iron

Drawing Wire

Author(s)
Henriette Lyngstrøm 1
Publication Date

Chain mail

It is well known that in the Iron Age wire was made from gold, silver, and copper – but it is a relatively new realization in Northern Europe that wire was also extracted from bog iron ore. Metallurgical insight into how rings in chain mail are made, opened up the possibility of experimental archaeological experiments to learn how the process of making wire, as well as bending and welding it, was carried out in the Iron Age.

Scandinavian Arrowheads of the Viking Age, Their Manufacture and Distribution

Author(s)
Hector Cole 1
Publication Date
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the arrowheads used in the Viking Age and their distribution. The 187 excavation of Viking graves in the Black Earth of Birka region of Sweden, re-examined in 2019 by Price (Price, et al., 2019) and the finding of arrows and arrowheads where glaciers have melted in Norway, prompted my research into the forging techniques of specific arrowheads from these...

(Re)constructing an Early Medieval Irish Ard

Author(s)
Brendan O`Neill 1,
Claus Kropp 2 ✉,
Frank Trommer 2,
Vanessa Töngi 2
Publication Date
This article outlines the results of an EXARC funded 2019 Twinning project exploring the production and use of an Irish early medieval ard. In this, the project partners researched the evidence for early ploughs and ards, made bloomery iron, produced an ard share, and worked wood to form the frame of the ard. This paper also includes...

The Little Bowl That Could! Experimental Iron Smelting in a Bowl Furnace

Author(s)
Yvette A Marks 1 ✉,
V. Lucas 1 ✉,
D. O’ Frighil 2
Publication Date
The bowl furnace has been a somewhat neglected topic in the early history of iron making, often overshadowed in experimental work by the shaft furnace. This assessment attempts to re-evaluate the position of the bowl furnace in early iron-making - firstly by looking at how it is regarded in scholarly literature, and secondly, through an experimental reconstruction programme...

A Proposed New Appearance of the Iron Stand from Sutton Hoo, Based on Existing Material

Author(s)
Rowan Taylor 1
Publication Date

The stand and its previous representations

The ‘iron stand’ was excavated in 1939, one of the many objects discovered in the Sutton Hoo, Mound 1 ship burial. To date, the stand is unique in the archaeological record but due to adverse burial conditions it is incomplete (See Figure 1). This makes its appearance and function difficult to discern. Due to this difficulty, while the first description of the object was published in 1940 (Phillips, 1940, pp.

Standardized Reporting of Experimental Iron Smelting - A modest (?) Proposal

Author(s)
Darrell Markewitz 1
Publication Date

Background: The State of an Art?

Over the last three decades, bloomery iron smelting has moved from the largely theoretical to the practical. Although there were certainly earlier attempts via experimental process to build workable furnaces, most of these attempts were basically unsuccessful, at least in terms of actual iron production. Early researchers too often undertook (or at least only formally reported on) limited test series (one or two attempts) and many concentrated far too much on slag, not on the production of metallic iron itself.

Smelting Conditions and Smelting Products: Experimental Insights into the Development of Iron Bloomery Furnaces

Author(s)
Yvette A. Marks 1 ✉,
N. Groat 1,
L. O. Lortie 1,
M. Hughes 1,
H. F. Thompson 1,
C. J. Woodland 1,
T. MS Adams 1,
T. Thorpe 1,
Bangcheng Tang 1,
R. Kenyon 1,
B. Langhorne 1,
J. Fraser-Darling 1
Publication Date
The material record for bloomery furnaces in Iron Age and Roman Britain is fragmentary and, because of this paucity of evidence, the reconstruction of the ceramic structures used in iron production is difficult. Experiments have nevertheless been carried out to ...

Replica of the Knife 2165 found in Flixborough a Late Anglo-Saxon Period Knife with an Inlay of Twisted Bronze and Silver Wires

Author(s)
Mauro Fiorentini 1
Publication Date
This work aims to show the reconstruction of a medieval era knife that was found in Flixborough, Lincolnshire (UK). Flixborough’s Anglo-Saxon cemetery has returned a total of 11 knives that can be dated between the 8th and the 10th century AD. The specimen discussed here is known as Knife 2165 and was found in context 3417 of the site. This knife is the smallest of the inlaid knives found in Flixborough...

Experimental Analysis of Metal Points from Quattro Macine: Reproduction and Interpretation

Author(s)
Ruben Cataldo 1
Publication Date
This paper relates to a study of experimental archaeology, executed by Ruben Cataldo, about the forging methods used to produce some replicas of two metal points found during the archaeological excavations carried out between 1992 and 1996 by the University of Salento in the medieval village Quattro Macine (translated Four Millstones), located in the municipality of Giuggianello, a small town in...