What did real medieval mines look like?

[Treebore]

I didn't know that about silver, but I am pretty sure the chemical sulfur is spelled both sulfur and/or sulphur, no e.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I've taken tours of old copper mines in Michigan's upper penninsula, and here's a link to some images that are representative of what I remember: http://www.copperharbor.org/site_files/del_mine.html

The Quincy mine, if I remember right, had about 5 major shafts and fourty or so more or less flat levels. The shafts aren't straight down, so that miners and ore can be rolled up the shaft rather than lifted straight up. The main passageways were about 20 feet across and 10 feet high and braced prodigiously. The non-major pathways were about 10x10 and are mostly straight, but start to meander where the miners found and chased veins of ore. There are some dug-out areas up to 60 feet high where large amounts of ore were found that can be reached on several levels.

One of the things that I found interesting was that the temperature rises a degree or so with each level you descend (about 50 feet) The upper levels were at a constant temperature of about 50 degrees, and the lower levels were quite warm. All but the top few levels are currently under water due to the proximity of Lake Superior.

Admittedly this wasn't a medieval mine, but mine's you find in a standard D&D won't be medieval either.

 

[Turjan]

Wow! Reading through that gave me at least a dozen adventure hooks/ideas. Very nice. Who says history is a waste?

By the way, there are also photographs of the water wheels and a simulated setup for fire-cracking, as mentioned in the history text, on this page of the Rammelsberg site.

 

[Treebore]

You know, it never occurred to me to use water wheels on an underground river . Thanks for that link.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Grrrrr! I hate it when I misspell things like sulphur! Thanks!

One of the things that I found interesting was that the temperature rises a degree or so with each level you descend (about 50 feet)

I bet that mine temp is at least partially due to local geology- I took a tour of a salt mine in Europe...it was pretty chilly.

 

[B9anders]

Great thread this. Very informative. Thanks.

Rammelsberg in particular seems like the prototype for your ancient fantasy dungeon.

 

[The Hound]

Actually, no. It was a series of water wheels with some kind of scoops on the outside, one above the other along a diagonal. A slave would stand inside each one and power it by walking like a hampster in a big wheel.