and in metallurgical processes reveals an area with common economic ties, which suggests a co-operation in the form of logistical concepts. A detailed research of these features demands a regionally branched, diachronous approach structured to consider two main aspects: a spatial aspect with a classification of the mining ensemble, mining district and mining landscape, and a temporal aspect divided into sporadic, seasonal and year-round exploitation and production processes. In addition, the implementation of technological and economic concepts depends on regionally determined factors, such as the surrounding environment, transport routes and dissimilarities between ore deposits.

Figure 2.

These aspects of economic, cultural and environmental development in a mining area (according to Reference StöllnerStöllner 2003) provide the basis for the interdisciplinary network of the 13 project elements by experts in archaeology, archaeobotany, archaeometallurgy, archaeozoology, dendrology, ethnology, geodesy, history, linguistics, mineralogy and palaeoecology.

So far only some of these features have been studied in a few areas of the Eastern Alps, and our knowledge of the structure and organisation of the mining landscape in space and time is poor. This is mainly due to a lack of multidisciplinary research; if implemented, it can provide additional essential information on the turnover in ‘international trade’, on the environmental impact and on the depletion of the available resources. This is a long-needed desideratum in mining research and constitutes the major objectives of the ten-year research project HiMAT at Innsbruck University in Austria.

Methodology

The research goals outlined above demand a regional approach, which analyses the archaeological and historical source data according to a chronological time frame ranging from Neolithic to modern times, also including the very first beginnings of mineral use from Mesolithic times onwards. Therefore, the research strategy of HiMAT envisages time-vertical studies dealing with changes from a long-term perspective as well as time-horizontal studies dealing with selected important periods of mining. Both types of study are conducted in specific key areas (Figure 1) in the course of an interdisciplinary network of researchers based at the University of Innsbruck cooperating with international experts from the Universities of Basel, Bochum, Frankfurt and Tübingen, as well as from the German Mining Museum in Bochum.

Figure 3.

Key area 1: Mitterberg provides excellent conditions for studying primary copper production stages. Top: 3D-visualisation of a Bronze Age mine in the Arthurstollen (after G. G. Steffens, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum). Bottom: working stage and mine timbering in the deep mine part of the Arthurstollen (Photograph: P. Thomas, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum).

Figure 4.

Key area 2a: In ‘Schwaz/Brixlegg’ valuable archaeological, historical and ethnographic data for mining are available. They enable the establishment of an analogue for mining in early modern times by mutual validation of historical, linguistic, ethnological and palaeoecological data, which later will be applied to prehistoric times. In the centre of the image recent pollen-analytical results from the bog ‘Koglmoos’ are shown and major anthropogenic impact on vegetation is correlated with historically documented settlement activities shown on the left side of the image (land register map: Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen) and forest cultivation on the right side (Bartels et al. 2006).

Figure 5.

Key area 2a: ‘Schwaz Brixlegg’: Schwarzenberg-Moos. Late Bronze Age ore processing site (crushing and washing area) with a well preserved wooden construction. Embedded in the environmental archive of a peat deposit, this site delivers excellent material for archaeological, mineralogical, archaeobotanical and dendrochronological analyses as well as for 3D modelling.

Figure 6.

Key area 3: Bartholomäberg, Montafon. Reconstruction of the Bronze Age fortified settlement ‘Friaga Wald’ based on digital topographic mapping and records from archaeological excavations. It becomes apparent that there was a hierarchy of Bronze Age settlements in the Montafon, which indicates a structured society with a governing leadership that probably held control over mining and metal production (3D-model by Martin Schaich, ArcTron Dokumentation).

During the first four-year phase of HiMAT (2007–2010), the origin, rise, and fall of mining districts north of the main Alpine ridge will be studied. Four key sites (Figure 1) provide excellent preconditions to evaluate crucial factors of the production domains (Figure 2) and opportunities to define these along chronological and functional criteria. In order to understand the nature of the compound interdependence of prehistoric metallurgists, comparative studies between these mining areas will be conducted in cooperation between experts in archaeology, archaeobotany, archaeometallurgy, archaeozoology, dendrology, ethnology, geodesy, history, linguistics, mineralogy and palaeoecology. Figures 3 – 6 exemplify the ongoing interdisciplinary research.

In the second phase (3 years), the studies will be extended to mining areas south of the main Alpine ridge. In this way, a representative area of investigation will be made available to study large-scale problems in aspects of socio-economy (trade connections, subsistence strategies) and environment (human and climate interrelationships, limitation of natural resources).

In the third and final phase (3 years), long-term changes brought about by the impact of mining and its causalities will be observed and analysed using the dataset compiled during the previous phases in order to detect cycles and their causal processes (socio-economic or climatic impact) in the interrelationship between man and environment.