52. But they say that the ris\ of suffocation is a serious matter for the miners, since this can happen to them quickly and ta\es a very short time.
Accidents were probably the result of inadequate timbering or other means of support in the galleries or shafts cut in soft, dangerous ground. That the roofs of ancient mines were often improperly supported is clear from ancient allusions to mining accidents and from modern explorations of ancient mines. Statius387 likens the burial of a miner under a falling roof in tiie silver mines of Spain to die sudden crushing of a wrestler by his opponent Gowland388 reports that the skeletons of more than fifty men were discovered in some very old workings near ancient Iconium in Asia Minor; they had evidently been entombed in an underground chamber by the sudden collapse of the gallery leading to the open air. In section 63, Theophrastus describes how a white earthy mineral was mined on the island of Samos and shows clearly how dangerous it was to work in mines exploited for soft minerals. Though it is barely possible that Theophrastus may be alluding here to accidents caused by the presence of noxious gases, this is very unlikely, since such gases would normally be absent from ochre mines.
52. The best red ochre seems to be that of Ceos. Ceos (Ketos), an island in the Aegean situated about fourteen miles southeast of the southern tip of Attica, is not mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, or Vitruvius as a source of the pigment. This suggests that the ochre mines on Ceos, though at one time yielding an excellent product, were exhausted before the beginning of the Christian Era. According to Davies,389 it is still possible to see signs of the ancient mining of iron minerals at various places on the island. At Spathi, for example, there are said to be ancient stopes and galleries. At Oriko, tiiree miles south of Spathi, many ancient stopes and adits, some containing ancient tools, were uncovered when the mines were reopened in modern times. Traces of ancient galleries only two to three feet high are said to be in
WThebaid, VI, 880-85.
888 W. Gowland, Archaeologia, LXIX (1917-1918), 157.
889 Roman Mines in Europe, p. 257.
