DOI article:
Witthöft, Harald: Early Medieval mining and smelting in the Harz Mountains - historical perspectives
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56859#0139
107
close to Elze or Gittelde. Amongst other goods, salt and iron were traded there.
This is of some importance in our context, since even in Carolingian times Nörten
had been a central base for the diffusion of Christian beliefe and the erection of
churches in the southern regions of what today is called Lower Saxony.* 24
Although the archaelogical evidence and the history of settlements
(Siedlungsgeschichte) lets us assume that even the Upper Harz Mountains in the
early middle ages were not hostile to man and that specific routes and roads must
have crossed it, the first written information to my knowledge only stems from
about 1250. An itinerary of the abbot Albert from Stade reports on his journey to
Rome and back in the year 1236. The last chapter on his return home via
Augsburg and Würzburg „is shaking the established assumptions even of the
more recent historic-geographical research on Northern German routes“.25
For the abbot Albert the route crossing the Harz Mountains was obviously
nothing to be afraid of. From Nürnberg he travelled to Schweinfurt, Meiningen
and Gotha. From there, he did not try to use a more comfortable road along the
Leine or the western rim of the Harz, but climbed the Harz via Nordhausen-
Hasselfelde-Wemigerode. Krüger comments that the problem of traversing the
central plateau of the Harz Mountains at a level of about 500 m and managing to
cope with a difference in height of about 320 m within two days should not be
exaggerated considering other difficulties the abbot might have encountered on
his entire journey to Rome and back.26
In the light of the excavations of an increasing number of early medieval
smelting sites and of information on royal or manorial possessions and strong-
houses right up into or across the Upper Harz Mountains one may suggest that the
mining industry has made these mountains appear accessible to man and his
horse, cart and wagon much earlier than scientific evidence indicated until
recently.
Material remains - laid out or adjusted to a numerical order
Far more than written sources material remains promise to enlarge our
knowledge of the early history of mining and smelting in its widest context - the
"4 Ellmers 1985, 249. - For a better understanding of the history of this region in
general, its settlements and economy in particular, vid. e. g. Klappauf 1995, 403 sqq.
25 Krüger 1956, 71. I am thankful to Gerhard Fouquet, Kiel, for his helpful informations.
26 Krüger 1958, 52 sqq. - En route the Abbot had e. g. also to cross the Thuringian
Forest, the since prehistoric times most used pass of which reached an altitude of 850 m
(Ansorg 1990, 7 sqq.)
close to Elze or Gittelde. Amongst other goods, salt and iron were traded there.
This is of some importance in our context, since even in Carolingian times Nörten
had been a central base for the diffusion of Christian beliefe and the erection of
churches in the southern regions of what today is called Lower Saxony.* 24
Although the archaelogical evidence and the history of settlements
(Siedlungsgeschichte) lets us assume that even the Upper Harz Mountains in the
early middle ages were not hostile to man and that specific routes and roads must
have crossed it, the first written information to my knowledge only stems from
about 1250. An itinerary of the abbot Albert from Stade reports on his journey to
Rome and back in the year 1236. The last chapter on his return home via
Augsburg and Würzburg „is shaking the established assumptions even of the
more recent historic-geographical research on Northern German routes“.25
For the abbot Albert the route crossing the Harz Mountains was obviously
nothing to be afraid of. From Nürnberg he travelled to Schweinfurt, Meiningen
and Gotha. From there, he did not try to use a more comfortable road along the
Leine or the western rim of the Harz, but climbed the Harz via Nordhausen-
Hasselfelde-Wemigerode. Krüger comments that the problem of traversing the
central plateau of the Harz Mountains at a level of about 500 m and managing to
cope with a difference in height of about 320 m within two days should not be
exaggerated considering other difficulties the abbot might have encountered on
his entire journey to Rome and back.26
In the light of the excavations of an increasing number of early medieval
smelting sites and of information on royal or manorial possessions and strong-
houses right up into or across the Upper Harz Mountains one may suggest that the
mining industry has made these mountains appear accessible to man and his
horse, cart and wagon much earlier than scientific evidence indicated until
recently.
Material remains - laid out or adjusted to a numerical order
Far more than written sources material remains promise to enlarge our
knowledge of the early history of mining and smelting in its widest context - the
"4 Ellmers 1985, 249. - For a better understanding of the history of this region in
general, its settlements and economy in particular, vid. e. g. Klappauf 1995, 403 sqq.
25 Krüger 1956, 71. I am thankful to Gerhard Fouquet, Kiel, for his helpful informations.
26 Krüger 1958, 52 sqq. - En route the Abbot had e. g. also to cross the Thuringian
Forest, the since prehistoric times most used pass of which reached an altitude of 850 m
(Ansorg 1990, 7 sqq.)