Metalla Deceanglica
About
Lead pigs stamped DECEANGL after the local tribe left this Flintshire mountain and turned up at the legionary works in Chester, proof that Rome had the district under military control within two decades of conquest. A private smelter run by one C. Nipius Ascanius operated alongside the army's own works. Both lead and its telltale traces of silver kept the mountain in production through 117 CE.
What happened here
Work goes on underground by lamplight in shifts, and the lamp is also the clock. Galleries follow the ore, propped with timber, drained by wooden screws and bucket wheels worked by hand in stages up the shaft. Ventilation is a second shaft and a fire to draw the air. The labour is convicts, slaves and paid men working side by side on different terms, and the paid men do the skilled cutting. Above ground the ore is crushed, washed in long channels, and smelted, and the smoke kills the vegetation for miles. Mines of any size are imperial property, leased to contractors under written regulations covering shifts, drainage, bath-house charges and who may open a new gallery. Settlements grow around them fast and empty just as fast.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →