What did real medieval mines look like?

[HandofMystra]

Hi,
I am new to DMing so I am using pre-made adventures. A couple of them I am interested in have mines, but the mines in the adventure all have rectangular rooms with doors or just look like ordinary D&D cave complexes. I was wondering if anyone knows what mines looked like, so I can change the maps and descriptions to something more realistic. I have looked for mine maps in Google but I have not found anything useful. Like did mines have caverns or long straight shaft. How did air get in or water (of below the water table) get out. For minables that form in veins (like gold or silver), what trajectory might a vein follow. Do mining operations follow these trajectories.

 

[Treebore]

They can look like the D&D modules, a few actually have. There is a great salt mine in Europe, maybe it is in Poland, that is a small city underground, including a church. Silver mines here in the Western US got pretty big, and yes, they follow the veins as much as possible.

Generally, though, they are rough hewn tunnels with widened areas to do some staging of equipment and manpower, and extremely prone to cave ins due to bad shoring and/or water damage from water constantly seeping in. Only major dig sites look anything like what you may see in an adventure module.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Out of curiosity, which adventure is it?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

"Not very deep." Is often mentioned, but I don't really know what that means. Pumps were used to get rid of the water. Archemidies screws worked best. Good air was a problem. One interesting factoid I came across is that old silver and gold mines got out pretty much every scrap of metal ore possible, using hammer and chisle in small areas. (The real problem with RPG dungeons/mines is that unless the pumps are working they ought to be swamped and have really bad air. So I wouldn't worry too much about being ultra realistic.)

 

[Thomas Percy]

There is a great salt mine in Europe, maybe it is in Poland.

Wieliczka

Salt is interesting for dungeon building, because:
- when lit from the other side it become semi-transparent
- salt is in folklore considered a ward against demons etc.
- there can be a lot of monsters variansts e.g. salt golem, salt dragon with salt breath weapon etc.

 

[Beowolf]

one thing i belive we often over look in mines is their very cramped nature, ive heard of even modern mines that have areas where you have to crawl to get through. as mentioned above water is an often overlooked feature that constantly plauges mines, even todays water pumps cant get it all out all the time so after a rain there could easily be huge pools in low spots that the pumps havent drained yet.

another thing to consider is d&d magical nature, consider what magic could have done to help mine or fix problems like water and unstable passages, magical torches for lighting and they dont ignite gas ( ooo another hazard)

as for actual appearance, think dark,very dark. also constant dripping wetness and mosture, falling clumps of dust and creacking support beams. in the deep distance you hear some rocks fall with an echoing crack. that sort of forboding atmosphere , also try to really pump the clastrophobic effect, the tightening corridors and cramped rooms. hope the ideas help.

 

[brehobit]

Settings - What did real medieval mines look like?

They used a flour base for make-up and generally wore a black beret.

Oh, MINES

Nevermind....

 

[Treebore]

Rain can be a huge issue. There are gemestone mines I buy from in Africa and around Thailand that have to shut down for part of the year because of the downpours flooding out the mines and surface digs.

As for the deepest mines that I know of, those are the diamond mines belonging to Debeers on the South African peninsula. They go down close to tow miles deep and they have to ventilate the heck out of them just to keep the temperature below 110 degrees fehrenheit (sp?) for the miners.

The ceilings throughout that mine are about 6 foot high, even the digging machines are short. There are some areas higher up (closer to the surface) where the ceilings are more like 10 to 12 feet high.

For some strange reason DeBeers reluctantly shows maps of their tunnels, so I can't give you a good reference. I'll see if I can find something on the Tsavo Mines, plus there is a mine or two in South America I might be able to find something on. I don't really study the mines or their layouts, guess I should since I am a gamer. There has got to be some good books with good maps available.

 

[Treebore]

Another cool mine that I just remembered, cool in the sense of being a basis for an adventure, is the coal mine in the US that has been burning siince the late 60'S or early 70's (I think, could even be the 80's). Always thought that would be a cool idea for having a fire elemental adventure for PC's to deal with.

Some added problems, the fire is burning so hot underground the the US government had everyone move away. At least one whole decent sized town had to be abandoned. Imagine something like that for an adventure.

 

[domino]

You're probably thinking of Centralia, Pennsylvania, which is going on 45 years now.