Ancient Roman Mining and Quarrying Techniques
Read this article about Roman mining to learn how ancient Romans solved its technical problems. They even had mechanical devices for removing modest amounts of water from mineshafts.
Mining Techniques
It is a challenge for archaeologists to accurately determine Roman mining techniques because little recoverable evidence remains. Destructive methods such as fire-setting damaged tools and artifacts. Miners lit a fire directly in front of the rock face to be mined and quickly cooled it down immediately with cold liquids, quenching the rock by cracking and weakening it with thermal shock. As a result, many artifacts that have been found are damaged. There are also accounts written by hundreds of authors including Vitruvius, Diodorus of Sicily and Pliny have been found and offer insight into Roman mining methods. The writings do not mention any locations, only what was observed. The difference between mining and quarrying is the material sought after and whether it's under or above ground. Mining is done for minerals while quarrying is done for stones.