Slag inclusion analyses for studying ferrous alloys employed in French medieval buildings: supply of materials and diffusion of smelting processes

Investigating the Provenance of Iron Artifacts of the Royal Iron Factory of São João de Ipanema by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis of EDS Microanalyses of Slag Inclusions

“…All samples showed the presence of dendritic wustite (FeO) phase inside the slag inclusions, which is compatible with the high FeO content in the inclusions (Table 2). These values were similar to the values observed in the archaeometallurgical literature [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . High FeO content in the slag is usually associated with the oxidizing conditions in the refining step of the indirect process, when the high carbon content of the pig iron must be oxidized.…”

“…Phosphorous oxide was also present in all samples, especially in the matrix of the inclusions (Table 3). Dillmann et al 7 indicated that the phosphorous content of the artifacts produced by the indirect process tended to be higher than the ones produced by the direct process. Table 3 indicated that the sample of Sardinha (produced by direct process) featured P 2 O 5 content below 10%, while most of the samples of Ipanema (likely produced by indirect process) presented P 2 O 5 content higher than 17% (except for Ip-135 sample, which presented P 2 O 5 content around 7%).…”

“…Figure 3 indicated that the inclusions of the sample of Sardinha tend to present higher contents of V 2 O 5 and TiO 2 in the wüstite phase than the samples of Ipanema. Most of the literature, however, did not mention the presence of V in the slag inclusions [7][8][9][10][11]13 , only Buchwald 12 observed its presence. The samples of Ipanema and Sardinha presented V 2 O 5 contents higher than TiO 2 (see Table 4 and Figure 3), although the chemical analysis of the iron ore of the Araçoiaba hill showed the opposite proportion between V and Ti (3% Ti and 0.45% V).…”

“…In this sense, the chemical composition of these slag inclusions is defined by the composition of the different materials and raw materials used during the manufacturing process, such as iron ore, charcoal ash, furnace lining, fuel, hearth lining, fluxes and etc. The investigation of the chemical composition of slag inclusions in ancient ferrous artifacts has been used to determine some technological and historical characteristics of the metallurgical processing, including their possible provenance [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . In 2007 Dillmann and L'Héritier 7 presented a methodology applying data processing on the EDX microanalyses of slag inclusion of 170 ferrous objects sampled from several archaeological sites and monuments.…”

Microanálise De Inclusões Não Metálicas De Artefatos Ferrosos Da Fábrica De Ferro De Ipanema Visando Estabelecer a Assinatura Química Do Seu Processo Produtivo

“…A composição química dessas inclusões é influenciada pela composição das diferentes materiais, insumos e matérias-primas usadas durante o processo de manufatura (minério, cinzas de carvão, paredes dos fornos, fluxantes e etc.) [3]. Deste modo, a investigação da composição química das inclusões não-metálicas presentes em artefatos metálicos antigos pode servir para determinar algumas características tecnológicas e históricas sobre o processamento metalúrgico.…”