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Fire-setting to open up mines has been used on hard rock since prehistoric times. In the copper-mining district of Cabrie`res, the existence of metre-sized spherical or sub-spherical cavities, sometimes spaced along the same vertical in an ore seam, has usually been ascribed to this method . Two AMS 14C dating of micro-charcoal found in dolomite and of burnt ore breccias related to extraction in these cavities give the ages 3830 ± 40 BP, cal BC 2340–2130 and 3900 ± 40 BP, cal BC 2480–2280, which is the first evidence in France of the use of fire-setting in prehistoric mines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The settlement of Chalcolithic metalworkers of La Capitelle du Broum is a truly outstanding site. The first AMS 14C dating (3rd millennium BC) reveals it as the oldest site in the mining and metallurgy district of Cabrie`res. It is of the same age as the oldest metallurgy site discovered in continental France (Roquemengarde). It includes, near the prehistoric copper mines already discovered, double-facing dry-stone walls of the Fontbouisse type and a variety of metallurgy structures. Metalworking tools, including one of the very rare ingot crucibles known from this period in Western Europe, are found alongside ceramics typical of the Late Neolithic (Broum type?). To cite this article: P. Ambert et al., C. R. Palevol 1 (2002) 67–74. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]