Communication 51 1993

Pleiner, R. (2006). Iron in Archaeology. Early European Blacksmiths. Praha: Archeologický ústav AVČR, 2006

METALLA 23.2, 51-66, 2017

Kinet Höyük (ancient Issos), located in Cilicia on a narrow corridor between the seacoast of the East Mediterranean and the Amanus mountains (Nur Dağları), is an archaeological site with 29 excavated occupational levels, starting from the Early Bronze Age. The successive settlements at Kinet Höyük faced many military campaigns and changed hands frequently because of its strategic position with access to shipping routes, and the availability of rich mining and forestry resources. However, iron smithing was one of the activities that changed least during the transformations occurring in the region, according to iron-related finds from different occupational levels at the site. In this paper, iron objects and smithing slags from the Iron Age period at Kinet are introduced from their metallurgical perspective. The results of metallography and SEM-EDX analysis of Iron Age steel objects are discussed in light of previous studies on iron metallurgy of the neighboring regions. Additionally, slags which are dated to the site's Neo-Assyrian phase are evaluated by petrography, ICP-MS and XRD analysis. Although all of the iron objects are fully corroded, remnant metal observations point to a variety of microstructural phases. The majority belong to medium-and high-carbon steel structures that were affected by heat treatments, i.e. normalizing, and annealing. Plentiful hammerscale were detected in thin sections of smithing slags. Basalt attachments to slags are considered to reflect the presence of basalt in the smithing hearths and other pyrotechnical settings.

Book of Abstracts from the conference 'Iron in Archaeology: Bloomery Smelters and Blacksmiths in Europe and Beyond', which took place in Prague from May 30 to June 1, 2017.

Newly discovered Avar iron production centres were excavated in the large areas of motorway construction in Transdanubia. There are two important periods of iron production in this part of Pannonia: the earlier one is connected with the middle and late periods of the Avar Empire, from the 7th to 8th centuries AD up to the Carolingian period in the 9th century. The later period began with the founding of the Hungarian state in the 10th century. Up to the present two sites where furnaces were found from both periods are known. The rst result of the most recent archaeometallurgical research is that Avar ironmaking was more signicant in Pannonia than previously thought. These extensive centres of iron production and smithing (possibly of weapons) may have been directly in the zone in which the Avars came together, to organize campaign against Byzantium on the line of the main Roman roads. A further question relates to the origins of Pannonian Avar iron metallurgy. Our present knowledge suggests that iron production has no local antecedents from the Roman period. One of the results of the new excavations is correction of dating of the supposed Roman age furnace at Sopron to the 11th12th century.

Metalla, 2017

Kinet Höyük (ancient Issos), located in Cilicia on a narrow corridor between the seacoast of the East Mediter-ranean and the Amanus mountains (Nur Dağları), is an archaeological site with 29 excavated occupational levels, starting from the Early Bronze Age. The successive settlements at Kinet Höyük faced many military campaigns and changed hands frequently because of its strategic position with access to shipping routes, and the availability of rich mining and forestry resources. However, iron smithing was one of the activities that changed least during the transformations occurring in the region, according to iron-related finds from different occupational levels at the site. In this paper, iron objects and smithing slags from the Iron Age period at Kinet are introduced from their metallurgical perspective. The results of metallogra-phy and SEM-EDX analysis of Iron Age steel objects are discussed in light of previous studies on iron metallurgy of the neighboring regions. Additionally, slags which are dated to the site's Neo-Assyrian phase are evaluated by petrography, ICP-MS and XRD analysis. Although all of the iron objects are fully corroded, remnant metal observations point to a variety of microstructural phases. The majority belong to medium-and high-carbon steel structures that were affected by heat treatments, i.e. normalizing , and annealing. Plentiful hammerscale were detected in thin sections of smithing slags. Basalt attachments to slags are considered to reflect the presence of basalt in the smithing hearths and other pyrotechnical settings.

Monographies Instrumentum 50, 2014

The last decade has seen a plethora of archaeometallurgical conferences, some as periodical meetings with a clear geographical focus such as BUMA (Beginnings of the Use of Metals and Alloys) which specialises on Asian and circum-Pacific metallurgy, Anatolian Metals, or Archaeometallurgy in Europe, others as ad hoc events such as Metallurgy - A Touchstone for Cross-Cultural Interaction (2005, in honour of Paul Craddock at the British Museum), or as subsections of the biannual International Symposium on Archaeometry. Was there, then, room and need for yet another archaeometallurgical conference? In our view, yes. A close assessment of the subject coverage of most major archaeometrical or archaeometallurgical conferences revealed a strong bias towards copper and its alloys, and the noble metals. Iron, in contrast, was much less covered, despite the undoubted and overwhelming economic importance of this metal compared to base metals. The 2005 conference in London had just 15% of its papers devoted to iron, and even the 2006 BUMA conference in Beijing had only 30% iron papers, despite the particular significance of this metal in Chinese early metallurgy. This pattern is also repeated in the published literature, suggesting a major re-set of the record was overdue. Against this backdrop, Brigitte Cech developed the concept for the Hüttenberg Conference Early Iron in Europe-Prehistoric and Roman Iron Production, focussing on European early iron production, a field of study where tremendous progress was being made but which did not enjoy the visibility it deserved. Hüttenberg, a small village in the mountains of southern Austria seemed the ideal place for this conference. It was the centre of the production of the famous ferrum Noricum, the Noric steel mentioned in Greek and Roman literature. Archaeological excavations at the site Semlach/Eisner revealed the remains of large-scale Roman iron production over a period of at least four centuries. Later iron ore mining and smelting in the region continued well into the 20 th century AD, making this a region of international importance for the technical heritage of iron. Interdisciplinary research into the Roman period started in 2003 and continued until 2010. For these reasons Hüttenberg seemed the perfect setting for a conference on early iron production in Europe. In September 2008, after careful planning and preparation, 102 delegates from fifteen different countries presented 52 oral papers and 34 posters, covering different aspects of iron production from the beginnings of iron technology to the Middle Ages. We then invited the participants to submit their manuscripts for publication in an edited volume, the one you hold in your hands right now. However, in order to keep our project manageable and thematically coherent, we decided to focus the book of proceedings on European iron production of the Late La Tène and the Roman period only, of course without prejudice against the importance of iron production elsewhere and at other times. Indeed, a parallel initiative by Jane Humphris and Xander Veldhuijzen resulted in a sister conference, the World of Iron which took place in London in February 2009 (Humphris and Rehren 2013), specifically excluding European iron metallurgy.

Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2020

From among a dozen or so hoards from the Hallstatt C period from the lands of today’s Poland consisting solely of iron objects, three found in western Lesser Poland near Krakow have not yet been exhaustively discussed (one is a new find). This article is intended to fill this gap by presenting deposits from Kokotów-Strumiany (Wieliczka distr.), Maszków, and Młodziejowice (Kraków distr.) against the background of similar finds that at the beginning of the Iron Age entered the landscape of metal deposition. Their distribution follows a specific manner. In the Odra River basin (Silesia and southern Wielkopolska), similarly as in the Hallstatt culture, the custom of depositing metal hoards, especially with respect to iron objects, had disappeared at the beginning of the early Iron Age in favour of rich furnishing of burials in metal. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the area covered by direct Hallstatt influence, this tradition continued to flourish, not resisting the inclusion of new metal in thesaurization rituals. Only the latter zone yielded ‘pure’ iron hoards, and these are a reflection of syncretic phenomena: maintaining centuries-old cultural norms and fascination with a ‘new bronze’.