Sakdrisi-Kachagiani gold mine
Mina de oro de Sakdrisi-Kachagiani
- Date
- c. 3200 BCE (discutido) · confidence low
- Place
- Sakdrisi, Bolnisi, Kvemo Kartli, Georgia
- Credited to
- Kura-Araxes culture (excavation by N. Rezesidze and T. Stöllner since 2004)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Galleries dug with stone hammers and fire-setting in an outcrop of gold-bearing quartz that may be the oldest known gold mining operation. They were found in 2004, and their 4th-3rd millennium BC chronology is disputed.
The age of the galleries is disputed: radiocarbon dates on charcoal and wood point to 3400-3000 BC, but other Georgian and German researchers propose a Middle Bronze Age phase and have reservations about contamination.
What it led to
- organised extraction of precious metal in the Caucasus before Egypt and Mesopotamia as gold sources
- possible origin of the Caucasian goldsmithing tradition (Trialeti) and the Golden Fleece myth
- an example of fire-setting mining with stone tools