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The Classification of Early Iron-Smelting Furnaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

H. F. Cleere
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Summary

The paper begins by surveying the different types of early iron-smelting furnace, based on a tentative classification proposed by Coghlan in 1956. The ambiguities in this classification are indicated, together with examples of furnaces that do not fall easily into one of its three categories.

On the basis of data derived principally from furnaces of the Early Iron Age and Roman periods from northern Europe, the author proposes a new classification into two main groups, differentiated by their provisions or otherwise for the removal of molten slag during the iron-smelting operation. Each of these groups is further subdivided, according to the shape of the furnace superstructure and/or the method of supplying the air blast.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1972 , pp. 8 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1972

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References

page 8 note 1 H. H. Coghlan, Prehistoric and Early Iron in the Old World, Pitt Rivers Museum Occasional Papers in Technology No. 8, 1956, p. 86.

page 10 note 1 Wynne, E. J. and Tylecote, R. F., J. Iron Steel Inst., 1958, vol. 190, pp. 339–48.Google Scholar

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page 10 note 3 Tylecote, R. F., Metallurgy in Archaeology, London, 1956, p. 225.Google Scholar

page 11 note 1 J. H. Cleland, private communication.

page 11 note 2 H. F. Cleere, Sussex Archaeological Society, Occasional Paper No. I, 1970.

page 11 note 3 Tylecote, R. F., J. Iron Steel Inst., 1965, vol. 203, pp. 340–8.Google Scholar

page 11 note 4 H. H. Coghlan, op. cit., p. 91, fig. 6 (after Weiershausen, op. cit., Abb. 2).

page 11 note 5 Ibid., p. 92, fig. 7 (after Weiershausen, op. cit., Abb. 12).

page 13 note 1 J. H. Money, in the press.

page 13 note 2 C. F. Tebbutt, private communication.

page 15 note 1 H. H. Coghlan, op. cit., p. 90.

page 15 note 2 Tylecote, R. F., Austin, J. N., and Wraith, A. E., J. Iron Steel Inst., 1972, vol. 209, pp. 342–63.Google Scholar

page 15 note 3 Cleere, H. F., Iron Smelting Experiments in a Reconstructed Roman Furnace, London, 1970, The Iron and Steel Institute; and Britannia, 1971, vol. 2, pp. 203–17.Google Scholar

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page 16 note 2 H. H. Coghlan, op. cit., p. 98, fig. 10 (after Weiershausen, op. cit., Abb. 17).

page 16 note 3 Ibid., fig. 9 (after Weiershausen, op. cit., Abb. 44).

page 19 note 1 Tylecote, R. F., Austin, J. N., and Wraith, A. E., J. Iron Steel Inst., 1972, vol. 209, pp. 342–63.Google Scholar

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page 19 note 3 Bielenin, K., Materialów Archaeologicznych, 1966, vol. 7, pp. 159–77Google Scholar; Ibid., 1968, vol. 9, pp. 325–9; Liber Iosepho Kostrzewski Octogenario a Veneratoribus Dicatus, Wroclaw-Warsaw, 1968, pp. 263–75.

page 19 note 4 R. Pleiner, Základy Slovanského Železářského Hutnictví v Českých Zemích, Prague, 1958, p. 127, fig. 26, and p. 162, fig. 39.

page 21 note 1 R. Pleiner, Die Eisenverhüttung in der ‘Germania Magna’ zur römischen Kaiserzeit, 1964 (from 45. Bericht der RGK).