ABSTRACT
Laurium is justly famous for its silver; less well known is that about 16 kg of ore had to be extracted and processed to produce each silver drachma, weighing about 4 g, or that the quantity of food which had to be supplied to the labour force engaged in processing minerals in Laurium probably amounted to at least 4,000 kg per day. Moreover, Laurium has many other mineral resources which were explored and exploited in antiquity. Athenian pot painters, for example, depended on Laurium for the pigment which coloured the pots red and black.
