Pollution and environmental health threats from mining are often seen as recent phenomena. Yet their history as a nexus dates back many centuries, with a particular acceleration in thirteenth-century Europe.<\/p>\n
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Woodcut from Georgius Agricolas “De re metallica libri XII”<\/em> Europe experienced unprecedented demographic and economic growth between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, as well as an increase in industry and trade, all of which generated a need for metals and coinage. Mines and miners proliferated in an effort to exploit the region\u2019s numerous ore deposits.<\/p>\n Extraction could last several centuries and fostered human settlement and economic growth, but it also threatened communities with pollution, deteriorated health and irreversible ecological changes. While mining products and their economic value are well known, miners\u2019 health and extraction\u2019s environmental impacts remain poorly understood, despite abundant evidence.<\/p>\n Our new project, which runs until the end of this year (thus the “Accelerator”), gathers researchers across disciplines including history and archaeology, to produce original and systematic comparison of three mining sites. We will compare: Map of known preindustrial mining sites in Europe 1200-1600, with our case studies identified in red.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The team will focus on the three mining regions of Brandes (France), Harz (Germany) and Colline Metallifere (Italy),\u00a0 moving beyond the scale of single sites and (sub)disciplines, and towards a continental synthesis. Our project also has public engagement in mind: we will build a database of environmental and health data across these regions, and produce interactive maps visualising these comparisons. See our track record of historical GIS here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The innovative pilot program will challenge the narrative of a single path to current environmental health threats, one that began namely with the Industrial Revolution in urban north-western Europe and culminated in a global Anthropocene.<\/p>\n Our research team consists, non-exhaustively, of the following researchers and research assistants based across western Europe; Australia; and Malaysia.<\/p>\n Guy Geltner<\/strong> (Monash University, Australia) We are excited to announce we have received funding from Monash Arts Faculty for a Health and Medical Research Accelerator project on preindustrial public health. This research project builds on the work done in our two (previous\/ current) projects, Healthscaping … Continue reading
\nPublic domain<\/em><\/p>\n
\n1)<\/strong> short- and long-term medical and environmental consequences of Europe’s medieval mining boom; and
\n2)<\/strong> how mining communities understood and addressed such threats.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hcommons-staging.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/1000456\/2023\/03\/20230315_AcceleratorSites-1024x724.png\")
\nL\u00e9a Hermenault<\/strong> (Universiteit Antwerp, Belgium)
\nNicolas Minvielle Larousse<\/strong> (Ecole fran\u00e7aise de Rome, Italy)
\nGiovanna Bianchi<\/strong> (Universit\u00e0 di Siena, Italy)
\nTina Asmussen<\/strong> (Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Germany)
\nSarah May<\/strong> (Monash University, Australia)
\nKallum Robinson\u00a0<\/strong>(Monash University, Australia)<\/p>\n\n