IRON AGE AND ROMAN MINING AT ALDERLEY EDGE, CHESHIRE: An archaeological excavation of Pot Shaft, Engine Vein in 1997 Simon.

A 12 metre deep square-cut Roman mine shaft infilled with a mixture of naturally accumulated and backfilled mine spoil was fully excavated by the Archaeological Group of the Derbyshire Caving Club (DCC) and the Alder ley Edge Landscape Project (AELP) between October and December 1997. The shaft was uncovered as a result of ground subsidence at this spot, following which safety work, including the digging and capping of the shaft, was carried out by the DCC in March 1995. It was during the course of this work that a Roman coin hoard was discovered, consisting of 564 early 4th century AD bronze coins found packed into a broken pot, and lying some 2.4 metres below the present ground surface. It would seem that these were buried here long after the abandonment of the original working. Below the level of this find, archaeological excavation and recording of the shaft and its associated gallery (driven as a cross-cut southwards towards Engine Vein) has confirmed the mine to be an intact but short-lived working for copper or lead ore dating to the period 95 cal BC-- cal AD 220 (68% probability), but most likely with Roman (early post-Conquest) origins. A number of oak planks dating from the working period of the mine were recovered from the base of the shaft. These have been radiocarbon dated, along with wood and charcoal found within the backfill of the working. During the Roman period small-scale mining here was probably carried out under direct military control, although no trace of an encampment or miners' habitations have been found. Palaeoenvironmental evidence recovered from a radiocarbon-dated peat core at nearby Adders Moss would appear to confirm that small-scale mining or smelting activity was carried out upon the Edge during the Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Late Iron Age and Early Roman periods, the latter associated with increased lead flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]