This is the first monograph on the history of the Rudari people of Romania and the first map of their settlements. The Rudari are a population which has traditionally inhabited the Balkan area and much of Central Europe. They are known for insisting that they are not Roms/Gypsies, many of them do not know the Romani language but speak Romanian dialects and make a living out of carving wooden household items, although their Slavic name alludes to mining. Outside Romanian borders they have been identified by their language and are thus better researched. In Romania some communities were researched randomly by ethnographers. They were for centuries gold-prospectors and gold-washers working for the Crown of Wallachia and were administrated as slaves by a certain monastery situated on the auriferous Olt river. The authors have reconstructed their history for 500 years until the 19th century, when the gold-panning occupation started to decline due to the decrease of the reserves of alluvial gold.weiterlesen