214 



ANCIENT GOLD MINING IN THE SUDAN 



Washing 

 tables 



Melting-pots 



Huts 



7. — Diagram iUostiatiuil construction of Washing Table 

 Scait! : 1/0 inch — 1 /oot 



and this must of necessity have been intentional. The assumption is that when the 

 former workers left the mines, these things, being too heavy to remove, were purposely 

 destroyed to prevent their use by others. The upper stones, in many cases, they 

 appear to have carried with them, for these, besides being lighter, entailed more work 

 in ijreparation. 



The washing tables measure about 9 feet by 2 feet 6 inches, and are built of undressed 

 stone with rubble filling. The upper surface was plastered smooth, and sloped at an 



angle of IJ inches to the foot. As 

 the table was usually built on 

 ground which sloped in an opposite 

 direction, the head of the table 

 would stand about 2 feet 6 inches 

 above the ground. A circular stone- 

 lined cistern, 4 or 5 feet diameter, 

 at the bottom of the table, served 

 to catch the water which flowed 

 therefrom, and this returned by a 

 narrow stone-lined channel to a 

 similar cistern immediately below the head of the table, whence it was raised by the 

 operator with the aid of a small "shadoof," to be used on the table again. The sand or 

 tailings collected in the first cistern, and was thrown out to form large heaps, many of 

 which remain to the present day. A small rectangular stone-lined pit is usually found 

 by the side of each table, and it is surmised that this was for the reception of the 

 pulverised quartz as it came from the mills. 



The presence of the broken melting-pots and quantities of scoriaceous slag confirms 



the description of the means em- 

 ployed for the ultimate separation 

 of the gold from the baser metals, 

 and that this process was a most 

 effectual one may be inferred from 

 the fact that no trace of gold can 

 now be obtained from the slags. 

 Mercury does not seem to have 

 been known to the workers, or, if 

 known, was evidently not employed 

 as a metallurgical reagent. 

 Not the least interesting feature of these ancient camps are the hut remains, of which 

 great numbers are found at every important mining centre. The walls usually consist of a 

 single thickness of undressed stones, supported by smaller fragments wedged into the 

 crevices ; but here and there a building may be seen where the wall is formed by two 

 facings and a rubble filling ; plaster of any sort being quite unknown. The height of the 

 walls varies from two to five feet, and the average may be taken as three feet above the 

 ground. The plan, as a rule, is roughly circular, eight to ten feet diameter within, with no 

 opening but the entrance, which is sometimes surmounted by a lintel, although this is very 

 rare. No roof structure has been seen, and the former covering was probably some kind of 

 mat or woven material. At most of the mining centres the huts are scattered 

 indiscriminately along the edges of the wadies, or at points convenient to the works, but in 

 others they are found arranged in compact blocks. This may possibly have been with a 



Fig. 48.- 



-Sectional Elevation of Ancient Fnmace 

 Scale: 1/12 



