|
Search for hotels
|
|
|
|
|
|
Best Western Hotel Lido
|
|
This Mons, Belgium hotel is conveniently located in the city center, 200 meters from la Grande...
|
|
more...
|
|
|
|
Belgium: Search for areas
|
|
|
|
|
Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes
|
|
|
The men who started to dig mines in Spiennes, some 6 000 years ago, are regarded as the oldest miners in the world. They had just discovered a profuse deposit of quality, which was to be exploited for more than 1 800 years. In total, around one hundred hectares were to be exploited and thousands of shafts were to be bored.
Step by step, mines have replaced pits, from 8 to 11 metres deep. The flint layers are extracted by digging short galleries, from 2 to 5 metres long, which go off from the shaft that gives access to the mines. A mining site, which is 16 metres in depth , has even been discovered to a place called "Camp-à-Cayaux". Large pieces of flint, of around two metres long, have been extracted there with a special technique called "foudroyage".
The Neolithic mines in Spiennes clearly show, as it is the case with others monuments registered in the UNESCO List, the human beings’ inventiveness. The archaeological potential of the site is considered as a fund of knowledge for the coming generations and is worth protecting for these ones.
|
|
|