Adaptation

I've been searching for sources on who did the mining in pre-Celtic Europe. I know that once the Celts come in, slavery becomes the norm in farming and mining(roman sources indicates such a system), but what about the copper and bronze age mining? Do we assume it's slavery as well?

This falls in the category of ''slavery in western europe before the celts'' I have not found any sources that talk of such, although we would assume the pre-celtic people had slaves because of how everybody else in the Mediterranean used slavery.

Archeologically, we can see a lot of mining having been done in France and England and a lot of bronze weapons have been found - can we assume automatically that this was made by slaves(mining not being the most glorious activity; i have a hard time seeing mining in the bronze age done by people willingly spending days in mines out of free will). However, maybe it was done out of free will - the benefits of acquiring the minerals outweigh the harsh conditions of mining(the gold rush of the 19th century comes to mind here).

So - slaves or risky entrepreneurs?

Aetius

No sure where you got this slavery thing from. Pre-Celtic means roughly pre-800 BC means pre-Antiquity means prior to the Greco-Roman institution of slavery. Bronze Age mining in the Alpes was a huge and sophisticated enterprise, probably the largest mining facilities in the world, run by specialists (reaching up to 190 m deep).

Thessalonian

One of the oldest mines in Europe is Lavrion Gold Mine. Excavations began circa 3000 BCE...

Eratosthenes

That is a Non sequitur if I ever heard one. Is there any record of Celts having or having been slaves before they encountered the Romans?

To get back to a time before the peoples who were to be called "Celtic" existed, you would have to go before the La Tene, Halstatt and urnfield cultures.

In fact, if you accept the Kurgan hypothesis of about Indo-European origins, which most people do, you would be way before then.

I consider them the indigenous people of Europe, for this epoch.

Eratosthenes

For gold maybe.

But salt is another story:
The Poiana Slatinei archaeological in Romania (47°11'36.89"N 26°19'42.86")
Has diggings which are believed to go back to 6000 bce.


Maybe somebody should start a thread to find out what the oldest known mine sites are.


btw
I heard a rumor that you are unhappy with me

Adaptation

Interesting answer. Do we know if these bronze age society's ''employed slavery''? I don't expect written sources obviously, but is there any archeological find that would suggest so?

Thessalonian

How could I be unhappy with you? After all you calculated the circumference of the Earth!