A copper alloy dividers with the remains of iron points found near Pezinok. (source: M. Sládok)
Terrain improvements related to the construction of the cycling trail from Pezinok, a town near Bratislava, to Pernek, a village near Malacky, have created the need for an archaeological survey in Pezinok in the Limbašské Údolie valley, as the trail there crosses the most important historical mining site in the Small Carpathians.
During the survey, the first ever in this area, carried out according to the standard of archaeological research, in addition to the mundane, remarkable finds were also discovered, said the Regional Monuments Board in Trnava.
A unique find is a copper alloy dividers with the remains of iron points, found near the mining site. The object resembles a compass, from which it differs in the absence of a writing tip. In the mining environment, dividers were used by mining engineers and cartographers to measure and transfer distances, and by carpenters in the manufacture of mining and processing equipment. An important source of knowledge about dividers are the parergy (graphic decoration of maps) on mining maps, mostly from the 18th century.
Despite the fact that the dividers comes from the modern era, no such find is known from Slovakia, which would be found with certainty in a mining site.
After the preservation of the find, the mobility of the joint was restored.
Silver penny
An important discovery is the silver Prague penny of Charles IV of Luxemburg, who ruled from 1346 to 1378. The coin was found near the mining site.
The currency is the oldest archaeological find from this location found by archaeological research methods.
In the past, the artifacts found in the valley were made accidentally or illegally, and there is no reliable documentation for them, which significantly reduces their informational value. It is only the second known rare find of the Charles IV Prague groschen from the entire mountain range. Other such coins found in the Small Carpathians contained mass finds, but, unfortunately, they were all found illegally, or they were not documented and handed over on the spot, which corresponds to the quality and reliability of their found information.
Common finds include a slightly bent iron miner's hammer, found directly on the shaft pile. Tools of a similar shape appeared in the mining environment at least as early as the late Middle Ages. This hammer, especially given the location of the find, comes from the last period of mining activity in the area around the middle of the 19th century.
Outside the main mining site, in the immediate vicinity of one small pinga (surface mine working), sherds from the 13th to 15th centuries were found. These are also common finds, but due to their location, if the sherds' connection with the pinga is confirmed, they would prove exploration activity outside the main mining site already in the first recorded mediaeval stage of Pezinok mining (1339 – 1543).
Campsites
Two campsites are interesting discoveries.
In the first one, dated roughly to the modern age, traces of a hearth, fragments of ceramic vessels and a copper alloy button were found. Parts of the containers were successfully glued together.
In the second camp from the first half, or second third of the 19th century, copper alloy buttons, copper coins and a fragment of a ceramic vessel were found. Camps could be created by foresters, miners or people avoiding riots.
