Ancient Iron Metallurgy

Özet Manyas Gölü'nün (Bandırma, Balıkesir) güneydoğu kıyısında bulunan Daskyleion'un, yerleşim alanına ek olarak doğu ve güneyinde iki de nekropol alanı bulunmaktadır. Bu nekropol alanları, Daskyleion'un farklı dönemlerine ait çeşitli tip ve büyüklüklerde mezarları barındırmaktadır. Bu mezarlar arasında, Kaya Mezarı II olarak tanımlanan mezar, anakayaya oyulmuş uzun bir dromos ve mezar odasından oluşmaktadır. Mezarda 2014 yılında yapılan kazı çalışmalarında, anakayaya işlenmiş iki kline ile çeşitli tür ve biçimlerde ölü hediyeleri açığa çıkartılmıştır. Çalışmaya konu olan buluntu, bu klinelerden biri üzerine defnedilmiş olan bireye mezar hedi-yesi olarak bırakılmış çelikten yapılmış bir hançerdir. Kınıyla birlikte ve in situ olarak günü-müze kadar korunagelmiş olması, bu hançere Anadolu ve bölge arkeolojisi açısından ender bir buluntu niteliği kazandırmaktadır. Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi, Tarihi Malzeme Koruma ve Araştırma Laboratuvarı (MAKLAB) bünyesinde arkeometrik yönden incelenen hançer üzerinde XRF, X-ışını radyografi, metalografi, SEM-EDX ve LIPS analizleri yapılmış-tır. Analizlerden elde edilen veriler ışığında, hançerin kimyasal kompozisyonu, üretim süreci ve olası hammadde kaynağı hakkında bilgilere ulaşılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Arkeometalürji, Daskyleion, LIPS, metalografi, SEM-EDX, X-ışını radyografi. Abstract Dascyleum is located on the southeast coast of Lake Manyas (Bandırma, Balıkesir/TURKEY). In addition to the settlement, Dascyleum has two necropolis areas in the east and south. These necropolis areas contain various types and sizes tombs, from different periods of Dascyleum. Among these tombs, the tomb which is defined as the Rock-cut Tomb II, consists of a long dro-mos and a burial chamber cut into the bedrock. During the excavations at the tomb in 2014, two klines carved into the bedrock with grave goods various types and forms has been revealed. The subject of the study is a dagger made of steel left as a grave good for the individual buried on one of these klines. Owing to the still in its sheath and well preserved in situ, this dagger serves as a rarely encountered archaeological find in terms of Anatolian and regional archeology. On the dagger that archaeometrically examined at the Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Historical Material Conservation and Research Laboratory (MAKLAB), XRF, X-ray radiography, metallography, SEM-EDX and LIPS analyzes were performed. As a result of the data obtained from the analysis, informations about the chemical composition of the dagger, its production process and possible raw material source has been reached.

Iron-production sites of the early historic period in Mainland Southeast Asia (fifth to fifteenth centuries AD) are rare. Recent excavations at the Tonle Bak site in central Cambodia now provide the first evidence for furnace technology, metallurgical characteristics of slag concentrations and evidence for the organisation of local smelting communities and ritual practices during the peak of the Angkorian Khmer Empire. The results demonstrate that the smelters were directly integrated with Angkorian state-exchange networks. They also raise questions about the use of ethnohistorical records for understanding the identity and organisation of these early metalworkers.

There is fragmentary knowledge of iron ore sources exploited in the past for many regions including the Southern Levant. This missing information has the potential to shed light on political, economic, craft-production, and trading patterns of past societies. This paper presents the results of smelting experiments performed in graphite crucibles and a muffle furnace, using 14 iron ore samples from the Southern Levant, in an attempt to determine their suitability for smelting using ancient techniques. A range of analytical techniques, including optical and electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and portable X-ray fluorescence were used to comparatively investigate the mineralogy and composition of the precursor iron ores and their smelting products: Iron bloom and slag. Several parameters attesting to the ability of a given ore to be successfully reduced and consolidated into a solid metal mass were quantified. The generated results highlight the significance of a 'correct balance' between iron oxides and other major elements in the smelting system in order to form fluid slag and a well-consolidated bloom. These data contribute to the understanding of factors, potentially influencing choices of iron ore exploitation by past human societies in the Southern Levant.

Iron production slags from different stages of production (smelting and smithing) are mostly distinguished on the basis of their morphological characteristics. Where smithing and smelting slag morphologies are overlapping, they can be discriminated chemically. Assuming that the different slags are safely distinguished, they can be categorized according to their particular technological origins (i.e., bloomery furnace, blast furnace, puddling hearth, finery, smithy) and provenance. The systematics for grouping generally relies on the weight of interferences drawn from chemical, morphological, microstructural and contextual analysis. Correct interpretation of the archaeometallurgical data obtained on iron slags is mandatory in order to realize their correct clustering and reach a correct archaeological conclusion.