Las Medulas: an ancient Roman gold mine and the laws of hydraulics

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Any civilization needs a lot of resources. Including metals. With the volume built on the territory of Europe, Africa, allegedly remaining from the Roman Empire, the level of metal extraction should be comparable to the level of production in the middle of the 20th century. And there is confirmation of this. One of them is the ancient Roman quarry of Las Medulas, Spain.

Las Medulas is an ancient Roman gold mine located in the northwestern part of Spain, near the city of Ponferrada (El Bierzo region). These are ancient gold mines, which according to the official history are almost two thousand years old, became a UNESCO heritage at the end of the 20th century.

This is how historians represent this process:

In the 1st century AD, Roman scientists developed a unique method based on the laws of hydraulics. Its essence was simple and ingenious at the same time: all the surrounding rivers and streams were dammed, and water began to accumulate in artificial reservoirs. When they were filled (and reservoirs were dug in such a way that this happened at the same time), the dams were opened, and the water rushed through the channels to the rock. The impact of the water flow was so powerful that the rock could not withstand and flew to pieces, revealing a gold mine hidden in the stone.

After that, large pieces of stone were separated by hand, and small pieces were fused through the same channels into the washing zone. There, the resulting sand with water was passed through the rubble of thorny bushes - grains of gold clung to the branches, the heavier rock crumbled. Then the bushes were burned, and the remaining gold was taken from the ashes and sent to melting.

Only in the 3rd century did the Romans realize that the deposit was exhausted and abandoned it.

Judging by the records of historians who visited this mine, during the three centuries that it functioned, more than one and a half thousand tons of gold were mined here. It was not easy to achieve such a result: according to archaeologists, from ten to sixty thousand people were supposed to work here at the same time, performing deadly work.

It was an essay and an official explanation for what we see from historians. And it seems to me, as usual, these are their attempts to explain everything from the point of view of the primitive. I propose to include common sense, look at this place and draw your own conclusions.

The mountain is blurred, a huge hill is visible and there are less quarries around the perimeter. The diameter of the eroded hill is approximately 1300m.

The volume of washed out rocks is huge. The main questions are: where did the Romans get so much water? Think about how you can put water on a hill? There are no snow caps or glaciers on the neighboring hills in the area. Even if a source beats from a neighboring hill, then you need an aqueduct to supply water, you need to dig up the lake and instantly expand it. The dam should be with gates.

In the background is a modern quarry

Inside view

Pebble that composes the top layer of the hill. Is it the bottom of an ancient sea, a river, or more ancient dumps?

Here you can see that the pebbles are on top.

View from the south

The surrounding hills. Where is the source of water on them? And if he was there, how can the water be brought to the place where the gold was mined?

Estimate the volume of washed rock

This place is rich in various resources. South of Las Médulas are the modern quarries:

Once again I will ask the question: how to direct the streams or rivers flowing in the valley between the hills to the mountain? By gravity in any way. This means that the water needs to be pumped in. Well, not by the forces of tens of thousands of slaves! Most likely, pumps, mechanisms. And it is unreasonable to spontaneously wash out such volumes of rock.

It is more efficient to do it as we do now - with water monitors:

Or as it was done not so long ago, also during gold mining

I conclude that the ancient Romans (or whoever it was) used this technology. Most likely, in other places where we see canyons, these are mines of the past …