Lecture: Mining Archaeology in World Heritage - The High Medieval Silver Mines of Dippoldiswalde in the Context of European Research

Speaker: Dr. Christiane Hemker, Project Manager ArchaeoTin. Archaeology in World Heritage – Tin Mining Landscapes

In autumn 2008, the discovery of the high medieval silver mines of Dippoldiswalde began a new chapter in Saxon mining archaeology. The investigations by the State Office for Archaeology Saxony reveal a picture of a well-preserved underground mining landscape, whose unique findings and discovery complexes have yielded completely new insights into European mining archaeological research. Together with Czech archaeologists, cross-border research projects have been conducted throughout the Erzgebirge since 2012, using an interdisciplinary methodology (dendrochronology, historical cartography, remote sensing, archaeobotany, mineralogy, geophysics, and much more). These have led to the discovery of Bronze Age mining relics in a tin deposit in the Eastern Ore Mountains, in addition to other mining settlements from the 12th/13th centuries. The silver mines of Dippoldiswalde are rightly part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ore Mountains/Krušné hory Mining Region.