The Roman Mine of Espejuelo de Arboleas, star of an RTVE documentaryThe film has already been premiered at the Bidasoa International Archaeological Film FestivalThe geological riches of the province of Almería are well known, although if you ask anyone about them, they will surely evoke the Giant Geode of Pulpí or the Macael marble, which is distributed in cloisters, sculptures and works of art in the middle Spain.
However, an important part of Almeria's geological legacy is closely related to an activity that, although today has been relegated to the past, has made the province famous since ancient times: mining.
One of the most important vestiges of this legacy, with permission from the mining of lead and silver that developed in Sierra Almagrera and other mountainous areas of the province, are the Minas del Espejuelo de Arboleas, which in Roman times became a epicentre of the extraction of Lapis Specularis, a translucent mineral that was used in ancient times for the construction of what could be called the "first glass for windows in history" .
A story which is now portrayed for the big screen in the documentary film 'Roman Engineering: Mining', a production by Digivisión and Structuralia for Televisión Española, directed by José Antonio Muñiz and Javier Téllez, in which unique images of these mines are shown, whose importance in the past contrasts with the 'oblivion' in which they are currently, and is that few people from Almeria are aware of the importance, both geological and archaeological, of the site that is hidden under the subsoil of the Arboleas district of Limaría .
The preview of the documentary took place on November 14 at the Bidasoa International Archaeological Film Festival (FICAB) in Donostia-San Sebastián and will soon be broadcast on Spanish Television.
https://www.lavozdealmeria.com/noticia/3/provincia/204236/la-mina-romana-del-espejuelo-de-arboleas-protagonista-de-un-documental-de-rtve
