The Rocky State of Your Campaign
The earliest form of mining was simply scavenging the ground and streams for appropriately shaped rocks that could be used to as is. Eventually, primitive man recognized that certain types of rocks were more useful than others, and some could be shaped.
Rocks that Split
Flint
Flint’s capability to be split into thin sharp splinters made it a ready tool material. The identification and gathering of flint from specific areas is the first example of mining and occurred about 2.5 million years ago. This led to quarries, a form of open-pit mining. Serious flint mining has been confirmed to the Paleolithic period, but became more common in the Neolithic. Where flint was abundant, the first primitive people probably set up more permanent homes. Some flint quarries have been dated up to 50,000 years old.
Obsidian
Obsidian is a volcanic rock that also fractures, producing nearly molecular-thin blades. Found in Europe, North America, and Mexico, Products made of obsidian were traded far and wide. The Mesoamerican cultures used it most, even producing a sword of obsidian that could produce horrific injuries. Obsidian was also polished as early mirrors.
Other chippable stones: Radiolarite, Chalcedony, Basalt, Quartzite
Ground Stones
In the Neolithic period, polishing stones into shaped tools became more popular. The best materials included basalt, sandstone, greenstone, rhyolite, or granite. These types of stones were shaped by grinding and their coarse nature made them ideal for grinding other materials, sometimes called manos. They were also shaped to make axes, adzes, and celts.
Evaporites
The primitive people didn’t just use stone for tools. Along dried lake beds and places where the sea once covered, primitive people started collecting crystallized minerals and set up settlements nearby to store and process them.
Salt is one of the most important evaporates, found in dry salt beds, oceans, underground springs, and underground. The humans likely followed the animals to the ancient salt lakebeds and watched the beasts licking the surface. Soon humans learned to scrape the salt off the ground. From there, salt came to influence humanity’s growth and development. It is believed wild herd animals were domesticated by salt offerings. It was discovered that salt preserved food. Quickly becoming a precious commodity, on every continent the dominant people were the ones who gained control of the salt.
China likely built the first Salt Empire and salt’s uses in pharmacology were recorded on a treatise some 4,700 years ago. In China, only the government could procure and sell salt. The mineral paid for the Great Wall of China and the Chinese Army.
In 200 BCE, Li Bing, governor of Sichuan province, found underwater salt springs. To get to the springs they drilled and brought up the water to boil out the salt in buildings above the springs. The problem was that the workers got sick, fire shot out of the holes at times and there were the occasional explosions. Originally blamed on underground dragon, by 100 CE, the Chinese determined there was an invisible substance coming up the holes with the saltwater that caused the fires. Workers learned to light the end of a pipe and use these fires to boil the saltwater, producing the earliest known use of natural gas.
The Egyptians got their salt from the desert, scraping it off dried lake beds. It was used for both the living and the dead, a major component of the mummification process. Camels carried salt hundreds of miles to trade it for gold.
The Celts mined rock salt and became powerful selling the salt and salted foods along the rivers of Europe. From the Celts we get ham, which was originally reserved for the bravest warriors.
Roman cities were founded near salt works and the road called Via Salaria (Salt Road) was used to bring salt to Rome from Ostia. Unlike the Chinese, the Romans believed everyone had a right to salt. Common salt was served in simple seashell containers in most households, while ornately made bowls were used by the wealthy. The Roman Emperors tried to keep the price of salt low, occasionally taxing it to raise money. Emperor Augustus would occasionally distribute free salt to gain public support for wars. Salaria produced many words we use today, including salary, soldier, salad.
Building Materials
While the oldest building materials ever found were of hides and mammoth bones, primitive man did use rock and clay from the earliest times. The types of building material used mainly relied on location. At first the people made dry-stone walls by stacking the material, but eventually mortar was used to strengthen the dwelling, insulate it from the cold, and protect from leakage. In other places, large stackable rocks were unavailable and the people of the region made do with mud and clay. The people of western Europe focused on round buildings with fibrous roofs, while those of the east and in Mesoamerica concentrated on rock alone.
Brick
Using mud or clay, many hotter climes show the use of sun-dried bricks, mainly the Babylonians. The Egyptians used limestone blocks bound by mud and clay, or clay and sand. In later Egyptian constructions, the mortar contained gypsum or lime.
Other structures
Henges
In Cissbury, England and the surrounding regions, blocks were arranged during Neolithic times to form circles of stone, most likely used to create standing calendars. While some were of limestone, others, including the largest at Avebury, were from a sandstone cap that once covered much of England.
Cairns
Cairns were used as burial mounds or markers throughout Gaulish Europe.
The first real mines
Possibly the Oldest
In Swaziland in Africa miners cut a tunnel into the side of a cliff, making it one of the earliest underground mines. Here, 43,000 years ago, Paleolithic humans were mining hematite to make red ochre pigment. Since ochre isn’t used for any utilitarian purpose in a primitive society, art and ritual are the only possibilities.
Flint Mines
In England, Neolithic miners dug into a hill, sometimes up to 12 meters deep, in search of flint. Several flint mines can be found today. In the late Neolithic, the Egyptians were mining malachite for ornamentation
Chalk
Deneholes are small mines into the chalk interior of the western European region. Bones picks and awls were used to cut down into the chalk, which was then used for speading on fields.
Uses in Gaming
Cultural Differences
Although most high fantasy gaming puts people well into the Iron Age, there are always cultures that are “behind,” although many of these primitives are sophisticated for what materials they are using. A Neolithic Culture that uses obsidian for its arrowpoints may still be devastating to Bronze Age and Iron Age warriors who expect primitive culture to be…well, primitive.
Plot Hook
Party stumbles into region inhabited by a primitive tribe with the best of lithic technology.
Industry
Clay, limestone, chalk, and flint are still quarried or mined from places where these materials are prominent. Even a modern-day adventure can find itself in a village or area where local materials are gathered and processed.
Plot Hook
A town known for its pottery finds a strange body in the mud pit and the characters are sent to investigate, as it doesn’t appear to be human. The people claim they know nothing, but push the investigators to move on the case, since their livelihood as a village depends on access to the pit.
Prehistoric Traps
A tunnel dug by prehistoric miners could be a surprise for any group of adventurers, considering most would suspect a tunnel or pit to be directly related to their adventure. Depending on the type of mine, the characters find little left within the mine except a few tools and evidence that people once walked here. If the GM wants more excitement, a new resident could move into the hole and be difficult about leaving.
Plot Hook
The wheel of a cart or someone in the group (I’d avoid killing a horse over this), steps into a vent or sinks into the ground. Upon investigation there are signs of a tunnel, or handholds or evidence of hand-made cuts made in the sides of the tunnel or pit. Investigation reveals a chalk mine made thousands of years before, but little else.
The Salt Empire
Even in Iron Age and beyond, salt plays an important part in the development of human civilization. Rather than just have a “rich” empire, salt can give a bona fide reason for the rich city the adventurers come across. Following the Chinese progression, the city’s people may have access to substances such as natural gas, which would make them more advanced than any city your adventurers have ever visited.
Plot Hook
The adventurers get in trouble in a large city (again!), only this time they are sent to the salt processing plants. Here, the workers have tapped into the invisible natural gas tubes, but don’t yet realize what it is that’s causing all the illnesses, fires, and explosions. Maybe it really is dragons. Have a ball.
Up next: Where’s the gold?
