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The Middle Ages in Europe cover the time span from the 5th century AD, marked by the decay of the Roman Empire, to the 16th century, when social and economic factors shifted Europe towards the Modern Era. During the millennium between classical antiquity and the modern period, a series of technological innovations and inventions, which led to the industrial era, took place. Such technological achievements affected directly the extraction of raw materials, such as metal ores and coal, and the growth of the metal output in terms of quantity, as well as quality. Metal production in medieval Europe may have been affected, decreased or increased, by different factors, but it was never ceased, as different kinds of metal objects were always in demand either in periods of war (e.g. arms and armour) or peace (e.g. implements and tools (Pick, hammer, pike, wheelbarrow, etc.〔http://www.engr.psu.edu/mtah/articles/roots_colonial_iron_technology.htm〕), coinage, building construction, decoration, bells, ecclesiastical and status items, etc.). Metallurgical activities were also encouraged by central political power, regional authorities, monastic orders and ecclesiastical overlords, who always tried to have control and claimed Regalian rights over the mines and a share in the output, both in private lands and regions belonging to the Crown. They were particularly interested in the extraction of the precious metal ores, but not only, and for this reason the mines in their territories were open to all miners (Nef 1987, 706-715). == Early Middle Ages, 5th to 10th centuries== The social, political, economic stagnation and decline that followed the decadence of the Roman World affected Europe, throughout the early medieval period, and had critical impact upon the technological progress, trade and social organization. Technological developments that affected the course of metal production were only feasible within a stable political environment, and this was not the case until the 9th century (Martinon-Torres & Rehren in press, a). During the first medieval centuries, the output of metal was in a steady decline and constraint in small scale activities. Miners adopted methods much less efficient than those of the Roman times. Ores were extracted only from shallow depths or from remnants of former abandoned mines, assuming that the old shafts weren't already sunk. The vicinity of the mine to villages or towns was also a determinant factor when deciding about working on site, because of the high cost of material transportation (Martinon-Torres & Rehren in press, b). It seems like only the output of iron diminished less in relation to the rest of the base and precious metals until the 8th century. This fact, correlated with the dramatic decrease in copper production, in particular, may indicate a possible displacement of copper and bronze artifacts from iron ones (Forbes 1957, 64; Bayley et al. 2008, 50). By the end of the 9th century, economic and social conditions, which dictated the increased need of metal for agriculture, arms, stirrups, and decoration, started to favor metallurgy and a slow but steady general progress was noted. Smelting sites were multiplied and new mines were discovered and exploited, like the well-known Mines of Rammelsberg, close to the town of Goslar by the Harz Mountains. Open-cast mining and metallurgical activities were mostly concentrated in the Eastern Alps, Saxony, Bohemia, Tuscany, the Rhineland, Gaul and Spain (Nef 1987). French, Flemish, but mainly German miners and metallurgists were the generators of metal production. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mining and metallurgy in medieval Europe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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