Most of the galleries belong to the well-known Goldene Sonne gold mine and date back to the 19th century. A fundamental goal of the Goldene Sonne project is a geodetic survey of the historical galleries at Calanda. This includes the establishment of a basic fixed point system, the localisation of the sites, the georeferencing and completion of existing documentation (plans of gallery systems) as well as the small-scale recording of previously undocumented structures (pits, buildings). The aims of the project are to produce general maps, detailed plans and 3D models of the archaeologically relevant interventions at Calanda.
Within the framework of the research project, prospections and inspections are carried out in the area of known structures resulting from mining in order to gain indications of mining traces that could be older than the mostly well-preserved traces that have so far generally been considered medieval. So far, no prehistoric mining or processing evidence, for example in the form of slag heaps or smelting sites, as proven for example in the Oberhalbstein, is known from the deposits at Calanda. For the time being, these are the oldest mining traces on Calanda. Only further prospections and montane archaeological investigations in the area and on the periphery of medieval mining will make it possible to locate the postulated prehistoric mining. Kurt Bächtiger already expressed the suspicion in 1968 that individual tunnels on Calanda show traces that possibly date back to prehistoric times.
Project framework
The project was initiated in 2007 by Mirco Brunner as a Swiss youth research project and has been set up since 2016 as a cooperation between the University of Bern, IAW and the Archaeological Service of the Grisons. At the same time, the project is designed as a teaching and research field week, which focuses on the training of students and the systematic scientific processing of the archaeologically relevant anthropogenic interventions on the Calanda. Following the field work (surveying and prospection), the focus is on the evaluation of the data, which will be elaborated in the form of general maps, detailed plans and 3D models.
Research Questions
Specifically, the following questions are being pursued:
1. dating and chronology: when were the galleries created and how long has one been in operation?
2. mining and ores: Where and how were the ores found and mined at Calanda?
3. what is the extent of mining at Calanda?
4. what archaeological evidence (tunnels, pits, miners' house, miners' path) can be found on Calanda?
5. to what extent can the archaeological evidence at Calanda be related to the existing written sources?
Aims
The aim of the project is a geodetic survey of the historical and prehistoric galleries on Calanda. This includes the establishment of a base fixed point system, the location of the sites themselves, the georeferencing and supplementation of existing documentation (plans of gallery systems) as well as the small-scale recording of previously undocumented structures (pits, miners' houses, etc.) by means of measurement technology. The results of the project are general maps, detailed plans and 3D models of the archaeologically relevant anthropogenic interventions at Calanda.
Project management
Mirco Brunner
Archaeologist, IAW Universität Bern
mirco.brunner@iaw.unibe.ch
Anja Buhlke
Diploma - Engineer (FH) Cartography and Excavation Technology
