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Prehistoric Mines of Can Tintorer

Gavà, Baix Llobregat, Barcelona

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Prehistoric Mines of Can Tintorer

Curiosity · Gavà, Baix Llobregat, Barcelona

The prehistoric mines of Can Tintorer, in the municipality of Gavà (Baix Llobregat, Barcelona), form a Neolithic mining site where variscite was extracted, along with flint, opal, quartz and ochre for tools and pigments. Radiocarbon dating places its exploitation around 3400-2360 BC, from the Post-Cardial Early Neolithic to the Middle Neolithic, when activity ceased around 4,500 years ago. It forms a complex network of underground galleries dug into the schist, on several levels connected to one another and accessible from the surface via shafts or sloping galleries. It is, in the European context, the only site with clear evidence of large-scale variscite (callaïs) exploitation, and it can be visited at the Gavà Mines Archaeological Park.

Photo: A. Blanco (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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