Rudna Glava is a mining site in present-day eastern Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

 that demonstrates one of the earliest evidences of European copper mining and metallurgy, dating to the 5th millennium BC. Shafts were cut into the hillside, with scaffolding constructed for easy access to the veins of ore. It belongs to the Vinča culture

Vinca culture

The Vinča culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in Southeastern Europe, dated to the period 5500–4500 BCE. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement discovered by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the material remains of a prehistoric society...

, as is shown by pottery-finds. In 1983, Rudna Glava was added to the Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance

Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance (Serbia)

Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance are the archaeological sites in the Republic of Serbia that have the highest level of the State protection, and some of them are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites....

 list, protected by Republic of Serbia.

Another early mine is located at Ai Bunar near Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and a nationally important economic center. Located in Southern Bulgaria, it is the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province...

 in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

.

See also

• Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance
  Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance (Serbia)
  Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance are the archaeological sites in the Republic of Serbia that have the highest level of the State protection, and some of them are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites....
  
  

Sources and external links

• Borislav Jovanović, Rudna Glava, najstarije rudarstvo bakra na centralnom Balkanu. Bor, Muzej rudarstva i metalurgije/Beograd, Arheološki institut 1982.
• J. P. Mallory and Martin E. Huld, "Metal", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The encyclopedia was edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams and published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn...
  
  , Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• http://www.komunikacija.org.rs/komunikacija/casopisi/starinar/XLIX_*ns/d16/document
• Archeology - Archaeometallurgy
• http://www.greatorme.freeserve.co.uk/Literature%20Review.htm
• http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab16