David Starley wrote:
> Albrecht Jockenhövel of the Westfälische Wilelms-Universität, Münster has
> provided details of three new early German blast furnaces excavated with the
> support of the Volkswagen-Stiftung, Hannover. Two well preserved blast
> furnaces excavated in the basin of the Kerspe-Dam, in the Märkische
> Sauerland have been radiocarbon-dated to cal AD 1205-1300 and cal AD
> 1290-1395, making them the oldest known blast furnaces in Central Europe.
We are just analysing the slags, ores and metals from these and several
other sites of similar age and of the Kierspe region in our laboratory.
This includes a revision of material form Haus Rhade too. Despite the
fact that the primary product was pig iron, the smelting furnaces of the
Kerspe valley seem to have worked according to principles and smelting
technics developed from the bloomery process. We hope to get the final
results and conclusions ready to present some of them during the Jutland
conference September 99.
Ingo Keesmann
__________________________________________________________
Arbeitsgruppe Archaeometallurgie
Institut fuer Geowissenschaften
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz
D-55099 Mainz (Germany)
Telefon (+49) 6131 395934
Telefax (+49) 6131 393070
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http://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geo/Geologie/archaeo/index.html
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