engineering

Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes

Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes rather than just read about it. In short: The Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes are among the largest and earliest Neolithic flint mines which survive in north-western Europe, located close to the Walloon village of Spiennes, southeast of Mons, Belgium. The mines were active during the mid and late Neolithic between 4,300 and 2,200 BC.

Key takeaways

Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes are among the largest and earliest Neolithic flint mines which survive in north-western Europe, located close to the Walloon village of Spiennes, southeast of Mons, Belgium. The mines were active during the mid and late Neolithic between 4,300 and 2,200 BC. Declared to be "remarkable for the diversity of technological solutions used for extraction" the site and its surroundings were inducted into the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 2000.

Description Discovered in 1843, the first excavations were undertaken by the mining engineer Alphonse Briart and two others during railway construction in 1867, with results presented to the International Prehistoric Congress held in Brussels in 1872. Intermittent excavations have been carried out up to the present day. The Mines of Spiennes cover some 100 ha (250 acres) of downland four miles south-east of the city of Mons. The site is dotted with millions of scraps of worked flint and numerous mining pits, that Neolithic settlers have gradually turned into vertical mine shafts to depths of over 10 m (33 ft). Underneath is an elaborate man-made network of caverns accessible via the many shafts. A seminal stage of human inventiveness, technological and cultural application and progress, the transition between opencast and underground mining for flint nodules is impressively displayed and documented. Research has illustrated Neolithic techniques for the cutting of the flint and the extraction of large slabs of flint, that weighed up to hundreds of kilos. The nodules were extracted using flint picks. The stones were then knapped into rough-out shapes of axes, and finally polished to achieve the final state. The rough-outs were exchanged over a wide area, about 150 km (93 mi), and were often polished at their destination. Polishing strengthens the final product, making the axe- or adze-head last longer. The smooth surface also aids the cutting action by lowering friction with the wood. The axes were used initially for forest clearance during the Neolithic period, and for shaping wood for structural applications, such as timber for huts and canoes.

Conservation and access An interpretative centre called SILEX'S opened in spring 2015. There is a museum on the surface and it is normally possible to descend into a mine.

Similar sites The site has been compared with Grimes Graves and Cissbury in the United Kingdom, and Krzemionki in Poland, which are also sources of flint stone. However, different hard rocks were used for the polished stone axes. There are several locations in Britain where fine-grained igneous or metamorphic rock was collected from screes or opencast mines, then roughed out locally before trading on to other parts of the country. Examples include the Langdale axe industry, Penmaenmawr and Tievebulliagh.

References

Bibliography C. Guillaume, Ph. Lipinski & A. Masson: Les mines de silex néolithiques de la Meuse dans le contexte européen. Musées de la Meuse, Sampigny 1987. (in French) F. Gosselin: Un site d'exploitation du silex à Spiennes (Hainaut), au lieu-dit "Petit-Spiennes". Vie archéologique 22, 1986, 33-160. (in French) F. Hubert: Une minière néolithique à silex au Camp-à-Cayaux de Spiennes. Archaeologia Belgica, 210, 1978. (in French) F. Hubert: L'exploitation préhistorique du silex à Spiennes. Carnets du Patrimoine n°22. Ministère de la Région wallonne, Direction générale de l'Aménagement du Territoire, du Logement et du Patrimoine, Namur 1997. (in French) R. Shepherd: Prehistoric Mining and Allied Industries. (Academic Press, London 1980). Société de recherches préhistoriques en Hainaut: Minières néolithiques à Spiennes (Petit-Spiennes). 1997 (in French) ICOMOS evaluation Collet, H. (2004). Les mines néolithiques de Spiennes : état des connaissances et perspectives de recherche (PDF). Section 10: The Neolithic in the Near East and Europe (in French). Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 1-84171-653-7. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2011. Actes du XIVème congrès UISPP, Université de Liège, Belgique, 2 – 8 septembre 2001(in French) Hélène Collet, Philippe Lavachery, Michel Woodbury, Raw material exploitation strategies on the flint mining site of Spiennes (Hainaut, Belgium), (2016) in Journal of Lithic Studies (2016) vol. 3, nr. 2 H. Collet, A. Hauzeur & J. Lech, The prehistoric flint mining complex at Spiennes on the occasion of its discovery 140 years ago, (2008) in Flint mining in Prehistoric Europe: Interpreting the archaeological records, European Association of Archaeologists, 12th Annual Meeting, Cracow, Poland, 19–24 September 2006 (BAR International Series 1891): 41-77. Hélène Collet, Mineurs illustres du Hainaut, (2012), in Les Cahiers nouveaux, no 83, septembre 2012, p. 21-25(in French) [1] Toussaint M., Collet H., Jadin I., Lavachery P., Pirson S., Woodbury M., Durieux J., Eloy J. & Lambermont S., 2019. Recent discoveries of human skeletons in the flint mine shafts of Spiennes: casualties or burials? In: Collet H. & Hauz eur A. (eds), 2019. Mining and Quarrying. Geological Characterisation, Knapping Processes and Distribution Networks during Pre- and Protohistoric Times. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the UISPP Commission on Flint Mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Times, Mons and Spiennes, 28 September – 1 October 2016. Anthropologica et Praehistorica, 128. Bruxelles, SRBAP, pp. 245–262.

External links Image Gallery Archived 19 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine Visit of the Neolithic Flint mines, Interpretive Centre "SILEX'S" Spiennes Neolithic flint mines, archaeological team website Unesco list Media related to Spiennes at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes

In research: Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Archaeological sites in Belgium, Buildings and structures in Hainaut Province, Flint mining, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes in simple terms?

Why does Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes.