Dear Peter~

 

I am working in southeastern Turkey, and thus far the extent of the tentatively identified metalworking area is small --only 2 season of excavation, totalling just over 2 months of concentrated work in this area. We are in the very preliminary stages of trying to sort out what kind of activities were occurring in this area and if there were different activity areas even within the small confines of the 'workshop.' Meaning, we are trying to determine if there were any locales with relatively larger concentrations of smelting equipment (tuyeres and slags), or even concentrations of iron debris vs. copper alloy debris.

 

It appears, thus far, to have been an area with both copperworking and ironworking, but for some reason I don't think that is very common, or likely either. However, I could be completely wrong since very little is known about the organisation of metal production in the Near East immediately after the end of the Late Bronze Age and prior to the well-known details of the later Iron Age. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? While I am more familiar with copper metallurgy of the Near Eastern Bronze Age, I am almost totally ignorant of ironworking in the Near East, both in terms of the process of iron production as well as the associated literature on the subject.

 

 I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but I am in the process of putting together a proposal for archaeometric analyses for the metallurgical debris found at our site -- hence the question on the listserv. So thanks so very much for your comments, advice, and questions.

 

Heather Snow

 

----- Original Message ----
From: Peter Northover <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 5:29:06 AM
Subject: Re: best analysis for metal fragments and slags