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Thanks for sharing this with us. I have the impression that experimental archaeology has had a higher profile in the past decade but before then was practically non-existant. As for Iron Smelting that does seem to have roused a lot of interest lately in Britain - so it does perhaps depend where you are and how well it is publicized among archaeologists and academia. Bea On 10/21/04 7:55 PM James Brothers writes: >I don't have all of the data. But The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY >held a conference Entitled "Pre-Industrial Iron" 9-11OCT. Three >experimental bloomeries were operated. Lee Sauder and Skip Williams of >Lexington, VA did what they are refering to as an electro-Roman >bloomery. Short shaft, but usinga blower rather than bellows. I believe >they produced a 40lb bloom. Michael McCarthy of the Farmers Museum ran >a small Japanes Tatara and made 20+lbs of iron and steel. Darrell >Markewitz ran a Norse style bloomery and produced a 6lb bloom. The >blooms were consolidated and then forged. I was not able to stay and >see what was made. There is a move to make this an annual event. sort >of a Smelt in. I was disappointed at the lack of support by academia. >MIT (who is going to do detailed metallographic analysis of the blooms >and slag) was represented and there were a couple of archaeologists and >archaeometallurgists. but most of teh attendees were practicing smiths. > > There were also talks/papers on colonial iron manufacture, Viking >iron, native copper, and the Spanish gothic and rennaisance.