A new understanding of the chronology, circulation and function of Iron Age (8th–1st c. BC) ferrous semi-products in north-eastern France

Berranger, Marion; Dillmann, Philippe; Fluzin, Philippe; Vega, Enrique; Aubert, Michel; Leroy, Stéphanie; Delqué-Količ, Emmanuelle

doi:10.1007/s12520-021-01333-0

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Major oxides and lithophile trace elements with PCA as a discrimination method were applied by M. L'He ´ritier and colleagues [48]. A. Disser and co-authors used a combined PCA-AHC treatment of major and trace elements [49, 50; see also [51][52][53][54].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Old wine into new wineskins? “Legacy data” in research on Roman Period East Germanic iron smelting

Żabiński,

Gramacki,

Gramacki

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses the use of “legacy data” in research on Roman Period iron smelting in the territory of the Przeworsk Culture in Magna Germania. The dataset includes results of 240 analyses of smelting slag and iron ores chemistry. A majority of these analyses were conducted in the 1950s-1980s. The quality of these data is far below present-day standards. Only major elements were reported, analytical methods were often not specified (although optical emission spectroscopy and wet chemical analyses can be assumed in such cases) and information on detection limits, precision and accuracy of the results is missing. In spite of this, a Principal Component Analysis-Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering treatment successfully isolated observations from the three main iron smelting regions of the Przeworsk Culture (the Holy Cross Mountains, Masovia and Silesia). These results to a degree confirm a theory proposed in the 1960s by J. Piaskowski, according to whom it was possible to distinguish iron produced in the Holy Cross Mountains from the iron produced elsewhere in the territory of what is now Poland on the basis of metal characteristics. These findings will pave the way to the ongoing research project on the Przeworsk Culture metallurgy. It is also argued that, apart from a search for new methods in iron provenance studies, more attention should be paid to results of earlier analyses and to a compilation of legacy databases. The other result is an open and flexible Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering R code to examine discrimination between production areas and to propose artefact provenance patterns in a convenient interactive way using the R development environment.

show abstract

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Old wine into new wineskins? “Legacy data” in research on Roman Period East Germanic iron smelting

Żabiński,

Gramacki,

Gramacki

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Geochemical Link Between Slag Inclusion and Hammerscale, a Potential New Tool to Better Understand the Iron Supply of an Archaeological Workshop

Rodier

Serneels

2023

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hammerscale is the waste formed during hammering of hot iron on the anvil. It is mainly composed of iron oxides (wüstite, magnetite, hematite) with a variable amount of silica-rich component. This research focuses on the potential geochemical link between hammerscale and smelting derived slag inclusion contained in the metallic iron. In the frame of previous research, the smithing practice of African Dogon craftsmen (Mali) has been recorded in details. Different samples were collected including, slag, hammerscale, metal. Two different groups of iron bars produced by different bloomery process and more than one hundred experimental pieces of hammerscale were chemically investigated in situ by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) and by X-ray Fluorescence spectrometry (WD-XRF) in Fribourg / Switzerland. A small part of them was also analyzed by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in Orléans / France. The results show a strong contamination of the hammerscale by the working environment (flux, ashes, sand, etc.) impacting the concentrations of most of non-reducible elements, in particular the most abundant ones (Si, Al, K, Ca). However, several in situ analyses revealed abnormal high contents of Ti, Mn, Zr in contrast to the chemical composition of the forging environment. The concentrations of these elements are affected by contamination but the ratios, in this context, remain unchanged. TiO2/Zr ratios measured in slag inclusion are consistent with the ratios measured in hammerscale produced from the same iron type. Those results support that hammerscale could still carry the chemical signature of the smelting system and thus the geochemical fingerprint of the iron worked. Applying this methodology on archeological hammerscale would make it possible to assess the chemical diversity of worked irons and to provide information about the primary ore sources. Improving our current knowledge of the workshop iron supplies and therefore the circulation of iron in the past times.

show abstract

Hammerscale and slag inclusions: New insights into metal supply during the early iron Age in Western Europe

Rodier,

Berranger,

Serneels

2024

Journal of Archaeological Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A new understanding of the chronology, circulation and function of Iron Age (8th–1st c. BC) ferrous semi-products in north-eastern France

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

Old wine into new wineskins? “Legacy data” in research on Roman Period East Germanic iron smelting

Old wine into new wineskins? “Legacy data” in research on Roman Period East Germanic iron smelting

Geochemical Link Between Slag Inclusion and Hammerscale, a Potential New Tool to Better Understand the Iron Supply of an Archaeological Workshop

Hammerscale and slag inclusions: New insights into metal supply during the early iron Age in Western Europe

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About