Hi Rhiannon,
I think I can remember Francis Pryors Britain BC show mentioning something about small caches of hammerstones in unusual places within the mine.
I'm sure the miners must have had their superstitions and beliefs regarding their winning of the ore.
I suppose you could look upon the large scale mining of metal ores and the production of Bronze tools as possibly the first industrial revolution. A period of time when man advanced his dominance over nature, a process that began with the first farmers of the Neolithic and has continued more or less ever since.
I guess this could have been a time when new deities may have entered the pantheon, Gods of the underworld, fire and metalworking.
Perhaps the old beliefs regarding the earth were put aside or completely disregarded in favour of the persuit of wealth. Who knows?
I have worn a copper band for a few years now and when I sweat my wrist turns green. I wonder if the miners were little green men?