#sakdrisi

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Lion Figurine from Georgia (South Caucasus) c.2300 BCE: this gold figurine is more than 4,000 years old

This artifact is also known as the Tsnori Lion, and it was created in eastern Georgia (the country, not the state) during the Bronze Age, dating back to about 2300-2000 BCE.

The ancient and prehistoric peoples of Georgia were famous for their goldsmithing traditions. In fact, Georgia is home to the world's oldest known gold mine. The site, which is known as Sakdrisi, contains evidence of gold mining operations dating back to roughly 3400 BCE (nearly 5,400 years ago).

Unfortunately, most of the prehistoric mine at Sakdrisi was destroyed back in 2014, when the Georgian government allowed a Russian mining company (RMG Gold) to resume its own mining operations at the site. The company then used dynamite and heavy machinery to destroy most of the prehistoric levels.

To the ancient Greeks, Georgia was also known as the birthplace of the fabled Golden Fleece -- the distant land to which Jason and the Argonauts once journeyed. Researchers now believe that the legend of the Golden Fleece may have had at least some basis in reality. Historical and ethnological accounts suggest that the peoples of Georgia traditionally used sheepskins to harvest gold from the rivers of the Caucasus, and the fleece was generally submerged underwater until it was encrusted with tiny flakes of gold, giving it the appearance of a "golden fleece."

Studies have confirmed that the rich alluvial deposits carried by the rivers of Georgia actually were sufficient for producing the "golden fleece" effect, so those practices may have inspired Greek legends about Georgia and the golden fleece.

Other Georgian artifacts made of gold can be found in some of my previous posts.

Sources & More Info:

Quaternary International: Modern Field Investigation of the Mythical “Gold Sands” of Colchis and the “Golden Fleece” Phenomena

National Geographic Georgia: Golden Lion from Kakheti

Archaeo Sciences: Bronze Age Gold in Southern Georgia

The Archaeology of the Caucasus from the Earliest Settlements to the Iron Age: Mining for Metals and Ore

Democracy and Freedom Watch: What was Lost when a Mining Company Destroyed the Ancient Sakdrisi Mine?

Atinati: The Golden Kingdom of Colchis

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

5,400-Year-Old Gold Mine at Sakdrisi, in Georgia (South Caucasus): this is the world's oldest known gold mine, with mining operations dating back to 3400 BCE; sadly, most of the site was destroyed by a Russian mining company in 2014

This site was mentioned in one of my previous posts, but I wanted to provide a little more information.

The prehistoric gold mine at Sakdrisi dates back to about 3400-3000 BCE, which makes this the oldest gold mine ever discovered. It's located in modern-day Georgia, nestled between Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

As this article explains:

Sakdrisi is a complex of four mines categorised into four areas and covering about 60 hectares. The complex comprised mining shafts between 3 and 5 meters wide, transitional corridors, and pits. One of the prehistoric workings reached a depth of 27 meters (88.5 feet).

Secure radiocarbon samples clearly indicate that Kura-Araxes miners exploited the gold from the mid-fourth to mid-third millennium BC, making Sakdrisi the oldest known gold mine in the world. Later miners re-worked the old deposits in the fourth and fifth centuries, but were not as intrepid as their prehistoric forebears.

The same article goes on to describe how the gold was extracted:

Mining at Sakdrisi involved a lot of hard work. In the first instance, the miners used fire to crack the extremely hard matrix in which the gold is embedded. Experiments demonstrated that the miners would have left the galleries after lighting a fire — small pieces of wood were probably laid against the wall - to avoid the noxious fumes and, when the air cleared, they pounded the walls of the mine with heavy, hafted hammer stones, leaving tell-tale hollows. Tools varied according to the task, from heavy mallets to finer implements, such as antler picks, used to extract deposits in narrow cracks. The next stage involved hand sorting and crushing the ore, which was finally milled to a powder.

Estimates have suggested that the industrious miners exploited somewhere between 500 and 1000 kg of gold at Sakdrisi in the course of its lifetime.

Sadly, most of the prehistoric mine at Sakdrisi was destroyed back in 2014, when the Georgian government decided to revoke the site's protected status and then allowed a Russian gold mining company (RMG Gold) to begin mining the site.

Sources & More Info:

The Archaeology of the Caucasus from the Earliest Settlements to the Iron Age: Mining for Metal and Ore

Archaeo Sciences: Bronze Age Gold in Southern Georgia

Europa Nostra: Appeal to Stop the Destruction of an Important Archaeological Site in Georgia

National Geographic: Treasure of the Caucasus

Saunje: The Gold Mine of Sakdrisi and the Earliest Mining and Metallurgy in Transcaucasia

Democracy and Freedom Watch: What was Lost when a Mining Company Destroyed the Ancient Sakdrisi Mine?

[archaeologicalnews]

Georgia's gold mine dilemma

What is worth more: a unique historic site or gold that lies within it?

That is a question Georgians have been grappling with since their government gave permission for industrial excavation to start at what scientists claim is the oldest known gold mine in the world.

The archaeological area, known as Sakdrisi, is a small grassy hill in the Bolnisi region, in the picturesque foothills of south-eastern Georgia.

For 10 years Professor Thomas Stoellner, a leading specialist in mining archaeology from the University of Bochum, Germany, has been studying the archaeological record at Sakdrisi together with his Georgian colleagues. Read more.