| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
 Panoramic view of Las Médulas | |
| Location | Province of León,Castile and León,Spain |
| Includes |
|
| Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) |
| Reference | 803 |
| Inscription | 1997 (21stSession) |
| Area | 2,208.2 ha (5,457 acres) |
| Coordinates | 42°28′9.8″N6°46′14.7″W / 42.469389°N 6.770750°W /42.469389; -6.770750 |
  Las Médulas Location of Las Médulas in Castile and León  Las Médulas Las Médulas (Spain) Show map of Spain | |
Las Médulas (Spanish pronunciation:[lasˈmeðulas]) is a historicgold-mining site near the town ofPonferrada in thecomarca ofEl Bierzo (province of León,Castile and León,Spain). It was the most importantgoldmine, as well as the largestopen-pit gold mine, in the entireRoman Empire.[1] Las Médulas Cultural Landscape is listed byUNESCO as aWorld Heritage Site. Advanced aerial surveys conducted in 2014 usingLIDAR have confirmed the wide extent of the Roman-era works.[2]
The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from theruina montium (wrecking of the mountains), a Roman mining technique described byPliny the Elder in 77 AD.[3][4] The technique employed was a type ofhydraulic mining which involved undermining a mountain with large quantities of water. The water was supplied byinterbasin transfer. At least seven longaqueducts tapped the streams of theLa Cabrera district (where the rainfall in the mountains is relatively high) at a range of altitudes. The same aqueducts were used to wash the extensivealluvial gold deposits.[5]
What became the Roman province ofHispania Tarraconensis was conquered in 25 BC by the emperorAugustus. Before the Roman conquest, the indigenous inhabitants obtained gold from alluvial deposits. Large-scale production did not begin until the second half of the 1st century AD.[6]
Pliny the Elder, who was aprocurator in the region in 74 AD, described in hisNaturalis Historia a technique of hydraulic mining that may be based on direct observation at Las Médulas:
Gold in our part of the world...is obtained in three ways: in the detritus of rivers, .... Another method is by sinking shafts; or it is sought for in the fallen débris of mountains [aut in ruina montium quaeritur].[7]
...
The third method will have outdone the achievements of the Giants. By means of galleries driven for long distances the mountains are mined by the light of lamps—the spells of work are also measured by lamps, and the miners do not see daylight for many months.
The name for this class of mines isarrugiae; also cracks give way suddenly and crush the men who have been at work, so that it actually seems less venturesome to try to get pearls and purple-fishes out of the depth of the sea: so much more dangerous have we made the earth![8]
Pliny also describes the methods used to wash the ores using smaller streams on riffle tables to enable the heavy gold particles to be collected. Detailed discussion follows of the methods of underground mining, used once thealluvialplacer deposits had been exhausted and themother lode sought and discovered. Many such deep mines have been found in the mountains around Las Médulas. Mining would start with the building of aqueducts and tanks above the mineral veins, and a method calledhushing used to expose the veins under the overburden.
The remains of such a system have been well studied atDolaucothi Gold Mines, a smaller-scale site inSouth Wales. Opencast methods would be pursued byfire-setting, which involved building fires against the rock and quenching with water. The weakened rock could then be attacked mechanically and the debris swept away by waves of water. Only when all opencast work was uneconomical would the vein be pursued bytunneling andstoping.
Pliny also stated that 20,000Roman pounds (6,560 kg) of gold were extracted each year.[9] The exploitation, involving 60,000 free workers, brought 5,000,000 Roman pounds (1,640,000 kg) in 250 years.
Parts of the aqueducts are still well preserved in precipitous locations, including some rock-cutinscriptions.
Research on Las Médulas had been mainly carried out by Claude Domergue (1990).[10] Systematic archaeological studies of the area, however, have been carried out since 1988 by the research group Social Structure and Territory-Landscape Archaeology of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). As a result, Las Médulas ceased to be only a gold mine with its techniques and became acultural landscape in which all the implications of Roman mining were made apparent. The survey and excavations of pre-Roman and Roman settlements throughout the area allowed for new historical interpretations that greatly enriched the study of Roman mining.[11][12]
A positive result of these systematic studies was the inclusion of Las Médulas as aWorld Heritage Site in 1997. Since then, the management of the Cultural Park has been monitored by the Las Médulas Foundation, which includes local, regional, and national stakeholders, both public and private. Currently, Las Médulas serves as an example of good research-management-society applied to heritage.[13]
The massive scale of mining at Las Médulas and other Roman sites had considerableenvironmental impact. Ice core data taken fromGreenland suggest that mineralair pollution peaked during the Roman period. Levels of atmosphericlead from this period were not reached again until theIndustrial Revolution some 1,700 years later.[14]
The inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site was controversial for similar reasons. The delegate fromThailand opposed the designation because he considered the site "a result of human destructive activities as well as harmful to the noble cause of environmental promotion and protection."[15]
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