Neolithic flint mines near Spiennes

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Neolithic flint mines near Spiennes
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Spiennes flint mine (2008)
National territory: BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Type: K
Criteria : (i) (iii) (iv)
Surface: 172 ha
Reference No .: 1006
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 2000  (session 24)

The Neolithic flint mines near Spiennes in Spiennes , Belgium, are the largest known Neolithic flint mining complex .

They cover an area of ​​around 100  hectares with around 20,000 shafts. In Petit Spiennes the shaft density reaches 5000 on 16 hectares of land. The mines were used from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Their uniqueness was recognized by Unesco in 2000, when they were included in the World Heritage of Humanity. They are an outstanding example of the cultural and technical development of man and an extraordinary testimony to his ingenuity.

location

The flint deposit- Spiennes is located near the town of Mons on a silexknollenhaltigen chalk layer. This is partly covered by a 1.7 m thick layer of tertiary sand and a 3–4 m thick layer of alluvial loess. In the deeper areas, the loess thins out and the layer of chalk comes close to the surface. The silex present there, made from silicic acids, chemically predominantly SiO 2 , has a brownish-black color and encloses microfossils from the Cretaceous period . The discovery area can be roughly divided into three: “Camp à Cailloux” in the east, “Petit Spiennes” in the middle and the “Versant de la Wampe” mining area in the west. It extends south of the village of Spiennes. In the area there are also strike sites , an earthwork of the Michelsberg culture , a Bronze Age settlement, a Late Bronze Age settlement and an Iron Age settlement ( La Tène Ib to III). Grave fields have not yet been discovered. Even in the 19th century flints were not for flintlock guns dismantled and rezent chalk is broken for days.

Research excavation (2010)

Research history

The first shafts were discovered as early as 1867 when the railway line from Mons to Chimay was being built . After that, excavations were repeatedly undertaken in the area, especially by the “Société de Recherche préhistorique en Hainaut”. This digs regularly in the area to this day. Comprehensive publications were mainly published by François Hubert.

on the left the sunk shafts, on the right the opencast mining area (2008)

Find and findings situation

Artifact, worked flint blade (2015)

The mining of Spiennes went from near-day mardella mining to civil engineering when the near-day areas were exhausted and the Stone Age miners followed the deposit into the depths. The shafts have a diameter of 0.8–1.2 m, are up to 5.5 m apart and reach 8–16 m in depth. A system of routes starts from them, which is 1–2 m high and forms an extended duck building . The corridors were filled with the excavation from newly constructed routes and shafts.

A large number of flint fragments form the main genus. The work tool consisted of stone picks and deer antler shovels. Traces on the chalk rock still show the direction of impact today. In addition to tool finds, human skeletons and smashed skeletal remains were also found. The latter were interpreted either as a secondary burial or as a sign of cannibalism. Two chalk stones are noteworthy: one can be identified with traces of rope, it can be taken as evidence of a counterweight for the flint extraction; the other shows the likeness of a person.

chronology

The oldest Neolithic find from the area is a ceramic that dates to the end of the line ceramic . Other ceramic finds refer to the Michelsberg and Seine-Oise-Marne cultures . Calibrated C14 data from the wells refer to the year 3470 (± 75 y.) BC. BC, which corresponds to the beginning of the Michelsberg culture and the end of the linear ceramic band. The work was used continuously until 2300 BC. BC, that is to the end of the Neolithic and the Deûle-Escaut culture .

Trade relations

The raw flint was distributed within a radius of up to 50 km around Spiennes; the semi-finished and finished products, mainly ax heads and blanks, even within a radius of up to 160 km.

literature

  • Alfred de Loë: Belgique ancienne. Catalog descriptif et raisonné. Volume 1: Les âges de la pierre. Vromant, Bruxelles 1928.
  • Robert Shepherd: Prehistoric mining and allied industries . Academic Press, London et al. 1980, ISBN 0-12-639480-6 .
  • François Hubert: To the Silex mining of Spiennes . In: Gerd Weisgerber , Rainer Slotta , Jürgen Weiner (eds.): 5000 years of flint mining. The search for the steel of the Stone Age (=  publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum . Volume 77 ). 3rd, improved, enlarged and updated edition. German Mining Museum Bochum, Bochum 1999, ISBN 3-921533-66-X , p. 124-139 (French: L'exploitation préhistorique du silex à Spiennes .).
  • Leonhard Fober, Gerd Weisgerber: Flint mining - types and techniques . In: Gerd Weisgerber, Rainer Slotta, Jürgen Weiner (eds.): 5000 years of flint mining. The search for the steel of the Stone Age (=  publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum . Volume 77 ). 3rd, improved, enlarged and updated edition. German Mining Museum Bochum, Bochum 1999, ISBN 3-921533-66-X , p. 32-47 .
  • Hélène Collet, François Hubert, Claude Robert, Jean-Pierre Joris: The flint mines of Petit-Spiennes. In: Gabriele Körlin, Gerd Weisgerber (Hrsg.): Stone Age - Mining Age (= The cut. Supplement 19 = publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum. 148). Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-27-3 , pp. 67–71.
  • Clemens Lichter (Ed.): The Neolithic Age in Change. The "Michelsberg culture" and Central Europe 6000 years ago . Primus et al., Darmstadt et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-89678-852-8 .
  • Paul Wheeler: Ideology and context within the european flint-mining tradition . In: Alan Saville (Ed.): Flint and stone in the neolithic period (=  Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers . Volume 11 ). Oxbow Books, Oxford et al. 2011, ISBN 978-1-84217-420-3 , pp. 304-315 .

Web links

Commons : Spiennes Flint Mine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Wheeler: Ideology and context within the european flint-mining tradition . In: Alan Saville (Ed.): Flint and stone in the neolithic period (=  Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers . Volume 11 ). Oxbow Books, Oxford et al. 2011, ISBN 978-1-84217-420-3 , pp. 304-315, here p. 306 .
  2. ^ Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons). whc.unesco.org, accessed May 8, 2018 .
  3. ^ A b c Hélène Collet, François Hubert, Claude Robert, Jean-Pierre Joris: The flint mines of Petit-Spiennes. In: Gabriele Körlin, Gerd Weisgerber (Hrsg.): Stone Age - Mining Age (= The cut. Supplement 19 = publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum. 148). Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-27-3 , pp. 67–71, here p. 68.
  4. ^ A b c d e François Hubert: To the Silexbergbau von Spiennes . In: Gerd Weisgerber , Rainer Slotta , Jürgen Weiner (eds.): 5000 years of flint mining. The search for the steel of the Stone Age (=  publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum . Volume 77 ). 3rd, improved, enlarged and updated edition. German Mining Museum Bochum, Bochum 1999, ISBN 3-921533-66-X , p. 124-139 (French: L'exploitation préhistorique du silex à Spiennes .).
  5. ^ Helmut Wilsdorf : Cultural history of mining. An illustrated journey through times and continents . Verlag Glückauf, Essen 1987, ISBN 3-7739-0476-2 , p. 10-13 .
  6. ↑ Leonhard Fober, Gerd Weisgerber: flint mining - types and techniques . In: Gerd Weisgerber, Rainer Slotta, Jürgen Weiner (eds.): 5000 years of flint mining. The search for the steel of the Stone Age (=  publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum . Volume 77 ). 3rd, improved, enlarged and updated edition. German Mining Museum Bochum, Bochum 1999, ISBN 3-921533-66-X , p. 32–47, here p. 35 f . and Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes.
  7. ^ Hélène Collet, François Hubert, Claude Robert, Jean-Pierre Joris: The flint mines of Petit-Spiennes. In: Gabriele Körlin, Gerd Weisgerber (Hrsg.): Stone Age - Mining Age (= The cut. Supplement 19 = publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum. 148). Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-27-3 , pp. 67–71, here pp. 69 ff.
  8. ↑ datation - Mines de Spiennes. www.minesdespiennes.org, accessed May 8, 2018 (French).
  9. ^ Distribution du silex de Spiennes - Mines de Spiennes. www.minesdespiennes.org, accessed May 8, 2018 (French).

Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 12.6 "  N , 3 ° 58 ′ 55.8"  E