Open Access Conference Proceedings

Iron metallurgy is one of the most iconic achievements of early human history. It surely forged the future. Metal that is used mostly in the world is still iron. The demand for it was and still is increasing significantly. And it is for sure that in its earliest times iron was crucial for everybody that could afford it.The paper presents the basic and historical adaptation of iron making. This is a method known and used by smiths since the 4th century B.C. the La Tène period and used until at least the 18th century. This paper rounds down the basics of the historical iron making and supplies of materials that are needed to do so. One part of the paper will talk about the actual making of bloomer iron. Another one about processing the bloomer lump into a more workable piece of wrought iron. The last part will be focused on ceramic pipes used for air distribution in La Téne furnaces.In conclusion, the paper will be focused on the actual real-life experiments that were made to correspond with the historical and archaeological findings. As the name suggests, archaeometallurgy is the metallurgy of the ages long forgotten.

Keywords: Ferrous metallurgy, wrought iron, history, archaeometallurgy, technologies

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