Pleiner 2003 European Iron Blooms

2003

Although the Northern European Iron Age lasted two millennia, the "golden age" in the study of its smelting sites is about to end after less than 40 years. Professional excavations did not really begin until the 1960s, and with most unexplored sites situated in topsoil, the increasingly deep ploughs of modern agriculture destroy more of this heritage every year. At this critical juncture, the papers gathered here offer a glimpse into the state of iron smelting research in both Eastern and Western Europe. They include case studies of iron production sites in archaeological contexts (including social and agricultural frameworks), comparative regional studies, metallographic investigations and techniques for geophysical prospecting and archaeomagnetic dating. The volume should appeal to those with strong interests in the Iron Age, European archaeology or the history of metallurgy.

Monographies Instrumentum 50, 2014

Some years ago, 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. 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. The 22 papers assembled here give both an overview and fine detail. They are arranged in a broad geographical sweep across Europe and finishing with a few more technical and less geographically-focused papers. Taking Hüttenberg as the starting point, this sweep first goes north with three papers on early iron in Germany, then on through the Netherlands into France, moving back south to Switzerland and into Italy. A second sweep starts in Great Britain and takes in Scandinavia as well, before the book then finishes with the technical papers on smithing wastes and the role of manganese oxide in bloomery iron smelting, bringing the circle to a full close back to Hüttenberg and the famous ferrum Noricum.

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2024

Until recently, archaeological evidence for medieval iron production has been very sparse. In the past decade, several sites with traces of iron production have nevertheless been found in the Silkeborg area, especially during developerfunded excavations. The finds include eight iron smelting furnaces and several slag heaps, i.e. heaps of accumulated waste related to iron production such as slag, charcoal, and fragments of iron smelting furnaces. The newly acquired archaeological material provides a unique opportunity to shed more light on medieval iron production. In the past few years, several lines of evidence including assessment of the archaeological material and written sources, radiocarbon dating, and metallurgical and charcoal analyses have been investigated as part of the research project "Iron production in central Jutland during the medieval period and Renaissance" (Christensen et al. 2023; Nielsen et al. in prep). In this article we present the results of charcoal analyses from six different sites that provide valuable information about the types of wood used, species variability within and between sites, and how organized the iron production was. It is the first published anthracological study of fuel use related to Danish medieval iron production.

Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2003

Trends in archaeological research in iron production during the 100 years that this topic has been studied in Scandinavia are highlighted in this article. In some periods there has been a relatively high level of activity among iron production researchers; in other periods the interest has tended to wane. Why should this be so and to what extent have theoretical trends in archaeology influenced this field? From a European perspective, Sweden and Norway are uniquely placed for studies of ancient iron technology because the remains of iron production in these countries are situated in remote areas. They are preserved because there has been no activity in the forests and mountain regions to disturb them since the production sites were vacated hundreds and thousands of years ago.

In Glørstad, A.Z. and K. Loftsgarden (ed.) Viking-Age Transformations: Trade, Craft and Resources in Western Scandinavia, 2017

Brigitte Cech, Thilo Rehren (eds.), Early Iron in Europe. Monographies Instrumentum 50, 2014. Cover, Table of contents and Introduction. Book of proceedings of a conference on early iron production in Europe, held in Hüttenberg, Austria in 2008. The book contains 22 articles on various aspects of Iron Age and Roman iron production in Europe.

Piers Dixon & Claudia Theune (eds), 2021: Ruralia XIII: Seasonal Settlement in the Medieval and Early Modern Countryside. Sidestone Press, Leiden, pp. 221-228., 2021

A staggering amount of iron was produced in the inland regions of Scandinavia in the Viking Age and Middle Ages. Bloomery iron was made on small-scale production sites, initiated and organised by skilled inland farmers. For these farmers to risk spending valuable time and resources on surplus production of iron, the production had to be integrated into the farm year’s cycle. In this paper, I explore how the making of iron was organised as a seasonal activity and how this enabled a dispersed but extensive bloomery iron production.

Plas Tan y Bwlch Occasional Paper No. 3, eds Peter & Susan Crew, Abstracts of the International Conference, 19th - 25th September 1997, 1997

Current research on a wide range of ironworking topics were presented in 51 papers from 15 European countries, with other papers from Estonia and Africa. Topics include excavations, surveys, experiments and archaeometallurgy, with a date range from the Iron Age through to the Medieval period and with three papers on early blast furnaces.

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.