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Iron Age Gold Mining: A Preliminary Report on Camps in the Al Maraziq Region, Yemen
Author(s) -
MALLORYGREENOUGH LEANNE,
GREENOUGH JOHN D.,
FIPKE CHARLES
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
arabian archaeology and epigraphy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.384
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1600-0471
pISSN - 0905-7196
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2000.aae110207.x
Subject(s) - archaeology , geology , volcano , period (music) , smelting , ancient history , caldera , mining engineering , gold mining , geochemistry , geography , history , metallurgy , physics , materials science , acoustics
Ancient geologists in Yemen and Egypt recognized that quartz veins surrounding caldera‐collapse complexes (exhumed explosive volcanoes) were gold bearing and actively sought out these geologic environments. Rock hammerstones, anvils and grinders are found in camps on both sides of the Red Sea, indicating that mining and metallurgical extraction technology and knowledge were also widespread during the Iron Age. The technology and overall layout of the Yemen sites is equivalent with New Kingdom to Late Period Egyptian sites, and there is no evidence of smelting, which is a Greco‐Roman Period development. It is not known who controlled the Yemen mines, but the large number of adits in the Al Maraziq area suggests that these gold mines may have been important to local, regional and possibly international economies.