>From a theoretical archaeological point of view, finally, things boil down
>to the question "What is a Roman smith?". In a Roman provincial context,
>many would have been in fact Romanised natives and we know that pre-Roman
>metallurgical traditions continued throughout the the Roman period.
Yes I feel like that's a central (yet complicated) issue. Given the seemingly low social status of the smith during the Roman era the likelyhood of a smith being a skilled slave and possibly originating anywhere in the empire. There is also the apparent Punic influence in the Iberian peninsula, since they introduced iron to the area and have been seen recently to have lasted quite beyond the Roman state control and to have involved agriculture on Ibiza and some other areas in the south. The native contribution should also be considered as well. And also you have some fascinating aspects in the way of literary references such as Hydatius' reference to himself in the early 5th c. AD as being of the Limici and Martial saying that he was an Iberian.
>Gosh, sounds like heaven! Perhaps you would like to tell us more about the
>site you are working at. And let me know if you need any help with the
>slag in particular.
It's a combination villa urbana/villa rustica type in the range of approximately 75k square meters of known occupation from the late first/early 2nd c. BC. into the Visigothic era. Several buildings are present. The villa rustica was of diverse function with a broad representation of work areas, storage areas and courtyards. The site offers no overall stratigraphy. A legacy of earlier excavations - there are purportedly many boxes of materials from the entire spectrum of occupation which are simply marked with the name of the site and no other provenance. This investigation aims to clear up the record.
My experience as a field archaeologist includes both this site and 19th c. farm sites here in the U.S.. My experience with slag is limited to recording the weights of all slag in a given unit's respective levels and discarding them. By comparison with the forge areas on early 19th c. U.S. farm sites I've seen the area identified to me as a forge seems rather ephemeral. Slag is found in various amounts throughout the site. It has only been recorded in a subjective manner regarding it's presence and relative quanitity. But I can recognize that there are more than one type of slag here, the more common containing plenty of iron oxides and the other being smoother, somewhat grey and relatively much less iron oxides. So I think we might do something more here with the study of this technology. The discovery last season of an ingot on the site has me wondering if a forge has actually yet to be located.
Can you refer me to another work that might get me started on the study of slag?
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