Zprávy památkové péče 2014, 74(2):146-150

Active heritage protection of immovable and movable archeological finds through the example of the gold mining area near Netřebice. First phase of the project

Ján Čáni, Lenka Militká, Pavla Popelářová, Martin Tomášek

The first part of the article deals with a general evaluation of the state of heritage monuments of a montane character in connection with their heritage protection. Although these monuments are unique archaeological documents of particular importance to the study of the land use that in the past has shaped its current form, according to the current state of knowledge it is quite evident that their protection has long been at the edge of archaeological and monumental interest. At the same time, however, this part of the heritage fund ranks among a distinctive type of endangered archaeological sites, suggesting a lack of interest among the professional community as well as a low awareness among those who manage them.
Despite the fact that there are hundreds to thousands of montane sites in the Czech Republic, only a small number of them have been declared a cultural heritage monument. The reason for this low number of declared monuments is primarily the lengthy and relatively challenging administrative process of having a site declared a cultural monument. We meet here mainly with the problem of dating these sites, which is, in addition to detailed documentation and spatial demarcation, an integral part to their declaration as heritage monuments of the required documents.
Due to the process of gathering these necessary documents, during our field survey using non-destructive methods of documentation, we therefore focused our attention on a mining complex in a wooded area in the cadastral territory of the municipality of Netřebice (district of Český Krumlov). The location, exhibiting traces of gold mining, is extraordinary from our point of view, both in its scope and manner of preservation as well as the variety of the types of terrain relics associated with gold mining. Based on the terrain situation, this evidently involved surface mining of non-ferrous ores through classic panning techniques but mostly through "loaming" and soft mining. According to written sources associated with the area, the first probable mention is from 1315, while the last written information that might be assigned to it would be from the 16 th century.
The mining activities left a distinctive characteristic footprint on an area of approximately 50 hectares. The use of aerial laser scanning of the landscape allowed for a relatively precise demarcation of the area and certain more significant terrain relics. Ceramic material was observed through a surface survey that dates a small part of the area back to at least the 14 th century. In addition to visual and photographic prospects, gold panning was carried out on two sections of watercourses, and the gold flakes obtained were referred to further expertise to determine the composition of the metal. The next phase of exploration counts on the creation of an accurate plan of the site as well as carrying out microprobing and detector sensing in order to precisely date the entire site.

Keywords: heritage care, montane area, archeology, LiDAR, documentation methods

Published: June 1, 2014  Show citation