Archaeological Discovery, 2017, 5, 42-59

http://www.scirp.org/journal/ad
ISSN Online: 2331-1967
ISSN Print: 2331-1959

Amalgamation and Small-Scale Gold Mining at

Ancient Sardis, Turkey

William E. Brooks1, Hüseyin Öztürk2, Zeynep Cansu2

1
Geologist, Reston, VA, USA
2
Department of Geological Engineering, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

How to cite this paper: Brooks, W. E., Abstract

Öztürk, H., & Cansu, Z. (2017). Amalga-
mation and Small-Scale Gold Mining at In the ancient world gold was mined mainly from alluvial occurrences using gravity
Ancient Sardis, Turkey. Archaeological methods combined with the use of mercury (amalgamation), a method that is still
Discovery, 5, 42-59.
used today in small-scale alluvial gold mines worldwide. Cyanide, which was first
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ad.2017.51003
used in the 1880s, is used in large-scale hardrock mines to recover gold, silver, cop-
Received: January 3, 2017 per, and other metals from porphyry and disseminated ore deposits. Therefore,
Accepted: January 22, 2017 amalgamation must be considered, or specifically in the case of Sardis, reconsidered
Published: January 25, 2017
as the technology for ancient alluvial gold mining. Evidence that includes: the availa-
Copyright © 2017 by authors and bility of cinnabar, the ore of mercury; an ancient mercury retort; ancient use of cin-
Scientific Research Publishing Inc. nabar as a pigment and mercury for gilding and amalgamation; the very fine-grained
This work is licensed under the Creative
alluvial gold at Sardis; and the composition of the end-product gold, a Byzantine
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0). coin. These all indicate that amalgamation must be considered as the mining tech-
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ nology that supplied gold to Sardis’ ancient refineries and craftsmen.
Open Access
Keywords
Gold, Mercury, Amalgamation, Sardis, Turkey

1. Introduction
Amalgamation is widely used today in small-scale alluvial gold mines around the world
and this method is key to understanding alluvial gold mining in the past that would
have similarly utilized gravity separation of gold combined with mercury amalgama-
tion. It is a rudimentary process that begins with washing the gold-bearing sediment to
obtain a gold-bearing pan concentrate; then adding mercury to amalgamate the gold;
then removing the gold-mercury amalgam; and finally, burning the amalgam to volatil-
ize the mercury leaving the gold. As used herein, gold refers to the platinum-silver-
copper bearing alluvial gold, or electrum found at, for example, the Pactolus River gold
occurrence at Sardis (SartÇayi, Manisa), Turkey (Figure 1).

DOI: 10.4236/ad.2017.51003 January 25, 2017

 W. E. Brooks et al.

Figure 1. Approximate locations of mercury districts in Turkey (Bircan & Aydoğanlı, 1969; Barnes & Bailey, 1972).

Gold mining in western Turkey goes back to ~3000 BC and alluvial gold was mined
from Astrya approximately 25 km from ancient Troy (Bayburtoğlu & Yildirim, 2010).
At Sardis, alluvial gold mining dates to ~700 BC and gold is still produced today. How-
ever, owing to the small size of the gold at Sardis, it was necessary to use mercury to
amalgamate the gold-bearing sluice concentrates as part of a modern economic evalua-
tion of this ancient gold occurrence (Topkaya, 1984).
Amalgamation, which dates at least to Roman times (Agricola, 1556/1912), was pro-
posed as the mining technology used at ancient Sardis (Craddock, 2000a)—that is, if
mercury had been used, then low levels of mercury would be detected in the chemical
analyses of the end-product gold. Therefore, gold coins from the British Museum’s Sar-
dis collection were analyzed (SEM-EDX), and since no mercury was detected in the
coins, Craddock (2000a) concluded that amalgamation had not been used.
However, there are basically only two methods to mine gold: 1) the centuries-old use
of gravity combined with the addition of mercury (amalgamation); and 2) the compa-
ratively recent use of cyanide. The cyanide method dates to the 1880s (Craig et al.,
2011) and therefore, chronologically, amalgamation must be reevaluated as the tech-
nology for small-scale alluvial gold mining at ancient Sardis.

2. Alluvial Gold Mining and Mercury

Placer, or alluvial gold was ancient man’s primary source of gold and provided two-
thirds of the gold that was ever produced (Boyle, 1979; Bayburtoğlu & Yildirim, 2010).
Nuggets and coarse gold would have been easily picked from the streams and gold
pans; however, recovering the fine-grained gold would have required: 1) washing the
gold-bearing sediment to eliminate light minerals thereby leaving a gold-bearing heavy
mineral concentrate known as “black sand” which would have included zircon, cinna-

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W. E. Brooks et al.

bar, magnetite, platinum, and other heavy minerals, 2) selective removal of the gold
from the black sand by the addition of mercury (amalgamation), 3) and then, as now in
Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Perú, and Venezuela, burning the amalgam (Spanish, re-
fogado) to volatilize the mercury and recover the gold (Brooks et al., 2007; Brooks et al.,
2013; Brooks, 2014).
Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia and was the western strong-
hold of the Persian Empire following its capture by Cyrus in 546 BC. A major trading
route with ancient Persia, the Royal Road, terminated at Sardis (Akurgal, 1969) and the
region has been called the cradle of metallurgy. Sardis’ mineral wealth, especially gold,
and the use of other mineral resources, is exquisitely demonstrated by a 5th century BC
gold earring, with platinum (iridium, osmium), that also incorporated cinnabar in the
design (Young, 1972; Bayburtoğlu & Yildirim, 2010). Gold from Sardis was used for
jewelry, pendants, and chains (Curtis, 1925), or more importantly, was parted to recov-
er silver and gold for coins as early as the 7th century BC (Craddock, 1995; Ramage &
Craddock, 2000). Gold appliqués were associated with some ancient funeral rites and
were also attached to clothing (Roosevelt, 2009; Ephesus Museum, 2016). In the Byzan-
tine world that included parts of Spain, Italy, North Africa, and Asia Minor (Turkey),
cinnabar, the ore of mercury, was used as a pigment (vermilion), as a funeral preserva-
tive, and retorted to produce mercury that was used for gilding or amalgamation.
The earliest written description of the use of mercury specifically for alluvial gold
mining was given by al-Biruni, an 11th century Persian scientist. Small pits in the Sind
River bed were filled with mercury; the mercury amalgamated the alluvial gold and
then the gold-mercury amalgam was recovered, squeezed in a cloth to remove some of
the mercury, and then the gold was burned to volatilize the remaining mercury
(al-Hassan & Hill, 1986).
Any discussion of ancient gold mining in the region must reference the Golden
Fleece, which is the legendary mining method used to recover alluvial gold at ancient
Sardis (Healy, 1978; Higgins & Higgins, 1996; Rapp, 2002). This method is analogous to
the use of animal skins and carpets that are used in present-day small-scale gold mining
in Perú and Venezuela in the initial stages of gold concentration; however, the final re-
covery of the fine-grained gold is done using mercury (Cánepa, 2005; Brooks et al.,
2007). Several non-mercury methods for gold recovery are known in South America
that include wind-winnowing in Perú (Spanish, aventadero) (Petersen, 1970/2010); the
use of plant juices in Chocó, western Colombia (McDonald & Hunt, 1982; Brooks et al.,
2015); and a modern flotation system using biodegradable chemicals in Perú (Aquino,
2010). Several other ancient methods are discussed in Craddock (1995), however, none
of these methods are as widely used or as productive as mercury amalgamation.

3. Regional Setting
Turkey is in the Tethyan Eurasian Metallogenic Belt that extends for roughly 10,000 km
along the ancient Tethys seaway that separated the supercontinents of Gondwana and
Laurasia during the Mesozoic Era. This ancient seaway tracked from Spain to northern
India and was closed during the Miocene as a result of the collision of the African and
Indian plate with the Eurasian plate. Therefore, Turkey’s regional geologic setting is
complex and includes colliding, sliding, and subducting tectonic plates that have pro-

44
 W. E. Brooks et al.

duced earthquakes, geothermal energy, and polymetallic ore deposits that contain gold,
silver, mercury, lead, copper, and platinum. Most importantly, the cinnabar and gold
occurrences of western and central Anatolia are Miocene and formed in a back-arc ex-
tensional regime similar to the Basin and Range province in the western US (Öztürk,
2015).
These metallic mineral deposits have been mined since ancient time and provided
silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, and other metals used by the Romans and Greeks (Young,
1972; de Jesus, 1978, 1981; Yildiz & Bailey, 1978; Yigit, 2006; Öztürk & Hanilçi, 2009;
Roosevelt, 2009; Hanilçi et al., 2010). Minerals such as sulfur were used to soften wool
and pigments were obtained from limonite (yellow ochre), realgar (reddish-orange),
and cinnabar (red) (Roosevelt, 2009). Coal is abundant in northern and western Turkey
and is typically low-rank (lignite to subbituminous) (Palmer et al., 2004); however; thus
far, there is only speculative evidence for the use of coal as a fuel in ancient time. An-
cient Roman mining records have been found near Ovacik-Bergama, Kucukdere-
Havran, and Sogut-Bilecik (Bayburtoğlu & Yildirim, 2010).
Modern mercury mining in Turkey predates 1900 and the Turkish mining register for
mercury began in 1923 (Murdock, 1958). Mercury production ended ~1986 when the
country produced 275 tons (t) (~8000 flasks) of mercury mainly from the mines at Kara-
burun and Konya (Roskill’s, 1990). The mercury reserves of Turkey, mainly in the Aegean
Region, are approximately 3820 metric tons (Turkish Ministry of Environment, 2010).
In 2011, Turkey produced 25 t of gold from open-pit mines and, in 2016, Sardis was
still operational and produced aggregate, quartz, perlite, and heavy minerals such as
zircon and corundum for industrial use and gold only as a byproduct (Pomza Export,
2016; Turkish Gold Miners Association, 2016; Yigit, 2016). Other gold occurrences are
known in western Turkey and there are numerous copper, tin, and lead occurrences
throughout the country (de Jesus, 1978; 1981; Öztürk & Hanilçi, 2009). Turkey has a
gold endowment of approximately 31 million ounces; however, alluvial/placer deposits
are limited and none are currently active with the exception of Sardis (Pomza Export,
2016; Yigit, 2016).

4. Geologic Setting of Sardis

Sardis is approximately 90 km east of Izmir (Figure 1) and, regionally, is underlain by
metamorphic rocks (schist, phyllite, and marble) and younger sedimentary units com-
posed of sandstone, conglomerate, and recent alluvium. Sardis’ gold was initially depo-
sited in veins in the metamorphic rocks and then, these rocks weathered and released
the gold that was then transported and concentrated in a nearby basin (Higgins & Hig-
gins, 1996). These gold-bearing, poorly-sorted, basin-fill conglomerates (Figure 2(a))
were then cemented, uplifted (Figure 2(b)) and weathered again with the gold being
reworked and redeposited in the alluvium of the Pactolus River. Therefore, gold at Sar-
dis may be mined from: 1) uplifted, cemented quartz-pebble conglomerates, or 2) from
the recent alluvium in the Pactolus River.

5. Re-Consideration of Amalgamation at Sardis

Amalgamation was considered as the mining technology used at Sardis and Craddock

45
W. E. Brooks et al.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. (a) Poorly sorted gold-bearing quartz pebble

conglomerate at Sardis, Turkey; (b) faulted and up-
lifted basin-fill conglomerates at Sardis, Turkey. Sardis’
ancient refinery is in the foreground.

(2000a) proposed that if mercury had been used to amalgamate the gold, then low levels
of residual mercury would be detected in the analyses of the end-product gold. There-
fore, coins from the British Museum’s Sardis collection were analyzed (SEM-EDX), and
since no mercury was detected, it was concluded that mercury had not been used.
Therefore, given Craddock’s conclusion that amalgamation was not used at Sardis
and to re-consider amalgamation as a mining technique at ancient Sardis, it is impor-
tant to establish and integrate regional geoarchaeological evidence that includes: 1) ge-
ology and the availability of cinnabar and mercury, 2) archaeology and evidence for an-
cient mining and mercury processing such as an ancient mercury retort near Konya, 3)
historical evidence such as regional Roman use of cinnabar as a pigment and as a
source of mercury for gilding and amalgamation, 4) mining engineering implications
for the recovery of the very fine-grained alluvial gold at Sardis from conglomerates and
black sand, and 5) interpretation of the ICP analysis of end-product gold, a Byzantine
coin (Table 1).

5.1. Availability of Cinnabar and Mercury

In Turkey, cinnabar (HgS), the most common ore of mercury is known in at least eight

46
 W. E. Brooks et al.

districts, all in western Turkey (Murdock, 1958; Ryan, 1960; Bircan & Aydoğanlı, 1969;
Barnes & Bailey, 1972) (Figure 1). Archaeological evidence indicates that cinnabar was
first mined in Turkey more than 8000 years ago—cinnabar was used as a pigment and
was also retorted to obtain mercury as indicated by an ancient retort (Figure 3) found
in the Sizma district, northwest of Konya. The Sizma mercury district is the most im-
portant mercury occurrence in Turkey and, based on gouges in the Büyük Maden mine

Table 1. ICP analyses from reconnaissance of mercury mines in Turkey.

TK161 TK162 TK163a TK163b TK164 TK165 TK166 TK167 TK168*

Au (0.003) 0.005 0.008 <0.003 0.004 <0.003 0.003 1.290 0.031 99.4%
Ag (0.2) <0.2 0.2 <0.2 <0.2 <0.2 <0.2 7.0 <0.2
As (2.0) 11 2634 125 828 156 2149 599 592
Ca (1.0) 355162 42,603 2789 120,278 3258 1576 1244 3769
Cd (0.1) 0.3 <0.1 <0.1 0.3 0.3 <0.1 <0.1 <0.1
Cr (1.0) 81 96 209 727 582 477 382 131
Cu (1.0) 9 1585 19 105 11 42 38 30
Fe (10) 7165 37,432 24,540 68,736 8398 101,353 14,695 36,497
Hg (0.1) 4.7 405.7 15.2 10.3 770.1 97.6 4.3 84 <1
La (10) 17 27 13 27 <10 <10 33 <10
Mg (1.0) 4274 775 249 2027 293 400 452 5800
Mn (1.0) 346 152 46 310 64 182 58 418
Mo (1.0) 2 8 5 7 8 7 23 3
Ni (1.0) 2 13 74 775 76 679 51 52
P (10) 134 556 319 380 37 598 115 1510
Pb (1.0) 20 511 13 9 10 23 40 21
Pt (0.1) Na na na na na na Na na 1020
S (10) 67 21,231 4686 6274 527 17,677 4728 1269
Sb (0.3) <0.3 181.1 19 132.8 12.4 141.7 1272.7 9.8
Se (5.0) 7 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Th (0.1) 1.7 11 9 8.5 3.0 7.8 9.2 8.9
Tl (0.1) 0.1 3.9 3.8 5.4 0.4 7.8 0.2 0.2
U (0.1) 0.1 0.3 1.6 3.0 0.6 1.1 1.1 0.6
V (2.0) 3 5 <2 30 <2 6 25 22
W (1.0) <1 2 1 7 <1 1 3 <1
Zn (1.0) 16 1011 14 292 16 78 201 101

Multi-element ICP analyses (parts per million; detection limit given to right of element, in parentheses; na—not
analyzed; *fragment of ancient Byzantine gold coin, ore grade analysis for Au (%), Hg and Pt (ppm), with Hg detec-
tion limit of 1 ppm); American Assay, Sparks, NV, (SP0116032). Sample Descriptions: TK161 [0715294/4543335
UTM] near Koçaeli (Mudarli-Gebze); grab sample from calcite veins, reddish blebs, quartz, rusty pyrite along NS
structure; several large meter-sized pits, not a major producing area; no hot springs evidence, no acid drainage;
TK162 [454392/4275474] at Karaburun mine and plant, burned material from wall inside ~4 m well-constructed
brick and basalt block chimney that served to vent gases from mercury plant that is downhill; TK163a
[454392/4275474] at Karaburun; rock fragments from huge wastepile, some burned, reddened, scoriaceous frag-
ments; TK163b [454392/4275474] at Karaburun; large [20 m × 100 m × 100 m = ~200,000 m3 est.] wastepile, not as
burned, not scoriaceous, but clearly crushed, perhaps volcanic material; TK164 [455395/4275406] at Karaburun; un-
altered wastepile, gray silicified limestone, pyrite, rust stained; TK165 [455516/4274877] at Karaburun, area sample
of hematite altered rock from mine area; TK166 [602834/4216521] at Haliköy Şubesi mine, sample of scoria on fire
brick from chimney, all adits closed, cannot sample inside mine, no surface outcrops, mine now produces antimony;
TK167 [602867/4216218] at Haliköy Şubesi, grab sample from dark, reddened, calcined tailings at ramp/loading
area; TK168 gold coin (0.7 g sample).

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W. E. Brooks et al.

Figure 3. Sketch showing existing Konya retort site (left) and how it was probably used (right).
Cinnabar was smelted, with charcoal, inside of an inverted ceramic bowl that served as a con-
denser. The ceramic flue eliminated sulfurous gases uphill and mercury collection trough is in
lower right (Barnes & Bailey, 1972).

where cinnabar veinlets had been worked, geologists indicate that Sizma was mined for
its mercury by the Greeks and Romans as early as 6300BC and may be the world’s old-
est underground mine (Barnes & Bailey, 1972; Yildiz & Bailey, 1978).
Site visits—Aspart of this study, site visits were made to cinnabar/mercury occur-
rences at Mudarli-Gebze, Karaburun, and Haliköy (Figure 1) to determine mercury
content of the ores, mine waste, and look for any evidence for ancient mining. Modern
mining, however, has overprinted any archaeological evidence for ancient mining and
the veins and interior of the mines are collapsed or are otherwise inaccessible. There-
fore, geochemical sampling was limited to stockpiles, mine waste, and scoria from
smelter stacks. At the Karaburun plant (Figure 4(a)) one sample from a stockpile
contained 770 ppm mercury (Figure 4(b)); a sample from a small, mined-out, hema-
tite-altered open pit contained 97 ppm mercury; and samples from all locations con-
tained 4.3 to 770 ppm Hg (Table 1). Burned material from inside the Karaburun
chimney (Figure 4(c)) contained 405 ppm Hg. Karaburun collectively refers to the Ka-
lacik, Karareis, and Küçukbahçe mines that closed in the late 1980s; however, these
mines have since contributed to mercury and heavy metal contamination in nearby
marine sediments (Buyukisik et al., 2013).
Etibank, a Turkish company, was the largest producer of mercury in the 1970s and
its Haliköy Şubesiplant produced mercury from the mines near Aydin (Figure 1)
(Roskill’s, 1990). Mine production has now shifted to antimony; however, calcined
waste material from a loading area (Figure 5(a)) at Haliköy Şubesi contained 84 ppm
Hg (Figure 5(b)) (Table 1, TK167). A sample of scoria from inside the dismantled Ha-
liköy Şubesi smelter stack contained 1.29 ppm Au, 7 ppm Ag, and 1272 ppm Sb (Figure
5(c); Table 1, TK166).

48
 W. E. Brooks et al.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 4. (a) Karaburun mercury plant in the foreground

and the smelter chimney uphill in the distance. The rough
rock wall in the foreground may indicate an older site; (b)
Karaburun stockpile with a sample that contained 770
ppm Hg (Table 1; sample TK164); (c) Karaburun chim-
ney from which an interior sample that contained 405
ppm Hg was taken (Table 1; sample TK162).

49
W. E. Brooks et al.

5.2. An Ancient Mercury Retort

The Sizma mercury district, ~6 km from Konya, has 15 mercury occurrences and is the
most well-known mercury producing area in Turkey (Sharpless, 1908; Murdock, 1958).
However, sometime around 1905, an English archaeologist discovered a tablet at an
archaeological site near Konya (Figure 1) that was dedicated to Zizima, the ancient
Phrygian goddess of mining, from which the name for the Sizma mercury district is de-
rived (Barnes et al., 1969). Then, in 1905, an ancient cinnabar mine that had been used
as a goat shelter was discovered in a cave near Konya. Deep grooves had been cut into
the rock to follow the cinnabar veins and firesetting had been used to shatter the ore for
removal. And, in 1969, 2 km south of Ladik, where most work had been at the Çirak-
manand Muratdağ mines, also near Konya (Figure 1), a mercury retort (Figure 3) was
found that demonstrates ancient cinnabar processing in the district. Greek and Latin
inscriptions found on quarried marble blocks nearby document the age of the site
(Murdock, 1958; Barnes & Bailey, 1972). Even though the mines at Konya are now
closed, mercury mining has contributed to heavy metal contamination in the region
(Karahalil et al., 2012; Göktürk & Özdemir, 2016).
The retort found near Ladik had been carved into marble, was ~3 m on a side, and
on the upper surface of the marble block was a 50 cm diameter circular depression with
a 1 cm deep groove around the outside of the depression (Figure 3). The mercury ore,
cinnabar, was mixed with fuel such as charcoal (coal?) in the depression, ignited, and
then covered with an earthenware pot. The mercury would be collected as the volati-
lized mercury cooled and condensed on the walls of the pot and droplets of mercury
would be recovered in the groove while sulfur would have been vented through a ce-
ramic flue uphill and some distance away (Barnes et al., 1969; Barnes & Bailey, 1972: p.
51). For comparison, the mercury plant at Karaburun has a similar geometric configu-
ration; however, at a larger scale, to the ancient Konya site. The retorts were located
downhill and a chimney to vent the sulfurous gases is uphill (Figure 4(a)). The compo-
sition of these volatilized retort gases is indicated by a scrape from the interior burned
walls of the Karaburun chimney that contained 405 ppm mercury and 181 ppm anti-
mony (Figure 4(c); Table 1, TK162).
In the region, ancient mercury processing, on a smaller scale, is also indicated by the
Tepe Gawra pot (3500 BC) that has been interpreted as a Mesopotamian mercury retort
(Levey, 1955).
Pigment—In the ancient world, cinnabar could be mined, ground, mixed with a
binder, and used as a pigment (vermilion) without much additional processing (Loren-
zi, 2004; Petersen, 1970/2010). Cinnabar was used as a funeral preservative in Spain
~5000 years ago (Martín-Gil et al., 1995) and its use in ancient Turkey as part of an an-
cient funeral ritual is indicated by cinnabar-painted skulls found at an archaeological
site 65 km southeast of Sizma that dates to 6280 BC (Barnes & Bailey, 1972). And, as
another example of cinnabar used as a pigment, a gold artifact from central Anatolia,
The Seated Goddess with Child (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), shows that
cinnabar was used for decoration on a gold figurine as early as the 13th century BC. In
Italy, the walls of ancient Pompeii were painted red with cinnabar more than 2000 years

50
 W. E. Brooks et al.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5. (a) Haliköy Şubesi mercury mine loading dock

with calcined tailings; (b) Haliköy Şubesi loading dock
tailings from which a sample with 84 ppm Hg was taken
(Table 1, sample TK167); (c) Haliköy Şubesi smelter stack
scoria with 1.29 ppm Au, 7 ppm Ag, 4 ppm Hg, and 1272
ppm Sb (Table 1; sample TK166).

ago (Lorenzi, 2004) and medieval stuccoes at the Alhambra, Spain were decorated with
cinnabar (Burgio, 2005). And, even though cinnabar is toxic, it is still used for art ap-
plications today (Sax, 1984; Iconofile, 2010).

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W. E. Brooks et al.

Gilding and Amalgamation—Given, that cinnabar was the only mineral mined in the
region, then it follows that the Konya retort (Figure 3) was used for processing cinna-
bar into mercury for ancient industrial uses such as gilding and gold amalgamation
(Barnes & Bailey, 1972).
Because of its malleability, gold may be hammered into a foil which can then be me-
chanically attached to paper, wood, stone, gypsum, or other metal surfaces. Fire-gilding
implies mixture of gold flakes with mercury (Turkish, tombak, Archaeology Museum,
Manisa) then application of the amalgam paste, followed by heating with a blowpipe to
volatilize the mercury leaving a gilded surface.
Therefore, it is implicit to establish that the precursor to the gold foil must have been
a gold “nugget” or ingot of some sort that could be hammered or otherwise crafted into
a foil. Given the absence of gold nuggets at Sardis (Topkaya, 1984), then the source of
this precursor “nugget” would have been an anthropogenic gold nugget (with some
copper and silver) formed as the last stage of amalgamation when the mercury-gold
amalgam is burned leaving a sponge-like texture in the button of gold (Spanish charpi-
ta, esponja, pepita, perla, piña) (Figure 6).
Examples of the use of gold foil can be found at the Archaeology Museum, Istanbul
and also at the Hagia Sofia where the Byzantine Christ Pantocrator has a background
formed from gold foil that was laminated between two sheets of glass which were bro-
ken and then used as the mosaic tesserae (written comm., Prof. L.E. Butler, Art History,
George Mason University, 27 Sept. 2016).

5.3. Regional Use

In the Byzantine world, Almadén, Spain was described as a source of cinnabar and
mercury as early as 332 BC (Bennett, 1948). Cinnabar was used to paint the walls of
Roman villas at ancient Pompeii more than 2000 years ago (Lorenzi, 2004) and cinna-
bar was also used as makeup or as rouge. Sometimes referred to as “ruddle” in ancient
literature, cinnabar was exported through the Black Sea port of Sinop (Figure 1) from

Figure 6. Anthropogenic gold nugget from Puerto Maldonado, Perú

showing sponge-like texture resulting from burning (Spanish, refo-
gado) the mercury-gold amalgam to volatilize the mercury.

52
 W. E. Brooks et al.

which the mineral name cinnabar may have been derived (Barnes & Bailey, 1972).
However, for this study it is important to acknowledge that by 77 AD, Rome imported
4 - 5 t of mercury annually from the Spanish mines specifically for amalgamation
(D’Itri & D’Itri, 1977).

5.4. Conglomerates, Black Sand, and Fine-Grained Gold at Sardis

The sedimentary setting of the gold at Sardis has important regional implications that
permit comparison with Byzantine gold mining at Las Médulas, Spain. Gold is a heavy
mineral (specific gravity of ~19) and ubiquitous heavy minerals, such as magnetite and
zircon contained in the black sand, must be removed. If available, nuggets can easily be
recovered from an alluvial gold occurrence; however, recovering sufficient fine-grained
gold such as at Sardis, for jewelry or coins would have been challenging.
Conglomerates—The gold at Sardis is hosted in reworked sedimentary rocks com-
prised of poorly sorted conglomerate and sandstone (Figure 2(a)). Additionally, the
conglomerates have been faulted, uplifted, and are geomorphologically similar to the
Las Médulas, Spain gold occurrence which was the most important gold occurrence
mined by the Romans. At Las Médulas, the Romans developed and used hydraulic
mining—this required a system of aqueducts that provided water under sufficient head
to pressure-wash and degrade the outcrop which released the gold and then the muddy
gold-bearing sediment was washed over riffles that trapped the gold particles (Domer-
gue, 1990). The Roman miners, therefore, had experience with hydraulic mining which
could have been used at Sardis.
However, is there any evidence for aqueducts or hydraulic mining at Sardis? There
are at least 130 m of tunnels that were supposedly excavated to augment the water
supply of ancient Sardis (Higgins & Higgins, 1996); however, herein we offer an alter-
native interpretation that the tunnels were used to provide water to pressure-wash the
gold-bearing Sardis conglomerates and are analogous to the aqueducts at Las Médulas.
Black Sand—Gold has a very high specific gravity (~19) and when panned, minerals
of high specific gravity (ex. rutile, 4.3; magnetite, ~5; zircon, ~4.5; cassiterite, 6.8 - 7.1;
platinum, ~14 - 19;) may also be found in the gold pan concentrate. Therefore, a me-
thod that will selectively remove only the gold from the black sand, such as amalgama-
tion, must be used. Even the Golden Fleece would not yield a pure gold concentrate and
the persistent and abundant heavy minerals must be removed. At Sardis, the heavy
mineral assemblage includes cassiterite, zircon, magnetite, garnet, rutile, ilmenite,
chalcopyrite, pyrite, cinnabar, and hematite (Topkaya, 1984; Öztürk & Hanilçi, 2009;
Pomza Export, 2016). Gold separation is done today at the Pomza mine using several
techniques, one of which is a sophisticated shaker, or Wilfley table, that uses a system of
riffles and flowing water to sort the minerals according to specific gravity. Owing to the
specific gravity and shape of the gold, the Wilfley provides a gold concentrate (Figure
7; Pomza Export; http://www.eilepomex.com). The heavy minerals are removed and
sold as industrial minerals, and gold is recovered only as a byproduct.
Gold separation from alluvial material is difficult and, in another example, gold has
also been recovered as a byproduct in California, western U.S., from black sand at sand
and gravel operations by using: 1) magnetic, 2) high-tension, or 3) flotation methods.

53
W. E. Brooks et al.

And, much like Sardis, the mineralogy of these California deposits includes black sand
comprised of zircon, ilmenite, magnetite, and platinum-group metals (Gomes & others,
1979). Therefore, at ancient Sardis, amalgamation would have been the only technology
available to selectively remove the fine-grained alluvial gold.
Fine-Grained Gold—If available, nuggets would have been easily removed from the
concentrates at ancient or modern Sardis mining operations. However, there are no
museum samples, nor literature evidence to indicate that gold nuggets were ever found
at Sardis (Topkaya, 1984), instead, the gold (Turkish, altin) is fine-grained and flattened
(Figure 7). In a study of the economic potential of placer gold at Sardis, Topkaya
(1984) described the gold flakes as very small with an average diameter of ~30 microns
(0.03 mm) and the largest grain was ~3 mm. He concluded that, as a principal product,
gold of this size would be difficult to recover, and therefore, not economic. His mining
engineering evaluation of the Sardis deposit showed that free gold ranged from 9 - 130
mg/m3 and, in order to make this determination, it was first necessary to recover the
gold from sluice concentrates by amalgamation and then nitric acid was used to dis-
solve the mercury.

5.5. Analysis of a Byzantine Gold Coin

The final argument is geochemical, that is, determination of the amount of mercury, if
any, contained in an end-product Byzantine gold coin (Figure 8). This follows Crad-
dock’s (2000a, p. 233) original proposal that if mercury had been used at Sardis, then
low levels of mercury would be detected in the gold analyses. However, in those pre-
vious studies of gold from Sardis, mercury might not have been detected by
non-destructive SEM-EDX because of: 1) the potentially low levels of mercury (<20
ppm) as indicated by the South America gold studies (Brooks et al., 2013), and 2) the
proximity of mercury and gold on the Periodic Chart and therefore, the lesser mercury
peak, if present, would have been overshadowed by the stronger gold peak.
Turkish law will not allow catalogued artifacts such as gold coins or gold foils to leave

Figure 7. Byproduct gold concentrate at Pomza Export office

showing flattened grains.

54
 W. E. Brooks et al.

Figure 8. Gold coin (Table 1; sample TK168, with 99.4% Au and 1020 ppm
Pt); Byzantine Empire, Maurice Tiberius, struck 583 AD, Constantinople
Mint. Helmeted and curassed facing bust holding globus cruciber, DM
MAVRC TIB PP AVI/Angel standing facing holding long Chi-Rho-headed
cross and globus cruciger, Victoria AVGGG officina letter I, CONOB be-
low, ancient graffiti below bust, 22 mm, 4.37 g. (Gabriel Vandevoort, URL
http://www.ancientresources.com, accessed 1 March 2016).

the museums for analysis, much less be subjected to destructive analysis such as ICP.
Therefore, an authenticated Byzantine gold coin was purchased in the U.S. and a 0.7 g
portion was submitted for ICP analysis (Figure 8; Table 1, TK168). The data show that
the coin is >99.4% gold and 1020 ppm platinum—gold is normally soft, malleable, and
has a Moh’s hardness of ~2.5 - 3, the naturally occurring platinum (iridium and os-
mium), with a Moh’s hardness of 6 - 7, would have given hardness and durability to
Sardis’ ancient coins. The gold content of this coin is comparable to the gold content
(>99%) of Sardis’ coins analyzed by XRF (x-ray fluorescence) (Cowell & Hyne, 2000).
Most importantly, there is no mercury in the coin analyzed for this study, a fact that
given the geologic and archaeologic evidence for amalgamation, must be discussed:
Mercury—Gold from alluvial sources in Colombia and Perú may contain ~5000
ppm, or more, background mercury sourced from cinnabar/mercury outcrops, conta-
mination from underground coal fires, alluvial gold mining in the region, or volcanic
eruptions. Modern amalgam in the gold pan contains >300,000 ppm Hg—this amalgam
must be burned, as would have been done in the past, to volatilize the mercury, leaving
end-product gold with only trace amounts of mercury (Brooks et al., 2007).
Pre-Columbian gold artifacts from museums in Bogotá and Lima typically contain <20
ppm mercury—consistent with a reduction of >99% of the background (~5000 ppm) or
amalgam (~300,000 ppm) mercury content after two burns (Spanish, refogado) to vola-
tilize the mercury (Brooks et al., 2013).
Microprobe analysis of Sardis alluvial gold indicates silver, copper, mercury, bis-
muth, lead, nickel, platinum (iridium, osmium), and several other elements in the gold;
however, no ppm or percent was given (Topkaya, 1984). Therefore, we conclude that
the mercury that was originally in the alluvial gold at Sardis, or mercury that was used
for amalgamation, has been volatilized by at least three heating/burning episodes:
1) heat from a blowpipe (Spanish, refogado), as shown by (Craddock, 2000b; Roose-
velt, 2009) that would have been analogous to the blowpipe (Spanish, soplete) used in
pre-Columbian metallurgy or two burns using a gas torch used during modern amal-

55
W. E. Brooks et al.

gam burning (Petersen, 1970/2010; Brooks et al., 2007; Brooks & others, 2013) and
subsequently, during the two-stage silver parting process at Sardis that included:
2) heating during salt cementation at temperatures of ~650˚C followed by
3) heating and parting of the silver at temperatures of ~800˚C (Craddock, 2000c),
processes that ultimately provided pure gold and silver for coins (Meeks, 2000).
Gold foils with 4.7% - 17.3% silver (Ramage & Craddock, 2000) and gold-silver-
copper foils (Spanish, tumbaga or Turkish, tombak) in the collection at the Archaeo-
logical Museum, Manisa (Ramage & Craddock, 2000) would more closely represent the
pre-parting composition of Sardis alluvial gold (Topkaya, 1984); however, neither
mercury nor platinum content was reported for these samples. We interpret these
gold-silver-copper foils as having been crafted from an anthropogenic gold-silver-cop-
per bearing nugget resulting from amalgamation (Figure 6).
Platinum—Until ~1900, platinum was only known from gold-bearing alluvial
sources (McDonald & Hunt, 1982) and since platinum melts at >1700˚C, it would have
been little affected by amalgam burning and silver parting temperatures. Alluvial plati-
num is known at Sardis and microprobe analyses of a 5th century BC gold earring from
the region indicated platinum (Young, 1972; Topkaya, 1984; Cowell & Hyne, 2000). We
interpret the platinum in the earring and gold coin (1020 ppm) to indicate an alluvial
source for the metals and not intentional alloying of the metals.
The amount of gold in the Byzantine coin, >99%, approaches the amount of gold in
modern, very pure, highly refined mint or bullion gold expressed as 4 9s (9999) and
demonstrates the efficiency of ancient Sardis’ metallurgy. The platinum would have
added hardness and durability to the malleable gold.

6. Conclusion
The geoarchaeological evidence presented herein such as availability of mercury, an-
cient retorts, and size of the alluvial gold grains is consistent with amalgamation as the
mining technology used to recover the fine-grained alluvial gold at ancient Sardis.
Amalgamation is a rudimentary process that requires mercury, which was retorted
from cinnabar occurrences in the region, and recovering the gold from the amalgam
requires heat to volatilize the mercury leaving the gold for continued processing into
jewelry and coins. This process is widely used today in many small-scale alluvial gold
mines around the world and provides a sound replication model for understanding al-
luvial gold mining in the ancient world.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my respect and posthumous gratitude to Prof. Georg Petersen,
Lima, Perú for introducing me to the application of geology and geochemistry to min-
ing and metallurgical studies of archaeological materials in South America and simul-
taneously for his introduction to the Old World through his discussion of the alluvial
gold occurrences at the Pactolus River. Sincere appreciation is expressed to my co-au-
thors for collaboration in the field, providing access to maps and publications, intro-
ductions at mines and museums during our site visits, and confidence in this project.

56
 W. E. Brooks et al.

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