gold in georgia ii: the oldest gold mine in the world

Herausgeber: nsal Yaln

Bochum 2011

Anatolian Metal V

Der Anschnitt

Herausgeber:Vereinigung der Freunde von Kunst und Kultur im Bergbau e.V.

Vorsitzender des Vorstandes:Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Tnjes

Vorsitzender des Beirats:Bergassessor Dipl.-Kfm. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Achim Middelschulte

Geschftsfhrer:Museumsdirektor Prof. Dr. phil. Rainer Slotta

Schriftleitung (verantwortlich):Dr. phil. Andreas Bingener M.A.

Editorial Board:Dr.-Ing. Siegfried Mller, Prof. Dr. phil. Rainer Slotta; Dr. phil. Michael Farrenkopf

Wissenschaftlicher Beirat:Prof. Dr. Jana Gerlov, Ostrava; Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Ludwig, Bremen; Prof. Dr. Thilo Rehren, London; Prof. Dr. Klaus Tenfel-de (), Bochum; Prof. Dr. Wolfhard Weber, Bochum

Layout: Karina Schwunk

ISSN 0003-5238

Anschrift der Geschftsfhrung und der Schriftleitung:Deutsches Bergbau-Museum BochumAm Bergbaumuseum 28, D-44791 BochumTelefon (02 34) 58 77 112/124Telefax (02 34) 58 77 111http://www.bergbaumuseum.de

Montanhistorische ZeitschriftDer ANSCHNITT. Beiheft 24= Verffentlichungen aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Nr. 180

titelbild

Alacahyk gehrt zu den wichtigsten prhistorischen Stdten in Anatolien. Besonders berhmt sind die frhbronzezeitlichen Fr-stengrber mit ihren zahlreichen Grabbeigaben aus Gold, Silber und Bronze, darunter die frhesten Eisenfunde Anatoliens. Zum Grabinventar zhlten auch zahlreiche bronzene Sonnenstandar-ten und Tierfiguren. Im Vordergrund ist eine dieser Sonnenstan-darten zu sehen. Sie dient heute als Symbol des Kultur- und Tou-rismusministeriums der Trkei. Im Hintergrund ist eine schroffe Landschaft bei Derekutuun, Kreis Bayat, Provinz orum zu sehen. In Derekutuun wurde seit dem 5. Jt. v. Chr. gediegenes Kupfer bergmnnisch gewonnen. Im Vordergrund ist eine der prhistorischen Strecken abgebildet. Fotos stammen von Herausgeber.

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Vorwort 9

Gruwort 11

Rainer Slotta & Andreas HauptmannRobertMaddinandtheDeutschesBergbau-MuseumBochum 13

James D. MuhlyRobertMaddin:AnAppreciation 17

Mehmet zdoanTheDynamicsofCulturalChangeinAnatolia 21

H. Gnl YalnDieKaraz-KulturinOstanatolien 31

Ulf-Dietrich SchoopamlbelTarlas,einmetallverarbeitenderFundplatzdesviertenJahrtausendsv.Chr.imnrdlichenZentralanatolien 53

Horst KlengelHandelmitLapislazuli,TrkisundKarneolimaltenVorderenOrient 69

Metin Alparslan & Meltem Doan-AlparslanSymbolderewigenHerrschaft:MetallalsGrundlagedeshethitischenReiches 79

nsal Yaln & Hseyin CevizoluEineArchaischeSchmiedewerkstattinKlazomenai 85

Martin Bartelheim, Sonja Behrendt, Blent Kzlduman, Uwe Mller & Ernst PernickaDerSchatzaufdemKnigshgel,Kaleburnu/Galinoporni,Zypern 91

Hristo Popov, Albrecht Jockenhvel & Christian GroerAdaTepe(Ost-Rhodopen,Bulgarien):SptbronzezeitlicherltereisenzeitlicherGoldbergbau 111

Tobias L. KienlinAspectsoftheDevelopmentofCastingandForgingTechniquesfromtheCopperAgetotheEarlyBronzeAgeofEasternCentralEuropeandtheCarpathianBasin 127

Svend HansenMetal in south-eastern and central europe between 4500 and 2900 Bce 137

Evgeny N. Chernykheurasian steppe Belt: radiocarbon chronology and Metallurgical Provinces 151

Andreas Hauptmann Gold in Georgia i: scientific investigations into the composition of Gold 173

Thomas Stllner & Irina GambashidzeGold in Georgia ii: the Oldest Gold Mine in the World 187

Khachatur Meliksetian, Steffen Kraus, Ernst Pernicka Pavel Avetissyan, Seda Devejian & Levron PetrosyanMetallurgy of Prehistoric Armenia 201

Nima Nezafati, Ernst Pernicka & Morteza Momenzadehearly tin-copper Ore from iran, a Posssible clue for the enigma of Bronze Age tin 211

Thomas Stllner, Zeinolla Samaschev, Sergej Berdenov , Jan Cierny , Monika Doll, Jennifer Garner, Anton Gontscharov, Alexander Gorelik, Andreas Hauptmann, Rainer Herd, Galina A. Kusch, Viktor Merz, Torsten Riese, Beate Sikorski & Benno Zickgraftin from Kazakhstan steppe tin for the West? 231

Autorenliste 253

187

Abstract

This study is focussed on the prehistoric gold mine of Sakdrissi and the contemporaneous settlements in the surrounding. It gives a short overview about five years of field work in the Sakdrissi and Balitshi-Dzedzvebi ar-eas in the Mashavera-valley. The main focus was the reconstruction of the temporal, cultural and technological circumstances of the gold-mining and gold-ore-process-ing. According to the results in Sakdrissi and in the set-tlement of Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, we are able to reconstruct the complete chane opratoire on basis of archaeo-logical and experimental approaches. This several step process was highly economic and allowed the rise of a large Kura-Araxes community that obviously was in far-distant exchange with other 4th and early 3rd millennium societies. In the contrary it remains in secrecy to which extend gold was exported and which ritual significance it had in the local Kura Araxes communities.

Introduction

The exploitation of gold always has raised many ques-tions in prehistoric archaeology and still does: tracking back the sources of ancient gold is difficult as the strong geochemical devices such as the isotopic composition have been applied to artefacts only seldom in recent time. It remains elusive until to today where the gold has come from for the particularly rich gold complexes of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods a long time before we have positive evidence for also Egyptian Gold Mining respectively. One should either not forget that evidencing wash gold as the source most probable also has its own problems: there is the enrichment of heavy metals such as tin and silver in placer deposits. Whilst such sources are often exploited completely it is difficult to compare them with rock gold deposits. Beside the geochemical methods there is the other way of using archaeological sources: But gold mines are dif-ficult to find especially at the beginning of the metal

ages but in fact easier to find than alluvial placer depos-its. There is no doubt that the combination of analytical and field archaeological devices can bring success and this was the way of the Bochum Caucasus project. The mining area of Sakdrissi and Bolnissi area was known before as rich in polymetallic ores including gold as well as ancient mining has been reported by several re-searches from the 19th century on (Tschochonolidze 1975; Tvalchrelidze 2001).

In the beginning the Bochum Caucasus project has started as a program mainly focused on educating jun-ior scientists in Mining archaeology and Archaeometal-lurgy (2004-2006). After the discovery of the Sakdrissi Gold mine the program now has shifted to a scientific project whose goals still are the education of Georgian trainees but also a detailed investigation of gold mining and gold processing in the Caucasus (2007-2011) (Hauptmann et al. 2010; Stllner et al. 2010).

Sakdrissi Gold Mine and its Mining Archaeology

The mining area of Sakdrissi and Bolnissi area was known before as rich in polymetallic ores including gold as well as ancient mining has been reported by several researches from the 19th century on (Tschochonolidze 1975; Omiadze 2007; see Gold in Georgia I). But it has to awaited systematic field work on mining sites to as-sure the surprisingly old dating of Sakdrissi gold mine right from the beginning. According to a series of AMS 14C-dates Sakdrissi can be dated to a period around 3000 thus being one of the most ancient mining areas in the Caucasus. The mine itself was reported as an Iron Mine of the medieval first, later has been identified by the mining engineer T. Mudshiri (1987) as a prehistoric one on the basis of hammer-stones he found here. After the discovery of the Sakdrissi gold mine archaeological part of the VW funded Bochum program now has shift-

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ed to especially to the Mashavera Valley and he sur-roundings of Sakdrissi in order to understand the tech-nology but also the social-economics of this very early rock gold mining site. The current project has been fin-ished in a first phase now in field and goes now to a interdisciplinary evaluation phase.

The mining area of Sakdrissi a visible hillock called Kachagiani is located in a favourable traffic position in the Mashavera valley that directly links the Tblissi/Kura river valley with the Ciscaucasus and the Arme-nian mountains in the southeast (Fig. 1). Thinking of the rich polymetallic resources of this region it may not won-der that early agricultural societies such as those of the Schulaweri-Schomumtepe-culture (end 5th and 1st half of the second mill.) did produce the earliest evidences of metallurgy in the Caucasian region (Chramis Didi Gora, Aruchlo, Sioni, Imiris Gora u.a.: Kawtaradze 2001, 136 ff. Abb.1). The southern Caucasus region is there-fore suspicious to be one of the areas where metallurgy was introduced by transfer of technological ideas from Oriental cultures: recently a French/Azerbajan-Team discovered remarkably early gold and silver/copper-alloy from late Chalcolithique Kurgans in the Karaja steppe of the eastern Kura valley (Soyuq Bulaq: Lyonnet et al. 2010). The artifacts of Soyuq Bulaq resemble therefore the first important evidences for the introduction of a gold and silver metallurgy in the Caucasus. And therefore it is quite logical to ask if such metals have been pro-duced from ores of the Southern Caucasus, especially from Qemo Kartli (SE-Georgia). Especially for the later Kura Araxes period it might be asked if gold from Sak-drissi did play an important role in international trading networks.

The Mine of Sakdrissi Results of Research in 2004-2011The Sakdrissi I gold mine prospect, as it is named today by the Mining Company of Madneuli, originally was planned to be mined and extracted. It already had been explored during Soviet times in the 1980ies and was therefore comparatively well developed: this also allows us entering the underground parts and therefore the in-vestigation of nearly undisturbed underground workings (Fig. 1). T. Mudshiri (1987) already mentioned some of these working but could not date them more precisely during his days. The old exploration mine did leave some underground tunnels and also surface-structures such as track ways for construction an open-cast exploitation; the hillock itself was heavily overgrown with bush-veg-etation and smaller trees. After clearing the vegetation in 2004 and 2005 we got a perfect insight into the mine that had left mining depressions and tailings above ground. These depressions turned out to be mainly col-lapsed mining galleries that followed smaller and bigger loads. It is a geometrically complex ore-deposit, a so

called stock-work deposit (Fig. 1). On the other hand the ancient underground galleries have been cut by So-viet periods exploration galleries. At two areas mining archaeological investigation became possible (mine 1 and 2) (Gambashidze et al. 2010; Stllner et al. 2008; Stllner et al. 2010). Since 2005 these galleries have been excavated and investigated in detail (Fig. 2): Most of the old Kura-Araxes mining debris has been exca-vated. These galleries once were connected with above-ground mining parts especially from the large mining depression A and from mine B3. By following them from both sides it was possible to interconnect them at two points in 2009 and 2010; other mining drivages virtually got interconnected although parts of the filling could not be removed (mine 2/B3): the deepest points that were reached by the Kura Araxes mining could be measured nearly 30 m below ground (mine 2/B3); mine 1/A that

Fig. 1: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, aerial photography showing the 2009 excavation and the four main mining depressions (A-D) exploited during Kura-Araxes- and late Antique period photo: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Stllner.

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had been driven down further in the north did end near-ly at the same absolute height (720 m sea-level) although its vertical extension only had virtually 25 m (Fig. 3); thus we are now able to reconstruct the spatial extension and course of the mine. This can be seen as a undis-pensable requisite to calculate effort and extraction rate as well as the gold-outcome of this prehistoric enterprise. As an important matter of fact those galleries were filled with debris from the Early Bronze Age mining (Fig. 3). Therefore it was comparatively easy to extract datable

charcoal from undisturbed strata; they provide a com-parably homogeneous dating (see below). During a first campaign in 2004 a general survey and documentation of the mine was achieved, in 2005 till 2011 further de-tailed excavations and documentation stood in the cen-tre of the Georgian-German field campaigns. The goal of these excavations was a detailed excavation of at least one part of the main mining depression. Excava-tions in the surrounding should allow further insights into working procedures above ground. Understanding

Fig. 2: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, excavation 2005-2011, mining depression A-B, red areas: underground parts uncovered from above ground, photo: DBM/RUB/GNM, G. Steffens.


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the technique of mining and its operational chain has been the main goal right from the beginning. After ex-cavating many parts of two large mining depressions and further areas in between we are now able to recon-struct the ore exploitation and first steps of ore treatment at the mining site. These processes once were combined with further treatments such as gold milling and smelting that was carried out on a larger scale at large settlement nearly 1 km away as the crow flows.

Research in both the settlement and the mine was una-voidable to get sufficient insight into the whole production of gold. It also made apparent to which large extend this gold production had dominated the daily activities of larger groups of the Kura-Araxes-population at the Mashavera valley.

The 2005 and 2011 excavation not only did record all working tools by description and coordination we also

Fig. 3: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, mining depression A, NW-profile showing the Kura Araxes filling of the mining depression and of the underground pocket 1/1, drawing/graphics: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Stllner/J. Garner/G. Steffens.


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investigated a large part in the northern most part of mining depression A (a part that is connected with mine 1 underground). The excavation first had to remove heaps of spoil flown into the depressions again; accord-ing to younger ceramic findings this backfilling can be dated into late antique and early medieval periods; it is consisting mainly of Bronze Age spoil mixed with ceram-ics and working tools (Fig. 3). According to stratigraphical observations made between 2009 and 2010 it became apparent that late antique gleanings reached levels roughly 8 m below ground. In consideration of the extend of this mining the exploit could not been very large and certainly did drive on seldom into untouched gold-bearing veins; according to the high amount of haematites and other iron ores it is not unlikely that this mining just did use the iron content and never focused on the gold. The mining debris of mine A and the neighbouring mine B1-2 did contain some thousands of mining tools: despite of hammer-stones it is worth mentioning that grinding and anvil-stones were found in large numbers. These finds can be seen in tight connection with dimpled impressions that have been found at the edges of the mining depres-sions. Thus a first step of a dry ore beneficiation by mean of crushing and grinding at the ancient spoil heaps can be assumed in the direct surrounding of the mine. Further steps of a finer grinding and milling have been discovered only at one tailing excavated between 2008 and 2009: Many millstones, fine rubbers and combination tools were discovered, types of tools that we only knew from the settlement so far (Fig. 4): This tailing interestingly was

filled in later into the old prehistoric opencast and was situated nearby an oval shaped hole that was driven into the rock: as this hole never was related with an ore-vein there is good reason to interpret it as a water cistern. It is therefore not unlikely that some sort of vein testing had been undertaken at the site before the grinded ores were transported to the settlement. But most of the time consuming gold ore milling was carried in the Kura Arax-es workshops of Balitshi-Dzedzvebi as proven by recent excavations (see below).

The surface of mining depressions A and B1-2 however brought a lot of further information: within the big mining depressions many more smaller galleries and surface exploitations have been found: this shows the reality of a complex stock-work deposit where many small gold-bearing quartz veins were well visible and have been exploited nearly completely. Since 2007 the exca-vation has been extended towards the neighbouring mine B; the flat area in between was investigated and yielded refilled pits of the Kura Araxes mining period. A ditch that leads towards the entrance of mine B obvi-ously an entrance gully - allowed a smoothly declining access to this mine. According to recent results also this gully was reused during the late antique period and re-sembled a small late antique test mine. The rock-fac-es clearly show the usage of metal picks. The mine certainly was not driven forward by the typical prehis-toric technique that normally has used fire-setting and hammering work.

Fig. 4: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, beneficiation tools (grinders, dimple stones, ore mills) from the Kura-Araxes dump in mining depression A, photo/graphics: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Rabsilber.


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Due to the massive spoil-covering it was difficult to find untouched Bronze Age layers: only in generally small areas it was possible to find them but the sectors are still too small to give a conclusive picture. Only in some un-touched mining pockets it was possible to find original mining spoil and in some cases even occupation layers of the Kura-Araxes-period (pockets A2 and A3). In the central part of the big mining depression a large Kura Araxes dump was partly excavated that later was refilled to the surface parts of the mining system (especially the pockets A7/8 or the mine pockets 1/1-2 as seen from underground]: besides the milling and testing tools men-tioned above (Fig. 4) the dump produced original mine spoil with partly well stratified layer contexts dated by larger amounts of Kura Araxes ceramic. The layer con-sistency give reason to the conclusion that partly crush-ing and milling spoil of ore beneficiation once had been refilled.We found them also underground but nearly untouched; as mentioned before late antique and early medieval disturbances never did extend over a depth of 8 m. Just from the beginning we gained there the unquestionably best dating results, although the site had been opened by exploration tunnels in the 1980ies. By work of explo-sives parts of the underground mines 1 and 2 (equally to the above mining pockets A7/8 and B3) had been damaged. Finally three small working pockets could be discovered; two of them (1/1 and 1/3) are ending at the level of the modern gallery while the largest one is ex-tending further to the north: all of them were complete-ly filled with different layers of mining debris thus indicat-ing, that the mines itself were refilled again carefully - for what reason ever. It was doubtlessly the most important result right from the beginning to have found consider-able quantities of Kura-Araxes-ceramic: This again could be a strong argument for an intentional refilling: But also the stratigraphy allow more information on behalf of this assumption, especially those gained during the full scale excavation of the northernmost central part between 2007 and 2010. This north extension extends five meters more in depth than the other parts. A refilling structure discovered right there in the central part made apparent the backfilling work: we discovered a central working area which was secured against further mate-rial influx by the help of revetment walls made partly of used hammer-stones: Many of these layers certainly belong to mining debris that directly is related to the extraction process (these are coarse and burned rocky layers or even finer crushed gravel-layers) but others consisted of a very fine crushed consistency. Measure-ments of the gold content carried out in collaboration with the archaeometallurgical working group (A. Haupt-mann, H. Kordon, A. Omidaze) produced still 1 ppm of gold in the spoil. This allows some estimation in concern of the efficiency of the gold ore beneficiation.

The mine itself has brought to light other spectacular fea-tures: In the northernmost gallery of the north-extension

of mine 1/2 a nearly unfilled gallery was discovered (Fig. 5): the rock-faces still were in original preservation and did nicely resemble the fire-setting process: the latest fire-set itself could be reconstructed: The fire-setting soot preserved especially on the upper wall and ceiling sud-denly stops roughly 30 cm in front of the most extended parts. This indicates the amount of rock and ores being hammered down at the end of the latest fire-set-work (that surely could consist of some fire-sets in a row!).

During our excavations we frequently observed deposi-tions of hammer-tools of which most cannot really inter-preted otherwise than as accidental depositions; but three of them have been deposited certainly deliberately at an working end, a niche in mine 2, the northern most gallery of 1/2 mentioned before and a working hole in mine 1/3 even more striking is their combination of nearly unused and unusually large hammer stones: it is certainly not misleading when we think on ritual deposits especially as these hammers are of exquisite shape and quality! The mine however can now be followed under surface about more than 25 m from the surface; the working spaces are very narrow and partly it is impossible to pass through with head or shoulder. Even more aston-ishing is the fact that most of the galleries have been advanced by hammering work by help of fire-setting: this highlights the problem of circulating the air in a depth of

Fig. 5: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, underground mine 1/2, north extension, northern gallery, working end with stone-hammer de-posit and fire-setting traces, photo: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Stllner.


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more than 6 to 9 meters. The deposit itself is consisting mainly of a gold- and iron bearing quartz-vein while the host rock is composed of softer rhyolithic and other vol-canic rocks but is silicified in the contact zone and there-fore quiet as hard as the quartz-vein itself. The high technical level of hammering work can easily be under-stood when one looks on the quantity but also the dif-ferent types of hammer-stones. There are five distinctive types of hammers that not only allow crushing work at the mine-walls but also show specialized forms for ex-tracting even very small veins obviously very special-ized work that allowed the extraction of gold enriched quartz-pockets and vein lets (Stllner et al. 2010, Fig. 16). The hard work was worth doing it: According to the gold contents of the veins reported from D. Melashwili (pers. comm.) only the high graded ore-veins have been exploited: vein 1/2 roughly contained around 70 ppm and mine-pocket 1/3 even could exceed over 100 ppm.

Dating of the Sakdrissi Gold Mine

According to the stratigraphic sequence and the preser-vation of untouched stratified features we got unquestion-able results from the underground excavation at first; from 2007 finally also undisturbed layers were discovered at the excavation above ground and we also were able to date the younger steps of mining: according to Kura-Araxes ware found in untouched areas there is no doubt to date most of the mine to the Kura-Araxes period: Nei-ther by technological observations nor by stratified mate-rial we have to doubt this connexion younger mining activities however never did reach this level neither in depth nor in lateral extension (Fig. 7). The ceramic found so far cannot be dated easily but generally does belong to the second Kura-Araxes-step in the Ciscaucasus (ac-cording to Sagona 1984; Kushnareva 1997)1. This stands

in accordance to the 14C-AMS-dating results that we gained from charcoal out of the underground deposits of mine 1 (Fig. 6); the results are interesting on the one hand as they support a mining before of 3000 BC, per-haps inhering arguments for a second younger phase at the beginning of the 3rd. Mill. This could mean that the mine began in the earlier steps of Kura Araxes-culture. This in general does prove mining during a considerable time of at least some centuries (Fig. 6).

Early Bronze Age Settlement- Structure in the Surrounding of the Sakdrissi Gold Mine

The Kura-Araxes mine in Sakdrissi immediately raised the question where the contemporary settlements were situated and how they were integrated into the gold busi-ness: As we have discovered a larger quantity of ce-ramic it seems logical to think on a settlement nearby. Such a settlement also should allow some answers on behalf of the further steps of gold-processing which we have not found at Sakdrissi; this includes also gold wash-ing. Thus it was clear right from the beginning that this settlement should not be situated far from the river Mashavera. Although older archaeological observations did not report of Bronze Age settlements before the 1970ies, it was obvious that the area of modern villages of Kazreti and Balitschi provides favourable settlement ground. The medieval villages of Abulmulg and Orsak-drebi also have been famous for their large populations and also their iron smithies and metal production: they were situated once in the surrounding of the Sakdrissi-hillock area. Bronze Age features have not been found earlier than 1973 and 1980 when M. Sinauridze carried out some rescue excavations in the village of Kazreti:

Fig. 6: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, AMS-14C-dates of the Kura-Araxes mining phase, after G. Bonani/I. Hajdas, ETH Zurich, graphics: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Stllner.


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near the main train station she reported some settlement pits from Kura Araxes but also a late Bronze Age grave-yard. During our surveys in 2007 we could confirm also a late Bronze Age settlement as we found parts of a burned house at northern slope nearby the Kazreti train station. All these find spots are situated at the side valley

of the Mashavera main valley: The Kazretula valley guides to the ore-deposits of Madneuli also nowadays. Iron bars that we found nearby the burned house of 2007 may confirm some relation with later prehistoric mining found in the oxidic parts of the Madneuli ore deposit. Late Bronze/Iron Age settlements are predominant how-

Fig. 7: Sakrissi, Kachagiani hillock, AMS-14C-dates of Iron Age-sedimentation processes and the late antique mining phase, after G. Bonani/I. Haj-das, ETH Zurich, graphics: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Stllner.

Fig. 8: Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, settlement plateau with main settlement features 2007-2009, graphics/GIS-examination: DBM/RUB/GNM, A. Hornschuch.

Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, settlement plateau with main settlement fea-tures 2007-2009, graphics/GIS-examination: DBM/RUB/GNM, A. Hornschuch.


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Fig. 9: Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, grave 3, photo: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Rabsilber.

ever in the surroundings of Kazreti. Sinauridze has also reported about a large graveyard south of the Kazretula valley at the area Telebisweli (Sinauridze 1985: 13 ff.).

A survey in the surrounding of Kazreti and Sakdissi fi-nally brought also results in concern of the Early Bronze Age settlements; our surveys 2007 have produced a large settlement area nearly 1 km southeast as the crow flows from the Sakdrissi mine (Fig. 8). The area is called Balitschi-Dzedzwebi (Stllner at al. 2008; Gambashidze et al. 2010; Stllner et al. 2010). It is in fact a large set-tlement plateau that stretches on a length of nearly 1 km alongside the Mashavera-valley. It has an approxi-mate size of about 60 ha and is therefore one of the largest settlement plateaus known in the Caucasus. The plateau is bordered in the west by the river banks of the Mashavera and in the east by the Dampludka-valley. Looking at its topographical situation the plateau always had to be passed on the way from the south to the Kura Valley. Therefore it also holds an important traffic position within the valley. The large area also is well protected from most sides: first surveys allowed an idea of the extension and also periodicity of prehistoric oc-cupation but since 2007 further and large scaled excava-tions did cover many parts of the whole settlement pla-teau. Thus it is now possible to give a first preliminary overview about the Bronze Age and even early Iron Age settlement structures at the plateau.

The large settlement area is consisting of several small-er scaled units (areas I-IV) with plateaus, dry-stone walls and even fortifications at the southern end of the area, where the Dampludka and the Mashavera-valleys draw close to each other. In the northern areas there is now the evidence of a large Kura-Araxes settlement area that was framed at the northern and southern fringes by grave-groups; some of these graves have been investi-gated; three collective burials in the north and two in the south; especially the grave-chambers of the Kura-Arax-es step II-culture follow a clear burial custom (Fig. 9): the stone encircled chambers were oriented east-west and contained bone deposits of three to five individuals in the western part. Some of the vessels found there once have belonged to these burials; in the eastern part, from where the bodies have been laid down to the cham-bers, male and females have been observed: some beads and seldom more than one vessel are typical as funerary gifts. This clearly resembles virtually no social differentiation within the burial rites. The only exception is also the youngest grave chronologically belonging to the Martkopi stage (Kura Araxes III) and the beginning of the 3rd millennium: the double grave interestingly was disturbed (ritually robbed?) and contained the only pres-tigious goods found so far: a bead chain with axe- and pick-shaped pendants of a copper alloy (Fig. 10).

The settlement itself is of high interest for our questions: three houses have been unearthed so far (Dzedzwebi

II.2-3); in all cases they produced only a smaller number of typical settlement debris but indications for crafts-work: a metallurgical workshop was found in house 2, obviously used during several phases. A large central room came to light in house 3: according to mill- and grinding stones as well as crucibles (Fig. 11) and the lacking of central hearth it was suspected to be in use for gold ore grinding and milling: this assumption could be proven according to the significantly high elevation

Fig. 10: Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, grave 2, bead and metal artefacts, photo: DBM/RUB/GNM, Th. Rabsilber.

Balitshi-Dzedzvebi, settlement plateau with main settlement fea-tures 2007-2009, graphics/GIS-examination: DBM/RUB/GNM, A. Hornschuch.


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of gold in the sediments. Ceramic and other small tools (clay figurines, arrow heads of obsidian, flint-blades, small copper awl) provide sufficient insight into the chro-nology of the site. We have to date the inventories as well as the house constructions most likely to the older periods of Kura-Araxes-culture and this could mean a dating right before 3000 BC; this chronological classifica-tion coincides presumably with the dating of the burial vessels of graves 1, 3 and 6. Thus this ensemble is contemporaneous to the mine in Sakdrissi. We gener-ally note a high amount of grinding and milling stones at the whole settlement: they are characteristically fur-nished with central grooves and have fine grinded sur-faces: their typical working-traces speak for a combina-tion of crushing and fine grinding; so it is highly probable that time consuming grinding and milling once have been performed in this part the settlement. Other Kura-Arax-es settlement-parts were investigated at the southern plateau in 2010: There the settlement is covered by younger late Bronze Age and early Iron Age layers with a nicely preserved stone architecture (Fig. 12). What did attract our attention right from the beginning was the clear difference to the site described before (Dzezwebi IV.2-3): our test trenches did produce a generally differ-ent spectrum of domestic debris: high numbers of ce-ramic but also much higher numbers of animal bones and obsidian flakes and tools. On the other hand the chronology and stratigraphy is wider spanned and stretches from the late Chalcolithic Sioni-group to the Kura-Araxes III-period. On the contrast gold milling tools

have not been found in such quantities. This doubt-lessly does indicate a different settlement pattern at the southern plateau.

In consideration of that dating it is interesting to assume that the settlement not only was contemporaneous to the gold mine in Sakdrissi; the evidence of gold milling also in the younger Kura-Araxes III settlement of the southern plateaus gives reason to presume other mines in the surrounding. It seems not unlikely to understand the settlement of Dzedzwebi as the core of a commu-nity that has followed the exploitation of metals and raw material over a long time span; the favourable traffic condition of the plateau most likely did support such an economic development.

The Chane Opratoire of the Gold-Producing Process a Brief Summary

The gold-mining process documented in the Mashavera-valley consisted of several steps and was well organized. In many steps it can be compared with techniques de-scribed for antique and younger periods (Agricola 1556; see also Tylecote 1987; Bachmann 1999; Craddock 2000). 1. The ore-mining was carried out by help of fire-setting

and extraction work by help of a typical chalcolithic tool set: hammer-stone often adapted to the very nar-row veins as well as bone and antler-chisels were combined to extract gold bearing host rocks and pure quartzite veins. The gold almost was invisible but by testing the gold-content the grade of the ore was de-termined.

2. Gold-ore testing was presumably undertaken at the site, both by milling crushed ores and by separating them by simple gold washing. This method is most effective if an empirical test is proposed.

3. Hand-sorting and crushing of gold ores were the main steps of ore-beneficiation that can be evidenced at the gold mine of Sakdrissi. A first sorting and parting was done even underground where simple handheld hammers and dimples in the rock (as mortars) might have served as devices. The grade of the refilled beneficiation debris crushed down to sizes of about 3 mm to 2 cm still had around 1 ppm of gold thus indicating that something between 100/70 ppm and 1 ppm of gold (as observed in some of the vein) was taken out.

4. Once the ore was crushed and sorted most of the high quality gold bearing coarse sands were trans-ported to the settlement where this material was fine grinded. The results of house 3/2009 made apparent that this milling of ore was done in large workshop rooms. According to experimental results from 2011 the milling should not be too fine not to lose the finer grained gold flakes being finely disseminated into the

Fig. 11: Balitshi-Dzedzvebi II.2-3, crucible-fragments, graphics/drawings: DBM/RUB/GNM, A. Kuczminski, Th. Rabsilber.


197

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198

ores. Having found also gold contents of about 1 ppm in this workshop room (and being considerably ele-vated in comparison to the surrounding) proves the workshop and milling theory as also the abundance of mill-stone does in general.

5. If finally the sands got washed and fire-assayed in crucibles is till now a likely but unproven hypothesis. This needs further fieldwork and perhaps the one or another lucky finding.

The Oldest Gold Mine in the World? Remarks on Importance and Further ComparisonsFinally we may add some commends on the question to which extend gold was used locally or even been traded abroad. It is interesting to note that contempora-neous gold is seldom in a way. Generally the older steps of the Kura Araxes culture can be characterized by a remarkable paucity in gold artifacts although metals were known. If this is reasoned in a general reluctance in using gold and metals in burial rites cannot be answered univocally. It is rare but present also in preceding cultures such as the grave of Soyuq Bulaq (Lyonnet et al. 2010) made clear by no doubt. Therefore it is difficult to search for Sakdrissi gold on behalf of modern provenance stud-ies: gold of that period is even easier to be found either in the Kurgan-cultures in the northern Caucasus (Mai-kop: dating see Trifonov 1994; 1996) or at the urban civilizations at the Euphrates (generally Kohl 2007). The famous princely grave of Arslantepe is one of the most famous graves that even represent those intensive links with Caucasian cultures (Frangipane et al. 2002; Fran-gipane 2004; Hauptmann et al. 2003).

It awaits further investigations to characterize the gold in such graves or even those from the younger Martko-pi-Bedeni horizon in the Southern Caucasus in which the usage of gold from our ore-deposit zone could be expected. A. Hauptmann and S. Klein from Frankfurt characterized the gold of Sakdrissi in comparison to other golden artifacts and to ore sources from the Bol-nissi-zone (see Gold in Georgia I; Hauptmann & Klein 2009). The first results achieved by Pb-isotope-studies generally did prove the possibility that Sakdrissi and related ore-fields took part in supply of gold during the 3rd and early 2nd millennium. But also geologically re-lated ore fields like that from the Artvin ore field (Murgul) can be hold as one of the possible provenance regions (see Gold in Georgia I; Hauptmann et al. 2010). Till now no clear argument have been found to range out the one of the other of these related ore field on the basis of trace elements or other markers. This awaits further geochemical investigations.

However, the amount of gold that roughly can be esti-mated from the Kura Araxes exploitation perhaps may

have reached 100 to 150 kg. It may be asked if such an amount certainly not little has a chance still to be represented in our collections.

But wherever the gold of Sakdrissi went to: the crafts organization and the level of production does show us a highly professional and large scale gold production: we generally should not doubt that this production al-ready had reached the level of a major enterprise of the Kura Araxes tribes in the Mashavera valley. And we should not doubt that this production was embedded into a larger communication and cultural exchange of a remarkably widespread Kura Araxes cultural system.

Acknowledgement

This Georgian German research project is based upon a long term cooperation which began in 1996, and which is proposed to continue. Many persons have to be thanked for their self-dedication to that project and their efforts during our field- and analytical work: Prof. Dr. David Lordkipanidze, Zura Abesadze, Irakli Dschaparidze, David Gambashidze, Giorgi Gogochuri, Giorgi Gogitschaishwili, Rati Gogitschaischwili, Dr. Wolf-gang Homann, A. Hornschuch, Hildegund Kordon, Jutta Korsmeier, M.A., Ingolf Lffler, M.A., Dipl.-Geol. David Melashwili, Dr. Giorgi Mindiaschwili, Bidzina Murva-nidze, Dr. Malkhaz Natsvlishvili, Sergo Nadareischwili, Alex Omiadze, Nino Otchwani, Schota Oniani, Dr. Michael Prange, Thorsten Rabsilber, M.A. Dipl. Ing. Gero Steffens, Peter Thomas, M.A. Numerous others such as our workers from surrounding villages cannot be named here. This project is supported by the Volkswa-gen-Stiftung, Hannover, within the program Im Fokus der Wissenschaft: Lnder Mittelasiens und des Kauka-sus. We are especially thankful to Prof. Dr. Andreas Hauptmann for the collaboration within the project.

Note

1 A comprehensive chronological discussion has to be awaited for the PhD-dissertation of Nino Otchvani (Tblissi/Bochum) who is investigating the Kura-Araxes ceramic complexes in the central Mashavera-valley.

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gold in georgia ii: the oldest gold mine in the world

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