Mining landscape Dippoldiswalde - Medieval Silver Mines

The village Dippoldiswalde is assumed to have been founded around 1155/60. Silver mines are very likely to have existed outside and, in some cases, even within the boundaries of the medieval town since the late 12th century. Medieval mining extended to a north/northeast–south/southwest route spanning 1,500 m and to an east-west direction of approximately 450 m. Archaeological studies indicate that, based on its present state, mining began in Dippoldiswalde as early as the 1180s. It can be said that silver mining in the examined area was temporarily ceased around 1260. The findings from the Dippoldiswalde medieval silver mines are of critical importance to mining-related archaeological research in Saxony, Germany and Europe.

A 2.0 x 2.2-m winding chamber with winch and water catchment ditch was uncovered on a gate road running to a depth of 22 m in the claim around Obertorplatz. It still had a wooden winder (1.60 m long, 1.60 m wide, 2.0 m high) perched above an inclined blind shaft. 25 fragments of the winder had been preserved, including both horizontal fir beams with the respective beech winder supports, as well as various planks, boards, timber wedges and wooden pegs. On either side of the winder supports were flat planks, which served as tread areas for the winding workers. Based on two retrieved logs, the winder has been dated back to around 1220, making it the oldest of its kind in medieval European mining archaeology to be preserved to such an extent. A fully preserved mining ladder measuring 5.14 m in length and just 0.24 m in width was recovered in a blind shaft. Another complex discovery shows that rain and strata water was, in some parts, channeled to a central point via a gutter system, and from there transported aboveground by winder in leather containers.