Roşia Montană – Short Outline of the History of Important Mining Site and Mining Map of Roşia Montană

Ivan Rous

Archeologia technica, vol. 28 (2017)
Pages: 10–26
Language: Czech
Type of article: scientific article
DOI: n/a

Abstract:
Roșia Montană is a world-important area of Roman gold mining and most likely it is also true for the Middle Ages period. Lack of knowledge about history of this place in the Early Middle Ages results from minimum of researches focused on this period and tendency to pay attention only to the Dacian and Roman Eras. The same rule is valid also for the Modern Period and industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries. There was no archival background research complied for Roșia Montană, bibliography or a list of archaeological findings. The same applies to a simple categorization galleries and other mining relics. It arises from the national origin of authors of studies (Germans, French, Romanians, Hungarians, Czechs, British etc.) and from until recently active mining. The situation is also complicated by possibility of new open cast mining against which the people in Romania and other European countries make protests. The threat of mining was a cause for an archaeological research which was conducted in 1999-2002 in the Roman gelleries but it was related only to the selected areas. The area research has not been done yet and presumably, it is not even planned in the near future. Naturally, a wide range of historical mining work and related to that financial demand factor hold the research back. Therefore, the current state cannot be described as a conservation state which will be suitable till the problems with mining are solved. On the contrary, devastation continues due to unsecured entries and mineral collectors who plunder the underground in a wide range together with sampling work of the mining company. One of prospects is to declare it a UNESCO World Heritage Site or do a very improbable area research which should precede eventual modern mining.