Hi Brian
The devil is of course in the use of the word 'confirmed'. In this context that raises two big
problems - sufficent chemical analysis to determine ore and sufficient quality dating to
establish age.
I strongly suspect that in the earliest smelting right across NW Europe that almost nothing
else was used. Certainly in Britain there is a strong geographical correlation between early
smelting and locations with bog ores. Smelting tended to move away from bog ores by the
middle Iron Age in most areas of Britain, simply because there aren't so many bog ores to
provide local sources everywhere.
In terms of being both well-dated and having had enough chemical work done on the slags to
be reasonably certain, I think the earliest I know of in Britain would be the cluster of sites in
the Newbury area - of which Dunston's Park is supposed to be 7th century and the main
(unpublished) phase at Hartshill Copse is, at least in part, 6th-5th century (I would ignore the
10th century evidence from Hartshill at present).
In Ireland the early story is compounded by dates being taken (and published) from rather
unsuitable wood charcoal and a range of sites are probably affected by the 'old wood' effect.
In my (admittedly incomplete) review of the data I'm not entirly convinced by any of the
pre-4th century BC sites. Ironically, for bog-ore dominated Ireland, the only site that I think
that the evidence for a very early date (5th-6th century) seems stronger (Lagavooren 7) has
given some rather ambiguous analyses that may just suggest use of a rock ore. Further work
would be desirable in that area.
The big problem is of course the radiocarbon plateau in the key period - so that distinguishing
between sites of 5th-8th centuries BC is extremely difficult.
Katharina Becker would be the key person to talk to...
Tim
On 28 Feb 2012 at 22:40, Brian Dolan wrote:
>
> Dear list members,
>
> I have a rather specific query which I'm hoping the very knowledgeable members of this list may
> be able to help me with.
>
> I'm trying to find the earliest confirmed use of bog ores in northwest Europe. I know of
> circumstantial evidence for its use in Ireland, probably by the sixth century BC and wonder are
> there earlier dates for the practice from Britain or continental Europe?
>
> References or comments would be much appreciated!
>
> All the best,
>
> Brian Dolan
>
> School of Archaeology
> University College Dublin
>
>
--
Dr Tim Young MA PhD FSA FGS
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