260 



DISCOVERY 



ranean in ancient times. Our only evidence for the 

 existence of mines on the momitain itself is Herodotus, ^ 

 who says that Pangsum is " a large and high mountain 

 in which there are mines of gold and silver. It is 

 inhabited by the Pierians and Odomanti and prin- 

 cipallj- by the Satras." Euripides, in the R/wsiis.- 

 calls Panga-um " silver-bearing," and agam the " gold- 

 ored cliff Pangaum." ^ Strabo and other authors 

 follow suit, and the general impression is given that the 

 mountain itself was the main source of supply of the 

 gold and silver of the area. But, on the other hand, 

 all the most famous mines of the Panga;an area are 

 not on the mountain. Scaptesyle. the most famous, 

 the mine from which the historian Thucvdides derived 

 his ^\•ealth, acquired as the dowry of his Thracian 

 wife, seems to have been on the coast. Stephen of 

 Byzantium, in his treatise Coficerning Cities, states 

 clearly that the town of Scaptesyle was opposite 

 Thasos. Herodotus '• mentions the SvAe'os ITeSior, 

 which was near the mouth of the Struma, a place- 

 name which may be connected with the name of the 

 mine. Perdrizet,^ who suggests that this mine was 

 situated near the site of the present monastery of 

 Eikosiphoinissis, can adduce no ancient evidence to 

 support his view, and I was unable to find any trace 

 of ancient workings at or near the monasterv. 



The mine called Asyla,'' which brought Philip of 

 Macedon his revenue, was in the plain near Crenides or 

 PhUippi, as that town was subsequently called. The 

 island of Thasos, which also contamed rich mines, 

 falls geologically into the Pangaean area. The Thasians 

 owned other mines on the mainland, but we are 

 nowhere told that these were on the mountain itself. 

 There is an issue of gold coins inscribed with the name 

 of the " Thasians of the mainland " which was probably 

 struck from the gold of these mines. Where, then, 

 were the mines of the mountain ? 



In view of the fact that workings only of unimportant 

 character and insignificant size have been found on 

 the mountain itself, it seems unlikely that it was ever 

 mined to a very large extent or that it was ever very 

 productive to the direct operations of the miner. 

 This seems borne out by the formation of the moun- 

 tain, which is not of so metalliferous a nature in its 

 upper levels as in its lower. 



The whole question, however, of the nature of 

 ancient gold and silver working is raised. Did the 

 ancients understand how to extract gold from ore, or 

 was ancient gold-mining confined to the collection 

 of surface and alluvial gold ? In the case of silver 

 the process of extraction from galena ores was simpler 

 and certainly understood in antiquity up to a point. 



' Vll. 112. 



3 1. 921. * vii. 113. 



" Appian, Be^. Civ., iv. io5. 



2 1. 970. 



^ Klio, X, p. 26. 



as the remains of the silver workings at Laurium in 

 Attica indicate. 



Perdrizet is of opinion that, in the Pangaean area 

 at any rate, only alluvial gold or " placer " gold, as 

 miners call it, was collected, and that the almost 

 complete absence of gold in the Pangjean district 

 to-day is accounted for by the fact that the " placers," 

 as is invariably the case, became exhausted, and that, 

 too, at an early date in antiquity. Certamly we hear 

 little of Pangsan gold in Roman times. Even in the 

 fifth and fourth centuries B.C. " placer " succeeded 

 " placer," and while Scaptesyle was the popular centre 

 in the fifth, so Asyla replaced it in the fourth centur}-. 

 Certainly Perdrizet 's view is borne out by Strabo,' 

 who says that " the peasants who plough the land in 

 Pa'onia are said to find nuggets of gold." This can 

 only refer to alluvial gold. 



Whether Perdrizet is right in his further aLSumption 

 that the ancient world in general knew only of mining 

 for alkn-ial gold is uncertain. There are many pas- 

 sages in ancient authors which seem to contradict 

 this. In anv case we must await the discovery of 

 more ancient gold workings before we can accept such 

 a generalisation. Neither Scaptesyle nor Asyla has 

 yet been identified, chiefly, perhaps, because no one 

 has yet set out to look for them according to the 

 indications left by ancient authorities. 



In general it seems probable that the mount; •n itself 

 contained little gold that was accessible. On the 

 other hand, from the veins and deposits that it con- 

 tained, it is most likely that gold had been washed 

 by constant erosion and deposited in the earth of 

 the extensive plains at its foot by way of the numerous 

 ravines that drain its sides. This was the Pangaean 

 gold that was collected by the miners. The few 

 workings on the mountain itself were probably under- 

 taken, for the most part, to obtain silver, while the 

 pyrites deposits were worked tentatively and 

 unsuccessfully. 



Of the Oracle of Dionysus we know all too little. 

 What we do know is gi\'en by Herodotus and Euri- 

 pides and in a few other occasional references. 

 Herodotus ^ savs that : 



" These are the people [the Satrje] who possess the 

 Oracle of Dionysus, which is on their most lofty 

 mountains. Of the Satrae, those who act as prophets 

 of the shrine are the Bessi ; a prophetess gives the 

 oracles as at Delphi." 



Euripides in his play, the Rht'sic; is vague. 

 Rhesus, after his death, is said to live beneath the 

 mountain as a semi-human deity [anthropodcemon). 

 who served Dionysus as prophet. This has been taken 

 to indicate that the Oracle of Dionysus was in a cav^e. 

 According to the words of Herodotus quoted above, the 

 ' Frag. 35. 8 ^.,j J J J 



