Documentation Challenges in an International and Interdisciplinary Research Project

Mining plays a very important role in the history of man. From the very beginning man's development has been accompanied by the extraction, processing and utilization of mineral substances. In the past, mining often exerted influence on economic, social, legal and cultural structures within society. The technological aspect must be emphasized as well, for the technical achievements in mining and metallurgy in combination with a far-reaching technology transfer were always an innovative and driving force a motor of progress that has decisively influenced and furthered the development of a modem industrial society. The mining boom of the 15th/16th century in the Tyrol repeated a sequence which had already occurred with similar intensity and far-reaching consequences many centuries before. During the Bronze Age, between 2200 and 800 B.C., dynamic changes took place in the fields of mining and metallurgy in connection with alpine copper ore exploitation driven by the eager demand for crude copper on the newly established European metal market for bronze production. The all-time peak of copper mining was achieved with the formation of "early industrial" production structures in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Alongside numerous further mining centres in the eastern and southern Alps the Tyrolean region still played a significant role. The existence of excellent preliminary studies of the historic mining activities in Schwaz conducted at the University of Innsbruck presents ideal prerequisites for researching the above-mentioned epochs from the Neolithic to the early Mediaeval Times, from which hardly anything is known. This article describes the cooperation of different scientific fields on this item and especially the role of surveying and geoinformation to integrate and support all these groups in their work to achieve that focused goal. Fig.1: Documentation of a Bronce-Age mining facility at Mitterberg, Austria International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 5 Commission V Symposium, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. 2010