Roman & Visigothic
Rome takes the Iberian peninsula; the Riotinto and Tharsis mines become imperial copper, silver, and gold suppliers. After the Western Empire collapses the Visigothic kings keep mining at much reduced scale.
Part of Andévalo
4 moments in this segment.
- - Roman Riotinto - imperial copper + silver. At its peak the Roman operation at Riotinto employs an estimated 20,000 workers and exports copper, silver, and gold across the empire. Slag heaps from this period still dot the landscape; the Latin-era galleries are still navigable.
- - Roman Tharsis. Tharsis, just south of modern Santa Bárbara de Casa, is one of the most heavily worked Roman mineral fields. Its name will be re-used by the 19th-century British company that takes over the same site, a 1,700-year continuity of extraction.
- - Visigothic kingdom in Hispania. After Rome's western collapse the Visigoths establish a kingdom in Hispania with its capital at Toledo. Mining continues at much reduced scale; the Andévalo countryside reverts to small-scale farming and transhumant grazing.
- - Battle of Guadalete. Tariq ibn Ziyad's army defeats the Visigothic king Roderic near the Guadalete river (711). Within seven years almost the entire peninsula will be under Umayyad rule; the Andévalo becomes the western frontier of Al-Andalus.
