iron
Event Review: Fourth Iron Smelting Camp in Hungary
The Somogy Provincial Association for Nature Conservation (SPANC) has organized the fourth Iron Smelting Camp in Hungary between 28 July and 1 August. The accommodation was in the ‘Kund-castle’ and food was provided by SPANC...
Interview: Dr Rosemarie Leineweber
Dr Leineweber (1951) has an impressive track record in German experimental archaeology, reaching over two decades back. She worked with metals, cremation experiments and much more, with museum colleagues, university students and researchers and inspiring many people in how to experiment in a way which is not only fun, but brings progress...
Archeopark Mesopotamia (RU)
Member of EXARC
No
Archeopark Mesopotamia (Археопарк Междуречье), just 25 km north from Ulyanovsk, is an archaeological open-air museum and archaeological reservation of 250 hectares. It includes as well a small hotel and an indoor museum. A visit starts with a guided tour which includes demonstration of craftspeople.
The reservation holds so-called forest towns (9th – 12th century AD) as well as traces of the earlier Imenkov Culture (4th – 7th century AD) including iron smelting furnaces and traces of pottery making.
Archeopark Mesopotamia is a successful organiser of larger historic festivals, skill straining and international experimental archaeology conferences.
Obituary: Kazimierz Bielenin (29 January 1923 - 19 November 2011)
On the 19th of November 2011, Prof. dr hab. Kazimierz Bielenin died in Kraków after a long and exhausting illness. He was a great scientist and scholar but also a very modest man with a great personality...
Did the Vikings have iron (NO)?
Yes, the Vikings had both iron and steel. They had to make it themselves, through a process called “blestring” or iron smelting. This was a major undertaking, so iron was expensive. Here at Lofotr we have documented this process on a DVD which is sold in our museum store.
Iron in the Iron Age, did that exist (NL)?
It is not for nothing called "Iron Age". The art of making iron originates - like many developments - from the Near East. In the Southern Netherlands, for tools and weapons, often wood and stone were used, occasionally bronze...
Where did the raw materials fot the medieval blacksmith come from and how did they get to him (NL)?
Probably, there were already tradesmen in iron and coal. Iron came form Germany, Sweden and the UK. Here there are locations where iron ore is found at the surface. Coal came from Germany...
You are cheating – they didn’t have iron axes in prehistory, did they (DK)?
No, not in the Stone Age. But here we are in the Iron Age. Do you remember the names of the periods: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age? You do not need to be embarrassed, but the names tell us when the different materials were introduced...
How did people make fire in the early Middle Ages (NL)?
Two methods were used to make fire. One was by striking a special piece of iron (strike-a-light) on a piece of flint. The other method is by friction of wood on wood. The strike-a-light was most common. Sometimes people used the back of a knife to strike sparks. Friction of wood on wood (“the old-fashioned way”) was used at religious occasions...
