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Dear Peter Definitively you must begin with a metallographic study in order to verify if the steel is recent or not (as advised by other answers on the list). If not, you will probably have a typical microstructure with Oxide-Fayalite-glass slag inclusions and an heterogenous distribution of carbon. If you are lucky at some local places you will have relatively high concentrations of carbon (>0.5%) In that case, you can consider to sample this most carburized zones on your metallographic section to perform a radiocarbon dating Following the link below, you will find a paper of my team dealing with the radiocarbon dating on such kind of iron (in the context of gothic cathedrals). Today it is possible to obtain a date by sampling 1 mg of carbon (using an AMS for the dating). Thus you must locate the high carburized zones in your metal. For more reliability the best is to sample at different high carburized zones on the same artefact and cross the results by statistical approach. https://filesender.renater.fr/?s=download&token=9d3262ad-9d34-46c3-aeb9-68382ac1f871 All the best Philippe Dillmann Laboratoire Archéomatériaux et Prévision de l'Altération : LMC IRAMAT UMR5060 CNRS et NIMBE UMR3685 CEA/CNRS http://iramis.cea.fr/nimbe/lapa/ http://archeometrie.cnrs.fr/ http://www.iramat-lmc.cnrs.fr/spip/ https://remarch.hypotheses.org/1 Adresse postale NIMBE/LAPA CEA Saclay 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex France Tel : 01 69 08 14 69 De : Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]> au nom de Peter Seinen <[log in to unmask]> Répondre à : Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]> Date : samedi 27 novembre 2021 à 23:30 À : Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]> Objet : Re: CNRS contact information Dear Brian, I will indeed follow the advice and will publish the result. Best regards, Peter Dear Peter, I would echo what both Peter and David have said - namely that a good metallographic study will tell you what the character if the iron actually is. Has a sample of the metal actually been studied yet? If not then what makes you think that it is steel. A careful metallographic study will tell you a lot about the metal and whether it makes sense in a Roman context. Actually the context would suggest that it is likely to be Roman, and the structure could also point you in this direction. You need to take a large enough metallographic sample to tell you exactly what the metal is, then think what it is telling you, and how it compares to any other Roman structural iron that has been studied, but don't go wasting your money on radiocarbon dating. The sample will soon tell you whether or not this is pre-industrial iron or not, and whether it makes most sense in a Roman context - which it probably does if there is a Roman stone bridge (and not much else) here. But make sure to publish it so the rest of us can see what you have! Cheers, Brian ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the ARCH-METALS list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=ARCH-METALS&A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the ARCH-METALS list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=ARCH-METALS&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ARCH-METALS, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/