Ancient Gold Mining in Rosia Montana

(Apuseni Mts, Romania)

Dumitru Ioane and Horea Bedelean

Historical Background

Rosia Montana, or Alburnus Maior as was called by the Romans, is a famous

ancient gold mining area located in the Apuseni Mts, at the western boundary
of Transylvania, Romania. Its richness in gold was known and valued by ancient
exploitations of river sediments or shallow veins long before the Roman conquest
of Dacia (Motiu, 2004). In fact, the gold of Dacia was the very reason for the two
wars between the Romans and the Dacians; in 106 AD. Dacia became a Roman
province located at the northern limit of the empire.

Ancient Gold Exploitation

During the Roman administration (106–273 AD) mining activities were intensively
developed. Numerous relics of mining works that are still preserved create a spe-
cific geomorphological landscape and represent a witness in stone of now legendary
times.
Gold mining in Rosia Montana was greatly developed by the Roman administra-
tion, a network of mining galleries that followed the mineralized veins being carried
out on several levels using hammer, vinegar and fire, mostly by colonists from
Iliria.

D. Ioane (B)
University of Bucharest, Romania
e-mail: dumitru.ioane@g.unibuc.ro

N. Evelpidou et al. (eds.), Natural Heritage from East to West, 95

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-01577-9_11,  C Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
96 D. Ioane and H. Bedelean

Traces of Roman galleries at Rosia

Montana

Ancient Roman gold mining Ancient Roman gold mining

gallery gallery

Copies of ancient gold bars with Roman stamps are preserved in the Museum
of Gold, established in the town of Brad, an important centre of gold exploitation
located south of Rosia Montana.

Gold bars bearing Roman stamps Museum of Gold -

Brad, Romania

Archaeological Finds

Archaeological finds, such as Roman mining galleries, lamps and parts of the
drainage system, as well as funerary stones and votive altars are evidence for a vivid
economic and cultural life in this remote region of the Roman Empire (Damian,
2003).
Ancient Gold Mining in Rosia Montana 97

Roman archaeological relics in Roman archaeological relics in Rosia

the Rosia Montana museum Montana museum

Valuable samples of original Latin writing were discovered in the period

1786–1855, in the ancient mining works. Of the 50 written wax tablets found, 25
are still preserved in European museums.
Pieces of ancient andesite sarcophagus or Roman pottery may be still found when
hiking in the hills near the old mines.

Andesite cover of an ancient sarcophagus

Roman pottery revealed by rain water in

a road at Rosia Montana
98 D. Ioane and H. Bedelean

Endangered Natural and Cultural Heritage at Rosia Montana

Weathering of the rocks and erosion processes over many centuries revealed numer-
ous Roman mining galleries in the upper part of Cetate Hill, creating a picturesque
and romantic environment. The resulted landscape looked very much like an old
deserted fortress (“Cetate” meaning “Fortress” in Romanian) (Santimbrean and
Bedelean, 2002).
Since 1970 modern mining activities have, to a great extent, destroyed this fasci-
nating site, a large quarry having been excavated for gold exploitation. Despite this,
after more than three decades of intense anthropogenic “erosion” using dynamite,
there are still natural beauties and structures of great archaeological interest.

Violent destruction of the Rosia Montana Quarrying as a major enemy of natural & cultural
“fortress” heritage

In the neighborhood of Rosia Montana, several interesting geological sites are

to be found, that have been established as “natural monuments”; among them are
Piatra Despicata, Piatra Corbului, Detunata Goala and Detunata Flocoasa.
However the unique natural and archaeological site at Rosia Montana, still pre-
serving the local geomorphology, is presently endangered by a recently proposed
mining project that assumes quite rich gold mineralization at different depths. The
ongoing debate about the fate of Rosia Montana is both national and international,
and the official final decision has not yet been made.
Two main options are presently envisaged for Rosia Montana (Ioane et al., 2007):

• gold exploitation in a large and deepening quarry, that may bring jobs for some
local inhabitants and revenues for the Romanian state for a limited interval of
time, but will also damage the environment in both predictable or/and unknown
ways;
• preservation of the natural, ancient mining and archaeological landscape and its
promotion for active tourism, involving local inhabitants for a much longer period
of time.

Acknowledgements Lucian Muntean is thanked by the authors for kindly offering some of the
illustrations used in this paper.
Ancient Gold Mining in Rosia Montana 99

References
Damian, P. (Editor). 2003. Alburnus Maior I. ARTA GRAFICA Publishing House, Bucuresti.
Ioane, D., Marunteanu, C., Bedelean, H., Oaie, G. & Santimbrean, A. 2007. Next future for Rosia
Montana, Romania: geotourism or gold mining? Integration of the geomorphological envi-
ronment and cultural heritage for tourism promotion and hazard prevention, Italo-Maltese
Workshop Abstracts Volume, Malta.
Motiu, I. 2004. Dacia Provincia Augusti. CORINT Publishing House, Bucuresti.
Santimbrean, A. & Bedelean, H. 2002. Rosia Montana – Alburnus Maior, Cetate de scaun a aurului
romanesc. ALTIP Publishing House, Alba Iulia.