galena sphere

Madagascar galena ball

size: 8.2cm

weight: 1.496kg

Galena is mined in several localities in Calestienne, which have become very famous over time. This is the case of Matagne-La-Grande, Matagne-La-Petite, Treignes, and Villers-en-Fagne. Some early miners spent a lifetime working hard in the pits to extract from them. In Tellin, a total of 11 mineshafts were located by radio. One of them is still visible. In the collective memory, certain places carry denominations which speak volumes. A name in popular memory is the Trou au Plomb or the Fosse au Plomb, which designates quarries found in different places in Calestienne. These are entrances to galleries or trenches that are more or less open to the public. They are dug via a block for the crossing of one or the other of the veins. Galena stone had been called Saumont or Saumont wood. This first name of wood is given to a purified and cooled buckshot aggregate after the melting of the ore. Elders use names such as pits, mines, plumbers and others.