Segers-Glocke, Christiane [Hrsg.]; Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege [Hrsg.]; Institut für Denkmalpflege [Hrsg.]; Balck, Friedrich [Bearb.]: Arbeitshefte zur Denkmalpflege in Niedersachsen: Aspects of mining and smelting in the Upper Harz Mountains (up to the 13th/14th century) - in the early times of a developing European culture and economy (St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae Verl., Heft 22.2000)

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decaying installations of the „Old Man“ were either worked up and thereby
imprinted with newer methods or buried under the tailings of more recent and
efficient mining operations. In times of stagnation the material of old heaps was
worked over, displaced and turned over. Even abandoned smelter sites in the
woods were at risk. There is some hard evidence for the use of older slags in
smelters of the 16th century with the aim of extracting residues of lead and silver
(ROSENHAINER 1968, 131 sqq.). It is likely that slags were added to smelter
charges even before this time. The extensive prospecting for smelter relics in the
Harz by the geologist Arnold Bode4 must also be seen against this background
(BODE 1928). Important facts documented in Bode’s work are not only the loca-
tions of suitable heaps but also the analysis of the metal content of the slags and
transport considerations. Among the causes contributing to the disappearance of
slag heaps construction must also be mentioned. Even up to the middle of this
century the metal loaded slags of the larger smelter sites were used as metal in the
construction of forestry tracks disregarding the pollution this caused5 (Fig. 2).
These threats to sites no longer exist but they have been replaced by others. In
the course of the rationalization of forestry larger and larger machines are being
used. Steep slopes which proved inaccessible so far are now bulldozed by heavy
tree harvesting machinery (Fig. 3). More and more timber tracks are laid to
improve the cost effectiveness of the harvesting operations. In addition the
number of mineral collectors which comb through slag and mine tailing heaps in
their spare time is increasing steadily.
To meet and prevent these new threats is one of the tasks of the Centre for
Mining Archaeology in Goslar. In the following the necessary field work will be
described with particular attention to the methodology of exploration, but also the
realization of some exemplary digs. The possibilities for grouping smelter sites
according to temporal and technological considerations will be discussed in a
closing commentary on the fieldwork and its combinations with analytical results.

4 Bode (1928, 142 sqq.) writes: „Even where the size and shape of the remaining
slagheaps has been altered, it seems important to report all observations because the
general public has a historical as well as an economic interest in these slag deposits which
should be satisfied before they have vanished entirely.“
5 This prospection of smelter sites is made very difficult by the redistribution of smelter
slags resulting from construction projects. Each new find must be evaluated taking the
possibility of a secondary deposit into consideration.