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Archaeology of Mining

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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Introduction

The extraction and processing of metals and other minerals have played a significant role in economic, political, and social developments across the globe from early in prehistory to the present day. Processes of mining and metallurgy have left a number of material traces in the archaeological record, from mines themselves, to metallurgical slag and other waste, to finished metal objects, and to traces of environmental pollution. Likewise, mining landscapes often preserve other features related to mining labor and the economy, including settlements for housing laborers as well as roads and railroads for shipping. As such, mining has been examined from a variety of different archaeological perspectives and methods. The archaeology of mining, while in no way a cohesive subdiscipline, plays an important role in industrial archaeology and archaeometallurgy; in period-specific subfields including historical archaeology, prehistory, and classical archaeology; as well as in...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Classical Studies, Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Linda R. Gosner

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  1. Linda R. Gosner
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Correspondence to Linda R. Gosner .

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    Richard McClary

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    Douglas C. Comer

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Gosner, L.R. (2019). Archaeology of Mining. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2716-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2716-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

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