Lavrion

Laurium or Lavrio is a town in the southeastern part of Attica, Greece. It is part of the Athens metropolitan area and the seat of the municipality of Lavreotiki. Laurium was famous in Classical antiquity for its silver mines, which was one of the chief sources of revenue of the Athenian state. The metallic silver was mainly used for coinage. The Archaeological Museum of Lavrion shows much of the story of these mines.

History

The modern town of Laurium is at the site of the ancient village of Thoricus; its name is taken from that of the entire region of the Mines of Laurium.

The earliest evidence for mining dates to the beginning of the Bronze Age, ca. 3200 BC.

Systematic exploitation of mineral resources seems to have begun in the 6th century BC under Peisistratus. After the battle of Marathon, Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to devote the anticipated revenue derived from a major silver vein strike in the mines of Laurion circa 483 BC to expanding the Athenian fleet to 200 triremes, and thus laid the foundation of the Athenian naval power. The mines, which were the property of the state, were usually farmed out for a certain fixed sum and a percentage on the working; slave labor was exclusively employed. An unrecorded number were children. It was a miserable, dangerous, and brief life. As many as 20,000 slaves were employed at the height of the mining. A silver mint (Argyrocopeum) was at Laurion.

Towards the end of the 5th century, the output fell, partly owing to the Spartan occupation of Decelea. But the mines continued to be worked, though Strabo records that in his time the tailings were being worked over, and Pausanias speaks of the mines as a thing of the past. The ancient workings, consisting of shafts and galleries for excavating the ore, and washing tables for concentrating the ore, may still be seen at many locations. There were well-engineered tanks and reservoirs to collect rainwater for washing the ore since abundant supplies from streams or rivers were impossible at the site. The mines were reworked in the early 20th century by French and Greek companies, but mainly for lead, manganese, and cadmium. The Mineralogical Museum of Lavrion comprises samples of minerals from the region of Lavrion.