The History of Serbian Mining
THE HISTORY OF SERBIAN MINING Slobodan Vujić With the consent of the author taken from: Serbian Mining and Geology in the Second Half of XX Century, Roots, p. 1-38, Academy of Engineering Sciences of Serbia, Matica srpska and Mining Institute of Belgrade, 2014, 564 p. EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS OF LIFE The emergence of mining and geology is linked to the efforts of man to subjugate nature to his needs, to use the recourses offered by nature, to produce tools for work and provide existence. A long path has been crossed from the original surface gathering of minerals and one of the greatest human discoveries in history that happened eight thousand years ago, making metal from a piece of rock in the fire. Mining and geology exist inseparably almost as long as the humankind, they have been a pillar of economic, cultural, scientific, technical-technological and general social development. They have developed or stagnated, brought wellbeing or suffering, affected the course of history. Archeology points out that the roots of mining, geology, and metallurgy could be traced back to the Prehistory in the area of Serbia. This is confirmed by numerous archeological sites, special representative monuments of culture – Krivo polje near Ramaća, Rujnik near Niš, Rudna glava near Majdanpek, Mali Šturac (Prlovi) on Rudnik, Belovode near Petrovac na Mlavi, Pločnik near Prokuplje, Stojnik on Kosmaj, etc. The old wisdom that history is the witness of times, the torch of truth and the teacher of life (testis temporum, lux veritatis et magistra vitae) confirms its verity on the example of the history of mining and geology and teaches us that neither development nor history begins from us, that we are only a link in the everlasting process.
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