Iron Age gold mining: A preliminary report on camps in the Al Maraziq region, Yemen

Ancient geologists in Yemen and Egypt recognized that quartz veins surround ing caldera-collapse complexes (exhumed explosive volcanoes) were gold bear ing and actively sought out these geologic environments. Rock hammerstones, anvils and grinders are found in camps on both sides of the Red Sea, indic ating that mining and metallurgical extraction technology and knowledge wer e also widespread during the Iron Age. The technology and overall layout of the Yemen sites is equivalent with New Kingdom to Late Period Egyptian sit es, and there is no evidence of smelting, which is a Greco-Roman Period dev elopment. It is not known who controlled the Yemen mines, but the large num ber of adits in the Al Maraziq area suggests that these gold mines may have been important to local, regional and possibly international economies.