A 13th-century hydraulic ore mill at the mining site of Brandes (Isère), France

Nicolas Minvielle Larousse (1)

1 LA3M - Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée

This paper presents the results of the excavation of an ore grinding watermill brought to light in Sector B 121 of the industrial quarter of the mining town of Brandes (Isère, France). The mill, dated by dendrochronology the 13th century AD, was driven with water channelled from the Font-Morelle spring. The head-race and spillway are examples of the opportunistic reuse of earlier anthropic (canal and mining trench) or natural (faults and karsts) features. The tail-race was not totally excavated. The mill-house (drywall and timber construction) is poorly conserved and the millstone driving mechanisms are difficult to interpret. A series of features suggest the use of a horizontal water wheel driven counterclockwise by a jet of water guided through a flume. A large number of millstone fragments and flakes were studied in a previous article.

Mots clés: Mining Archaeology; ore grinding; Watermills; Millstone; Medieval Archaeology; Medieval history; Medieval studies

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Histoire

Nicolas Minvielle Larousse. A 13th-century hydraulic ore mill at the mining site of Brandes (Isère), France. Revista d'Arqueologia de Ponent, 2019, Tilting at Mills, The Archaeology and Geology of Mills and Milling, Proceedings of the Colloquium Held at the Museum of Archaeology of Almería, Spain, 5th -8th March, 2014, Numero extra 4, pp.59-80. ⟨10.21001/rap.2019.extra-4.4⟩. ⟨halshs-02500923⟩