![]() Work hours and conditions were as the mine owners deemed fit. This process, along with smoke from the torches and gases released by water seepage, resulted in toxic fumes that had to be vented or fanned through the shafts, lest whole work crews were lost to poisoning. If an ore wall proved too hard, scalding water was poured on it to cause thermal cracking, but this often resulted in cave-ins. One can only imagine the working conditions of medieval mines: Lit only by candle and torch light, shafts were dug and ore broken by pickaxe. This only increased pressure on the investors financing Saxon silver mines. At the same time, European ships had just started to bring significant and increasing shipments of silver from the New World. But silver ore grades were declining in the region and, as mines went deeper below ground in search of more silver, they only seemed to encounter more flooding. Historical mining map of Saxony and the Erzgebirge by Pieter Schenk (1752).īy 1500, scores of tin and silver mines, employing thousands of miners, covered the Ore Mountains. ![]() One of the earliest references to mining in the area was in a contract dated in the year 1237, which noted a number of swords would be paid for with “good silver from Schneeberg”, one of the key mining centres of the Erzgebirge. The Ore Mountains run south of Freiberg along what is now the German-Czech border, extending for about 150km (90 miles) east to west and 40km (25 miles) north to south. 1617) īy the 16 th century, the Ore Mountains of Saxony (known in German as the Erzgebirge) had already been mined for silver for over three centuries. They are not only the guardians of the mines, but of hidden treasures, which they allow no one to take… -Pedro de Valderrama (c. They cut the ropes, break the ladders, cause the fall of rocks, send poisonous vapor and you will see rich mines abandoned for the fear of them. They laugh and whistle and perform a thousand tricks, but their services often redound to the injury and death of those whom they serve. They are gnomes, dwarfs not over an ell in height, and they help in cutting stones, getting out metals, packing them in baskets and hauling to the surface. The subterranean spirits are those who dwell in caverns and other recesses of the earth, where they kill or suffocate or render insane miners in search of precious metals.
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