entity · site_bi_great_orme
Great Orme copper mine
Also known as: Mwynglawdd copr y Gogarth
Extensive prehistoric copper mine on the Great Orme, north Wales.
Review and provenance
Specialist reviewer: not recorded. Review date: not recorded.
Dataset workflow: proposed. This is separate from specialist review.
Confidence describes the stated assessment; it does not certify expert approval. How review works.
Chronology
Dating intervals may describe uncertainty or phases; their width alone does not establish event duration.
1700 BCE–900 BCE
Precision: broad archaeological range
- informs · defines or contextualizes
Boom and bust in Bronze Age Britain: major copper production from the Great Orme mine and European trade, c. 1600–1400 BC — R. Alan Williams, Cécile Le Carlier de Veslud (2019)Integrates mine chronology, ore characterisation, metal analyses and production estimates to argue for a major Great Orme production peak and wide circulation.
Locator: Abstract; The Great Orme copper mine; Discussion; Conclusions; Figures 2 and 9 - informs · defines or contextualizes
Use-wear and technological analysis of animal-bone mining tools from the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine — Olga Zagorodnia (2026)Examines manufacture and use of animal-bone mining tools from Great Orme.
Locator: Abstract; methods; use-wear results and discussion
Research description
A large underground mining complex exploited from the Early/Middle Bronze Age into the Late Bronze Age, with peak output in the earlier part of this release interval. Provenance studies connect compatible metal widely, but compatible chemistry is not proof of every route or transaction.
Properties and assignments
A label’s definition and the evidence for assigning it here are separate.
Metal-production centre
Direct evidence exists for mining, smelting, casting or intensive metalworking.
Why does this record have this property?
Direct archaeological evidence supports substantial metal extraction or working at this place, while ownership and labour organization remain separate questions.
- Boom and bust in Bronze Age Britain: major copper production from the Great Orme mine and European trade, c. 1600–1400 BC
supports assignment · Abstract; The Great Orme copper mine; Discussion; Conclusions; Figures 2 and 9
Contact evidence does not by itself prove migration
Objects, styles or materials indicate contact or circulation without uniquely identifying population movement.
Why does this record have this property?
The evidence supports contact, circulation or individual mobility but does not alone establish mass migration or ethnic replacement.
- Boom and bust in Bronze Age Britain: major copper production from the Great Orme mine and European trade, c. 1600–1400 BC
supports assignment · Abstract; The Great Orme copper mine; Discussion; Conclusions; Figures 2 and 9 - Use-wear and technological analysis of animal-bone mining tools from the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine
supports assignment · Abstract; methods; use-wear results and discussion
Evidence and sources
- supports · defines or contextualizes
Boom and bust in Bronze Age Britain: major copper production from the Great Orme mine and European trade, c. 1600–1400 BC — R. Alan Williams, Cécile Le Carlier de Veslud (2019)Integrates mine chronology, ore characterisation, metal analyses and production estimates to argue for a major Great Orme production peak and wide circulation.
Locator: Abstract; The Great Orme copper mine; Discussion; Conclusions; Figures 2 and 9 - supports · defines or contextualizes
Use-wear and technological analysis of animal-bone mining tools from the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine — Olga Zagorodnia (2026)Examines manufacture and use of animal-bone mining tools from Great Orme.
Locator: Abstract; methods; use-wear results and discussion
Referenced records
- Wales archaeological search region · entity
- Geography assertion for site_bi_great_orme · geography assertion