Tin is an essential raw material both for the copper-tin alloys developed during the Early Bronze Age and for the casting of tableware in the Medieval period. Secondary geological deposits in the form of placers (cassiterite) provide easily accessible sources but have often been reworked several times during land-use history. In fact, evidence for the earliest phase of tin mining during the Bronze Age has not yet been confirmed for any area in Europe, stimulating an ongoing debate on this issue. For this study, a broad range of methods (sedimentology, pedology, palynology, anthracology, OSL/14C-dating, and micromorphology) was applied both within the extraction zone of placer mining and the downstream alluvial sediments at Schellerhau site in the upper eastern Erzgebirge (Germany). The results indicate that the earliest local removal of topsoil and processing of cassiterite-bearing weathered granite occurred already in the early second millennium BC, thus coinciding with the early and middle Bronze Age period. Placer mining resumed in this area during the Medieval period, probably as early as the 13th century AD. A peak of alluvial sedimentation during the mid-15th century AD is probably related to the acquisition of this region by the Elector of Saxony and the subsequent promotion of mining.

中文翻译：

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萨克森州（德国）埃尔兹山脉山脉青铜时代和中世纪锡砂矿开采的证据

锡是青铜时代初期开发的铜锡合金和中世纪时期餐具铸造的重要原料。砂矿（锡石）形式的次要地质矿床提供了易于获取的资源，但在土地使用历史上经常被多次翻修。实际上，尚未在欧洲任何地区确认青铜时代锡矿开采最早阶段的证据，这激起了有关此问题的持续辩论。在这项研究中，广泛的方法（沉积学，土壤学，孢粉学，人类学，OSL / 14C约会和微观形态学）被应用在砂矿开采区和东部厄尔士山脉的Schellerhau地点的下游冲积沉积物中（德国）。结果表明，最早的局部清除表层土和处理锡石的风化花岗岩已经在公元前二千年初期发生，因此与青铜时代的早期和中期相吻合。在中世纪时期，最早在公元13世纪，该地区恢复了砂矿开采。在公元15世纪中叶，冲积沉积达到顶峰可能与萨克森州选举人对该地区的收购以及随后的采矿活动有关。