The Slovakian Ore Mountains in central Slovakia which are part of the Western Carpathians are
one of the most important metallogenic regions in central Europe. Over the last decades the
question of their prehistoric use was addressed in several studies given the rich metal finds
and indications of metallurgy but could only partly be answered due to the complex
multi-phase genesis of the ore deposits also in comparison to the deposits in Serbia
Bulgaria and the Alps. However at a general level these studies succeeded in showing the
importance of the Slovak deposits as raw material sources from the 4th millennium B.C. onwards
alongside the eastern Alps. Nevertheless questions concerning the use of the area itself the
organisation of deposit exploitation and the their positive identification as raw material
sources have hitherto had to remain open. In addition the trade routes between the mining area
and its surroundings as well as the integration of the known large-scale settlements in the
river valleys and in general the structure of Copper and Bronze Age settlement patterns remain
largely unaddressed. Research into mining archaeology has remained somewhat in the background
and initial work was only carried out in spania Dolina in the 1970s where finds of mallets and
pottery on late medieval and early modern waste dumps suggested use in the Copper and Bronze
Ages. Within the framework of a collaborative project focusing on the economic basis of the
Early Bronze Age settlement of the Zitava valley the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum was
invited to contribute to the mining archaeological investigation of the western Slovak Ore
Mountains. This was followed by metallurgical and archaeological research on metalworking in
the settlement of Fidvar near Vrà ble and the surrounding micro-region. A further focus was
formed by mining archaeological prospection and the excavation of the ore deposits near Banská
Bystrica in L'ubietová and Poniky which were possibly used in the Bronze Age. Finally the
copper deposit of spania Dolina [Herrengrund] was the centre of targeted fieldwork as stone
mallet and pottery finds from Piesky [Sandberg] indicated its exploitation since the Copper
Age. This volume presents the results of our investigations.
