sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 11

Petr Hrubý: Silver Mining in the Kingdom of Bohemia (13th-14th Centuries)

The title of the book is misleading. General mining references throughout Europe serve as foundations for a comparative analysis of the Czech context. In the end, much of the book is not about silver mining in Bohemia per se. The author admits that many mining operations were misleadingly called "silver mines" arguing the nomenclature is nevertheless acceptable from a technological point of view (10).

On balance this valuable study delves deeply into the structure of medieval mining across a broad range of metallurgical areas both in Bohemia and farther afield. What is especially important is the manner in which Petr Hrubý explores the ways and means by which ore mining and metallurgy interacted with social concerns, the organization of towns and its relation to the medieval landscape. All of this is accomplished by deploying interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and approaches.

However, without a book like this, the topic of silver mining remains abstract. The author does not intend to provide another description of the political and economic history of the culmination of silver mining in the thirteenth century. Instead, the objective is to describe and present a detailed elaboration of mining in its broad dimensions (1). This includes standard archaeological methods of surface excavation, the sampling of ore, tailings, and technogenic sediments, dendrochronological and archaeobotanical evidence.

Petr Hrubý notes a frequent lack of archaeological evidence and a traditional reliance on documentary evidence. In terms of the origin of silver mining in Bohemia existing archaeological evidence suggests the end of the 1230s in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (22). In recent years, rescue excavations have been carried out near Jihlava and Havlíčkův Brod (43, 54).

What the narrative reveals is a host of topics that are both important and suggestive for additional research. It is a commonplace that religion in the Middle Ages permeated society to a depth and extent difficult to appreciate today. Therefore it comes as no surprise to learn that monasteries and churches played a key role in mining operations (7, 9, 14, 15, 17, 19, 24, 29, 37, 38, 40, 75, 104-5). Nonetheless, it is striking that no church or chapel constructed in a thirteenth-century Czech mining settlement has been excavated (104).

The precious ores extracted from the earth attracted comment in a bull of Pope Innocent II from 1136 (16). The Bohemian mines were sufficiently lucrative that by the mid-fourteenth century Czech silver was being exported abroad (36, 85). We learn about lighting in mines (47), the importance of water (52, 102, 113), the role of so-called mining castles (92), conflicts between mining settlements and local communities (104), a great deal about settlement stratigraphy (106) and the ways in which mining in the Kingdom of Bohemia replicated or differed from similar endeavours in France, Germany, Britain, Slovakia and Poland.

The specific Bohemian investigation sheds light on the ways in which climate and landscape are key factors in mining considerations along with deforestation and the fact that there is often a lack of archaeological evidence despite intensive research and excavation (6) to support landscape archaeological observations. Chapter 3 (11-16) is a useful summary of the exploitation of silver and non-ferrous metals up to the thirteenth century. It is surprising to find Kutná Hora largely omitted from the text even though the "silver rush" to that location brought Bohemia to European attention (116).

The reader is alerted to the fact that many medieval mining sites have vanished though numerous impressive mining pits can still be seen in Czech forests (46, 116). Related topics reveal significant differences of interpretation advanced by the disciplines of history, archaeology and numismatics (78). The process of scorification (63, 70-4) is explicated and the royal charter of 12 January 1270 for Jihlava offers a unique and potentially significant written source on metallurgical works (75-7). Some of the major finds include a cache of coins, jewellery, coils of silver wire and nineteen "silver stick-like rods", hidden between the years 1009 and 1012 and found in northwest Bohemia at Žatec (78).

New terms like examinatum argentum and purum argentum appear in the late twelfth century. What is the relation between assayed silver and purified silver? The terms sometimes appear to refer to the same category (81-2). It is uncertain if silver was used to make payments as the written references are ambiguous (82). Mining settlements are the second highest feature in the abandoned medieval settlement pattern (90). Silver production reached a zenith in the late thirteenth century in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (90) though the importance of Havlíčkův Brod and Kutná Hora remains.

The elaboration of medieval mining reveals a spectrum of material culture: tools including picks, scrapers, hoes, chisels, iron wedges (49-50, 98), drinking vessels (97), a water-powered ore mill discovered during a rescue excavation in 2020 (54), coins, ceramic marbles, game pallets, and a fragment of a pilgrim's badge (98-9). Further research has been hampered by restrictive legislation effectively prohibiting archaeological research of old mines and many unsolved and possibly unsolvable issues and questions remain (116-18). In many respects we are left with 'nothing but hypotheses' (75).

The volume originally appeared in Czech in 2019. This translation opens the subject up to a much wider readership. The chapters are very short. There are twenty in just over 100 pages. There are nine useful tables in the book. No fewer than 200 black-and-white and color illustrations (158-311) illuminate the narrative text allowing the reader to see exactly what Petr Hrubý is discussing. This is pertinent to his assertion that from time to time archaeological evidence is complex (44). There is a good bibliography (119-50) and indices of persons and sites (151-7). The book adds considerably to its subject and may be recommended.