Iron continues to be one of the most important materials produced and used by humanity. Its ductility when heated and its strength when cooled has allowed those with the necessary skills and resources to manufacture adornments, tools, weapons and structures that have helped to revolutionise social, ritual, economic and political systems. From enormous buildings such as the cathedrals of Europe that were erected in all their glory with a backbone of iron, to farmers who for thousands of years have used iron tools to clear land and harvest their crops, iron has had a fundamental impact on people’s lives, all over the world. The diversity of technological approaches to the production of iron is astounding, while traces of the ritual and symbolic nature of this powerful metal bear testament to the mystical and powerful status that iron was associated with in many instances.
The World of Iron fills a crucial gap within the literature on the history of iron production by bringing together, in one volume, research from around the world, as well as thematic papers focusing on current major themes within the discipline. Contributions from colleagues working across Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, West and Central Asia and the Far East provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the latest data and conclusions about the technologies, role and impact of iron production within these regions. Ethnographic, archaeological, experimental, materials science and anthropological approaches are presented side-by-side to reveal the rich and diverse history of this metal. Themes including innovation and inspiration, theoretical and scientific approaches to iron technology and environmental considerations not only ensure a significant European focus in addition to the more global perspective, but also illustrate the pioneering ways in which iron is being studied, and the dedication and enthusiasm that our fellow colleagues bring to this field of academia.
The World of Iron forms a key text for students, academics and those with a general interest in the history of ferrous metallurgy world-wide, and how this can be studied.
Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja
Pamela Eze-Uzomaka
A Comparison of Early and Later Iron Age Societies in the Bassar Region of Togo
Philip de Barros
Our iron smelting 14C dates from Central Africa: from a plain appointment to a full blown relationship
Bernard Clist
Yoruba iron metallurgy: raw materials, routine and rituals
O. A. Ige
Mining and moving specular haematite in Botswana, ca. 200-1300 AD
Edwin N. Wilmsen, Alec C. Campbell, George A. Brook, Lawrence H. Robbins, and Michael Murphy
Late Iron Age Technology of Mt. Kenya Region: The case studies of the Kangai and Kanyua archaeological sites in Mbeere District
M’Mbogori Freda Nkirote
Pre-colonial iron production in Great Lakes Africa: recent research at UCL Institute of Archaeology
Jane Humphris et al.
Bricolage, ritual performance, and habitus [forgotten] in Barongo iron smelting
Peter R. Schmidt
Refining narratives: Transformations of iron-working traditions in Ghana – 19th to 21st centuries
Len Pole
Indian iron and steel, with special reference to southern India
Sharada Srinivasan
Recent archaeometallurgical discoveries of iron in southeast Rajasthan, India
Lalit Pandey
Smelting: a sacred process. Observations of iron smelting in Madhya Pradesh, India
Jake Keen
An ethno-archaeological survey of iron Working in India
Vibha Tripathi
Iron age-early historic period in eastern India. evidence from the site of Badmal-Asurgarh, Sambalpur, district, Orissa, India: a study in material culture and technology
Pradeep K. Behera and Pranab K. Chattopadhyay
Invention, innovation and inspiration: optimisation and resolving technological change in the Sri Lankan archaeological record
Gillian Juleff
Meroitic iron working in a global Indian Ocean context
Randi Haaland
The World’s earliest ion smelting? Its inception, evolution and impact in Northern Nigeria
Patrick Darling
Casting iron in ancient China
Han Rubin
Questioning research on early iron in the Mediterranean
Martina Renzi, Salvador Rovira, M. Carme Rovira-Hortalà and Ignacio Montero Ruiz
Iron, myth and magic – perceptions of smiths and metal workers through cultural evidence from Britain and beyond
Peter Halkon
Early iron in the Near East, a review of evidence
H. Alexander Veldhuijzen
The iron ore mine of Mugharet al-Wardeh/Jordan
in southern Bilad, al-Sham: excavations and new dating
Yosha Alamri and Andreas Hauptmann
Forging activities in Jaffa during Ottoman Palestine
Sylvain Bauvais
Characterisation of iron technology at medieval Talgar in Kazakhstan
Jang Sik Park and Dmitriy Voyakin
New aspects of the 9th and 10th century islamic period metallurgical workshop excavated at Merv, Turkmenistan: reassessing the slag compositions.
John Merkel
Variability in iron smelting practices: Assessment of technical, cultural and economic criteria to explain the metallurgical diversity in the Dogon area (Mali)
Caroline Robion-Brunner, Vincent Serneels and Sébastien Perret
Epistemic communities and epistemological translocations in early modern southern Africa, ca. CE 200-900
Edwin N Wilmsen
Superstition or ingenuity: Re-thinking symbolism in indigenous African iron technology
Bertram B.B. Mapunda
Applying ethnographic presents to archaeological pasts: preliminary thoughts on memories of iron production from western Uganda
Louise Iles
Evolutionary Analysis of ironmaking slag
Michael F. Charlto, Stephen J. Shennan, Thilo Rehren and Peter Crew
Nature’s laws & culture’s norms
A proposed systematic classification framework for the study of material culture and technology (SOMCAT)
Ann Feuerbach
Symmetry in the archaeology of technology: nailing down manufacturing processes and networks of innovation in colonial ironworking
Krysta Ryzewski
Manufacturing techniques, technological traditions and social choices in ancient Greece
Maria Kostoglou
The acquisition and circulation of iron during the Second Iron Age in the northern region of the Paris Basin (France)
Sylvain Bauvais, Philippe Fluzin
The East Asia Session
Han Rubin
Preliminary studies on Western Han dynasty iron smelting sites and slag found in Pingnan County, Guangxi Province, China
Huang Quansheng, LI Yanxiang
Iron production in the Han Period in the Chengdu Plain, Sichuan, China.
Preliminary report on recent fieldwork
Yasuyuki Murakami
The manufacture, techniques and dates of iron objects found at several Chinese archaeological sites in recent years
Chen Jianli and Han Rubin
Technology transfer across the Indian Ocean and South China Sea: a case study of the iron industry at Santubong, Sarawak
Brian Gilmour and Chris Doherty
Iron and steel making in ancient Korea deduced from the microstructure of iron artefacts
Jang-Sik Park
Protohistoric iron weapons and tools from a burial site in west central Thailand
Anna Bennett
Geochemical survey and metalworking: a case study from Exmoor, southwest Britain
Chris Carey and Gill Juleff
Three ores, three irons and three knives
Quanyu Wang and Peter Crew
Iron and processes in scandinavian blacksmithing workshops from the Iron Age to the 14th century
Arne Jouttijärvi
Iron? Which iron? Methodologies for metallographic and slag inclusion studies applied to ferrous reinforcements from Auxerre Cathedral
Maxime L’Héritier, Philippe Dillmann, Sylvain Aumard and Philippe Fluzin
Measuring variation in iron smelting slags: an empirical evaluation of group-identification procedures
Michael F. Charlton, Peter Crew, Thilo Rehren and Stephen J. Shennan
Environment
Donald B. Wagner
Fuel for iron – wood exploitation for metallurgy on the Dogon Plateau, Mali
Barbara Eichhorn, Caroline Robion-Brunner, Vincent Serneels and Sébastien Perret
The use of charcoal species for ironworking in Tanzania
Edwinus Chrisantus Lyaya
Quantifying iron production in medieval Europe: methodology and comparison with African metallurgy
Danielle Arribet-Deroi
The fuel supply and woodland management at a 14th century bloomery in Snowdonia: a multi-disciplinary approach
Peter Crew and Tim Mighall
