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At 20:18 05/03/2008, Trevor Dunkerley wrote: >Many thanks for that information. We have always had the feeling >that local indigenous miners picked up the word from German miners >who were here in the 1420s and again from 1520 onwards under Joachim >Hochsetter and the word has become slightly changed over time. In >the minutes of Mine Directors meetings in the 1840s it was described >as Falhers ore. Interestingly it has always been identified as the >ore with the higher silver content as against the gangue ores. Fahlerz is not attested in English documents until the end of the 18th century (Kirwan, Richard, Elements of mineralogy II, 148) when it is described as the ore of the Harz. It would be interesting to know when the term was first used in the German speaking mining regions of central Europe. I note that Agricola, De Re Metallica, 1567does not appear to use the term in his description of silver ores. Peter ______________________________________________ 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 Research Fellow - School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources Hon. University Fellow - School of Humanities and Social Sciences Office address - Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, EXETER, EX4 4QE Tel. +44 (0) 1392 263709 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.people.exeter.ac.uk/pfclaugh/mhinf/ _____________________________________________