Рударска производња у средњовјековном Брскову
Mine Production in Medieval Brskovo

Summary/Abstract: The areas around rivers Tara and Lim were places of mining activity during the Roman age. Following the paths of ancient mining, the exploitation of Brskovo mines was started by German miners – Saxons in the middle of the 13th century. Their arrival was the beginning of a new mining era in our areas. They improved the Balkan mining by using new methods in extraction and processing the ore. They also began the extraction of precious and non-ferrous metals. Apart from Brskovo and its surroundings where the mining activities were at their most, it also included nearby areas (hill-sides of Bjelasica, Biogradsko lake vicinity, Stitarica). The processing of ore was concentrated around the rivers Rudnica, Bjelojevicka river, Jezerstica, Stitaricka river, Lepesnica. The remains of processed ore were found around these rivers. Also, the mining activities left their traces in the toponymy of this area (Przista, Ugljari, Vignjista, Kraljevo kolo, Mijatovo kolo….). It seems that the medieval miners extracted smaller ore occurrences near the ground’s surface. The reasons for this were technical problems (the hardness of the rocks) that wouldn’t let the extraction in much richer ore deposits. This was the cause for the mild mining decline from the middle of the 14th century, till its total cessation by the end of it. Silver, copper and lead were extracted in Brskovo. The Brskovo silver was especially valuable because of a percentage of gold. Large quantities of produced metals were exported to Dubrovnik and Kotor and then to Venice. A part of the processed silver was used for coining money, probably from the beginning of the second half of the 13th century. At this period Brskovo was the most important economic center in Serbia because of mining and trading. By the decreasing of the production, trading connections with Brskovo gradually ceased and so did its economic life. Some Ottoman documents from the middle of the 15th century reveal that a new mine was open in the area of an old parish of Brskovo called Proscenje. This mine is usually mentioned in connection with the Brskovo mines. However, the remains of the old works and the traces of mining activities that are saved in the toponymy of the middle ages areas of Proscenje imply that this is a separate mining area and that it cannot be connected to the Brskovo mining. Nevertheless, there are some data about Ottomans’ exploitations in the mine in the middle of the 16th century.

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