The diachronic development of the Laurion mining landscape and its relation to process optimization in mining

This article summarises the main results of my PhD thesis on silver mining in ancient Laurion. In the first part, the development of mining in Laurion is examined against the backdrop of the mining landscape model developed by Th. Stöllner. A correlation between mining activities and settlement development in the region is suggested. The second part discusses different theories concerning the main steps of the chaîne opératoire of silver production. It is argued that process optimization strategies can be detected in the ancient Athenian silver “industry”.