Melting, smelting, and recycling: A regional study around the Late Bronze Age mining site of Prigglitz-Gasteil, Lower Austria.

This paper presents a study on copper production and distribution in Lower Austria's southeastern region during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1350-800 BC), with the focal point being the chemistry and isotopic character of artifacts from a small copper mining site at Prigglitz-Gasteil on the Eastern Alps' easternmost fringe. Ores, casting cakes, and select objects from the Late Bronze Age mining site at Prigglitz-Gasteil, Lower-Austria, and within 15 km of its surroundings, were chemically and isotopically analysed using XRF, NAA, and MC-ICPMS. The importance of Prigglitz-Gasteil as a local mining and metal processing center is evaluated based on the produced data, and the distribution and sourcing of copper-producing materials found at the site are discussed. Special attention is paid to the mixing of scrap and source materials early in the metal production process. The most salient discussions focus on the variability of the chemistry and Pb isotopic ratios of the studied objects, which seem to constitute a multitude of source materials, unlike the pure chalcopyrite-source copper produced from the Prigglitz-Gasteil mine itself. The analytical data suggests that copper alloys were mainly imported from materials originating in the Slovakian Ore Mountains, which were subsequently mixed/recycled with relatively pure locally produced copper. The purity of the copper from Prigglitz-Gasteil was fortuitous in identifying imported copper that contained measurable amounts of Pb and other chemically distinct characteristics. The chaîne opératoire of metal production at the site is mentioned; however, it is clear that additional information on the region's geochemistry is required before any finite conclusions on the ore-to-metal production can be made.

Copper to Tuscany - Coals to Newcastle? The dynamics of metalwork exchange in early Italy.

The paper discusses results of an interdisciplinary research project integrating lead isotope, chemical, and archaeological analysis of 20 early metal objects from central Italy. The aim of the research was to develop robust provenance hypotheses for 4th and 3rd millennia BC metals from an important, yet hitherto neglected, metallurgical district in prehistoric Europe, displaying precocious copper mining and smelting, as well as socially significant uses of metals in 'Rinaldone-style' burials. All major (and most minor) ore bodies from Tuscany and neighbouring regions were characterised chemically and isotopically, and 20 Copper Age axe-heads, daggers and halberds were sampled and analysed. The objects were also reassessed archaeologically, paying special attention to find context, typology, and chronology. This multi-pronged approach has allowed us to challenge received wisdom concerning the local character of early metal production and exchange in the region. The research has shown that most objects were likely manufactured in west-central Italy using copper from Southern Tuscany and, quite possibly, the Apuanian Alps. A few objects, however, display isotopic and chemical signatures compatible with the Western Alpine and, in one case, French ore deposits. This shows that the Copper Age communities of west-central Italy participated in superregional exchange networks tying together the middle/upper Tyrrhenian region, the western Alps, and perhaps the French Midi. These networks were largely independent from other metal displacement circuits in operation at the time, which embraced the north-Alpine region and the south-eastern Alps, respectively.

The status of imported Barremian-Bedoulian flint in north-eastern Iberia during the Middle Neolithic. Insights from the variscite mines of Gavà (Barcelona).

Barremian-Bedoulian flint from the Vaucluse region (western Provence, SE France), is traditionally considered one of the most significant chrono-cultural markers of the Chasséen culture during the Middle Neolithic (end of the 5th and beginning of the 4th millennium BC). Diffusion of Provençal flints became massive during the first half of the 4th millennium BC, penetrating in several neighbouring cultural spheres such as the Sepulcros de Fosa culture in north-eastern Iberia. The integrated study of the lithic assemblages from the variscite mines of Gavà (Barcelona) and its contextualization within the Sepulcros de Fosa culture in north-eastern Iberia have revealed unexpected complexity in the modes of consumption, use and status of imported Barremian-Bedoulian industries in north-eastern Iberia during the 5th to 4th millennia cal. BC transition. Local communities within this region, already controlling extraction and regional diffusion of variscite ornaments, exerted control over the fluxes of Vauclusian flint south of the Pyrenees, where it had a triple status (functional, symbolic and both). In addition, the results provide complementary data to better understand relevant aspects of the nature and organisation of Barremian-Bedoulian flint exploitation and early supply systems at the Provençal producing sites during the later phase of the Chasséen culture.

Exceptionally high levels of lead pollution in the Balkans from the Early Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution.

The Balkans are considered the birthplace of mineral resource exploitation and metalworking in Europe. However, since knowledge of the timing and extent of metallurgy in southeastern Europe is largely constrained by discontinuous archaeological findings, the long-term environmental impact of past mineral resource exploitation is not fully understood. Here, we present a high-resolution and continuous geochemical record from a peat bog in western Serbia, providing a clear indication of the extent and magnitude of environmental pollution in this region, and a context in which to place archaeological findings. We observe initial evidence of anthropogenic lead (Pb) pollution during the earliest part of the Bronze Age [∼3,600 years before Common Era (BCE)], the earliest such evidence documented in European environmental records. A steady, almost linear increase in Pb concentration after 600 BCE, until ∼1,600 CE is observed, documenting the development in both sophistication and extent of southeastern European metallurgical activity throughout Antiquity and the medieval period. This provides an alternative view on the history of mineral exploitation in Europe, with metal-related pollution not ceasing at the fall of the western Roman Empire, as was the case in western Europe. Further comparison with other Pb pollution records indicates the amount of Pb deposited in the Balkans during the medieval period was, if not greater, at least similar to records located close to western European mining regions, suggestive of the key role the Balkans have played in mineral resource exploitation in Europe over the last 5,600 years.

Las fotografías de California de Rafael Castro Ordóñez, miembro de la Expedición Científica del Pacífico (1862-1866): discurso y circulación / Rafael Castro, photographer and chronicler of the 'Expedition Científica del Pacífico' (1862-1866) and his vision of California

En octubre de 1863 Rafael Castro y Ordóñez, artista y fotógrafo de la Comisión Científica del Pacífico, viajó junto al naturalista Francisco de Paula Martínez y Sáez por el estado de California. La Comisión acompañaba una expedición militar y política de corte panhispanista. Fruto de aquel viaje el artista produjo una veintena de fotografías, dibujos y varias cartas que se publicarían en la revista El Museo Universal. Fotografías y crónicas del viaje conforman un corpus de excepcional valor que permite reconstruir el proyecto y su fabricación de una nueva imagen de América tras la independencia de las antiguas colonias y la irrupción de los Estados Unidos como potencia emergente. Este trabajo analiza este discurso y cómo se articuló con relación a este recién incorporado territorio de los Estados Unidos. A lo largo del estudio se revelarán varios fenómenos interesantes, como la ruptura ocasional del discurso, la circulación de las fotografías más allá del contexto de la Expedición o las conexiones de este viaje de exploración con el fenómeno del turismo (AU)

In October 1863, Rafael Castro y Ordóñez, artist and photographer of the Comisión Científica del Pacífico, traveled across the State of California in the company of naturalist Francisco de Paula Martínez y Sáez. The Comisión was associated with a pan-Hispanic military and political expedition. As a result of the expedition the artist produced around twenty photographs, drawings, and several letters that were ultimately published by the Spanish pictorial magazine El Museo Universal. Both his photographs and travel accounts make up an exceptionally valuable body of knowledge allowing to reconstruct not only the Comisión project but also its attempt at portraying a new image of America following the independence of Spain’s former colonies and the ascent of the United States as a world power. This paper analyzes both this discourse and its expression in relation to California, a then recently incorporated US territory. Several interesting phenomena, including occasional breaches in the discourse, the circulation of photographs beyond the expedition’s context, and the connections of this exploration journey with tourism, will be unveiled in the course of the present study (AU)

Gregorius Agricola memorial lecture: Lung cancer-A work-related disease for 500 years, as predicted by Agricola.

In the early 16th century Gregorius Agricola reported on Bergsucht (miner's consumption) in mine workers in the Erzgebirge. About 350 years later, Härting and Hesse reported on large numbers of lung cancers among the mine-workers in the same mine district, thus confirming that Bergsucht primarily was lung cancer, but could also have been pnumoconiosis or tuberculosis or a combination of both. Mining for bismuth continued another 75 years--through World War II. Bismuth mining was replaced by large scale uranium mining from the late 1940 through 1989, employing some 400-450,000 workers, resulting in the major local epidemic of work-related cancer larger than anywhere in the world, so far amounting to ± 14-15,000 cases. Had the mine developers listened to the warnings by Agricola and Härting and Hesse, the epidemic could have been prevented.

[Lead poisoning: towards a paleo-epidemiologic re-interpretation?]. / Saturnisme: vers une reconnaissance paléoépidémiologique?

Lead is a major public health issue. Its use has been increasing since Neolithic times, climaxing in the Ancient Rome and the nineteenth century. Defining the frequency of plumbism before modern times proves to be a difficult matter because of its various and delayed symptoms, and of diagenetic processes affecting bones. After reviewing various methods of lead measurement in bone and tooth, we will expose ways to ascertain lead measurement interpretation in order to estimate the epidemiology of plumbism in ancient times.

The end of cheap uranium.

Historic data from many countries demonstrate that on average no more than 50-70% of the uranium in a deposit could be mined. An analysis of more recent data from Canada and Australia leads to a mining model with an average deposit extraction lifetime of 10±2 years. This simple model provides an accurate description of the extractable amount of uranium for the recent mining operations. Using this model for all larger existing and planned uranium mines up to 2030, a global uranium mining peak of at most 58±4 ktons around the year 2015 is obtained. Thereafter we predict that uranium mine production will decline to at most 54±5 ktons by 2025 and, with the decline steepening, to at most 41±5 ktons around 2030. This amount will not be sufficient to fuel the existing and planned nuclear power plants during the next 10-20 years. In fact, we find that it will be difficult to avoid supply shortages even under a slow 1%/year worldwide nuclear energy phase-out scenario up to 2025. We thus suggest that a worldwide nuclear energy phase-out is in order. If such a slow global phase-out is not voluntarily effected, the end of the present cheap uranium supply situation will be unavoidable. The result will be that some countries will simply be unable to afford sufficient uranium fuel at that point, which implies involuntary and perhaps chaotic nuclear phase-outs in those countries involving brownouts, blackouts, and worse.

[The workers health and the Tropical Oil Company. Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940]. / La salud de los trabajadores y la Tropical Oil Company. Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940.

This article analyses the health of workers engaged in oil exploration and exploitation in Colombia during the time of the so-called De Mares concession from 1916 to 1940. Periodisation was constructed which sought to account for yellow fever and tropical diseases within the sanitary situation related to oil exploration and exploitation during this period and region and how it became displaced from its central position by accidentally. The initial period was characterised by the lack of protection to which the workers were subjected at the start of oil-producing activities between 1916 and 1920. The second period was defined by implementing means of protection within the framework of a labour dispute accompanied by the sanitary problem's great burden between 1921 and 1928. The third period (1929 to 1940) dealt with entrepreneurial initiative becoming consolidated so as to make health become a control device, even though this was accompanied by the persistence of important labour disputes in which accidentality had a notable presence. Aspects are identified which should be gone into in greater depth for characterising oil-workers' health at the time of the De Mares concession.

La salud de los trabajadores y la Tropical Oil Company: Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940 / The workers health and the Tropical Oil Company Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940

El artículo presenta un análisis sobre la salud de los trabajadores en los procesos de exploración y explotación petrolera adelantados en el país en la denominada Concesión de Mares, entre 1916 y 1940. Se construyó una periodización que busca dar cuenta del lugar de la problemática de la Fiebre Amarilla y las enfermedades tropicales en la situación sanitaria de la actividad petrolera en este periodo y región, pasando de ocupar un lugar central a ser desplazadas por la accidentalidad. El periodo inicial se caracteriza por la desprotección a que se ven sometidos los trabajadores al comienzo de las actividades productivas petroleras, entre 1916 y 1920; el segundo periodo se define por la implementación de medidas de protección, en el marco de un conflicto laboral con un gran peso de la problemática sanitaria, entre 1921 y 1928; y en el tercer periodo se consolida la iniciativa empresarial para hacer de la salud un dispositivo de control, pero que se acompaña de la persistencia de conflictos laborales importantes en que la accidentalidad tiene una presencia notoria, entre 1929 y 1940. Finalmente se identifican aspectos a profundizar para una caracterización de la configuración de la salud de los trabajadores petroleros en la Concesión de Mares.

This article analyses the health of workers engaged in oil exploration and exploitation in Colombia during the time of the so-called De Mares concession from 1916 to 1940. Periodisation was constructed which sought to account for yellow fever and tropical diseases within the sanitary situation related to oil exploration and exploitation during this period and region and how it became displaced from its central position by accidentally. The initial period was characterised by the lack of protection to which the workers were subjected at the start of oil-producing activities between 1916 and 1920. The second period was defined by implementing means of protection within the framework of a labour dispute accompanied by the sanitary problem's great burden between 1921 and 1928. The third period (1929 to 1940) dealt with entrepreneurial initiative becoming consolidated so as to make health become a control device, even though this was accompanied by the persistence of important labour disputes in which accidentality had a notable presence. Aspects are identified which should be gone into in greater depth for characterising oil-workers' health at the time of the De Mares concession.

Atmospheric pollutants in alpine peat bogs record a detailed chronology of industrial and agricultural development on the Australian continent.

Two peat bogs from remote alpine sites in Australia were found to contain detailed and coherent histories of atmospheric metal pollution for Pb, Zn, Cu, Mo, Ag, As, Cd, Sb, Zn, In, Cr, Ni, Tl and V. Dramatic increases in metal deposition in the post-1850 AD portion of the cores coincide with the onset of mining in Australia. Using both Pb isotopes and metals, pollutants were ascribed to the main atmospheric pollution emitting sources in Australia, namely mining and smelting, coal combustion and agriculture. Results imply mining and metal production are the major source of atmospheric metal pollution, although coal combustion may account for up to 30% of metal pollutants. A novel finding of this study is the increase in the otherwise near-constant Y/Ho ratio after 1900 AD. We link this change to widespread and increased application of marine phosphate fertiliser in Australia's main agricultural area (the Murray Darling Basin).

Epidemiological studies of lung carcinoma incidence in uranium miners (accumulation and retrospective use of diagnostic data).

The paper attracts attention to the question of accumulation and retrospective use of diagnostic data in the early epidemiological studies of lung carcinoma incidence in uranium miners in Schneeberg, Saxony, and in Jáchymov (Joachimsthal), Bohemia.

Bioavailability of tungsten and associated metals in calcareous soils in the vicinity of an ancient metalliferous mine in the Corbières area, southwestern France.

The mobility and bioavailability of tungsten and associated metals are examined in calcareous soils and subsequent bioaccumulation by four species of plants is determined. Apparent bioavailability of metalliferous cations indicated by accepted monitoring methods and actual bioaccumulation is compared using regression analysis. Two soil extraction procedures were used without significant correlation between the methods at all stages, with the exception of copper and arsenic. More importantly, perhaps, the bioaccumulation by various tissues of Buxus sempervirens did not significantly correlate for the majority of target metals for each extraction procedure. Possible accumulation of toxic cations by a dying tree species was also examined. The availability of tungsten and associated metals in calcareous soils was compared with previous investigations on acidic soils, resulting in confirmation that tungsten in particular, in naturally occurring ores, is more readily mobilized under alkaline conditions.

Seven thousand years of records on the mining and utilization of metals from lake sediments in central China.

A 268 cm section of sediment core from Liangzhi Lake in Hubei province in central China was used to assess the use and accumulation of metals in the lake in the past 7,000 years. The concentrations of trace metals, including Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn, and major elements, Ca, Fe, and Mg, in a 14C- dated segment of sediment core were analyzed. Historical trends on the input of metals to Liangzhi Lake from around 5000 BC to the present were recorded in the sediments, representing about 7,000 years of history on the mining and utilization of metals in central China. The concentrations of Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn increased gradually from about 3000 +/- 328 BC, indicating the start of the Bronze Age in ancient China. During the period 467 +/- 257 to 215 +/- 221 AD, there was a rapid increase in the concentrations of these metals in the sediments, indicating enormous inputs of these metals at that time. This era corresponded to China's Warring States Period (475- 221 BC) and the early Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), during which copper and lead were extensively used in making bronze articles such as vessels, tools, and weapons. From 1880 +/- 35 AD to the early 1900s, there was also a significant increase in the concentrations of metals such as Cu, Ni, and Pb, which probably reflected the metal emissions and utilization during the early period of industrial development and weapon manufacture during the wars in China. The Pb isotopic analysis showed that the surface and subsurface sediments had lower 206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/ 207Pb ratios than the deeper layers, reflecting the additional input of Pb from mining activities that took place during the Bronze Age era and in modern times. This study provides direct evidence of the environmental impact of the mining and utilization of metals in the last 7,000 years in one of the important regions of Chinese civilization.

Impact of millennial mining activities on sediments and microfauna of the Tinto River estuary (SW Spain).

In this paper, we analyze two short cores collected in the Tinto estuary (SW Spain), and describe the palaeoenvironmental evolution of this area during the last two millennia, along with the influence of historical mining activities and recent industrial pollution on sediments and microfauna (foraminifera and ostracoda). Although there were no significant changes in the distribution of microorganisms, a first pollution period (0-150 AD) was recorded in high sediment pollution by Cu in the shallow palaeochannels of the middle estuary. During this period and the following 1700 years, tolerant pioneer species of both foraminifera and ostracoda were found predominantly in the inner, protected areas of the estuary, while the bottom sediments were subjected to high hydrodynamic gradients, and consequently showed lower density and diversity of organisms. In the last 150 years, acid mine drainage processes, introduction of a new mining period, and the polluted inputs derived from two industrial processes resulted in increased heavy metal contamination of the bottom sediments, and corresponding extirpation of ostracodes and restriction of foraminifers to the inner zones of the estuary.