Definition: The copper mines in the valleys and side walls of Monte Loreto in the Liguria region of Italy are some of the earliest known copper mines in Europe. The mines are shafts dug into the hillside up to two meters in depth, and charcoal recovered from the floor of the shafts has been dated to 4240+/-60 bp.
Recent investigations have been conducted by Roberto Maggi and Mark Pearce.
Sources
Maggi, Roberto and Mark Pearce 2005 Mid fourth-millennium copper mining in Liguria, north-west Italy: the earliest known copper mines in Western Europe. Antiquity 79(303):66-77.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
