Stoneshifter wrote:
I went down a copper mine two years ago. We know it was worked in prehistoric times and their method was to soften the ore by lighting a fire of sticks against the workface and clubbing the softened material with stone hammers. I went into the shaft and followed until it was just a metre high and I couldn't understand how anyone could have worked it, by that method. (There's an account of the journey on my Line!!cast2.mp3, on the downloads page of my website, if anyone's interested). I didn't even reach the end of the shaft - and I had a good torch! Fear of a worse fate could have kept the men - or boys - underground.
The evidence for slavery and a hierarchical society in connection with mining is found at Leubingen and Helmsdorf in central Germany .These areas produced huge amounts of copper and the contemporary burial sites consist of massive princely barrows alongside pits with multiple burials many with mutilations . 