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At 13:37 05/02/06, Trevor Dunkerley wrote: >Dr. Marcos Martinon-Torres at UCL has offered a feasible explanation >for the use of ground down pottery sherds (see Britarch List) and >his suggestion certainly fits what I am finding. Marcos is certainly correct to suggest that the crushed sherds might be components in a parting vessel to separate gold and silver. Now, we have clear evidence for silver extraction at Combe Martin but gold? There are gold deposits in North Devon but they are very isolated - not economic for bulk extraction in the 19th century - and none, to my knowledge, are associated with the mineralisation at Combe Martin. You could however be dealing with the processing of imported material; for example, we have evidence that some ores were shipped in from co. Wexford; and there is the apparent suggestion that difficulties with 'parting' contributed to the original failure to successfully work the Wexford ores on site in the 1550s (Cowman, 'The German Mining Operation at Bannow Bay, 1551-52', Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 11, (1986-7), 67-82; however Cowman is rather confused about the processes involved). ______________________________________________ Dr Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE. Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599 Hon. University Fellow School of Humanities and Social Sciences (Centre for South Western Historical Studies) University of Exeter E-mail: [log in to unmask] Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list. See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details. Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/ _____________________________________________