Abstract
There is fragmentary knowledge of iron ore sources exploited in the past for many regions including the Southern Levant. This missing information has the potential to shed light on political, economic, craft-production, and trading patterns of past societies. This paper presents the results of smelting experiments performed in graphite crucibles and a muffle furnace, using 14 iron ore samples from the Southern Levant, in an attempt to determine their suitability for smelting using ancient techniques. A range of analytical techniques, including optical and electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and portable X-ray fluorescence were used to comparatively investigate the mineralogy and composition of the precursor iron ores and their smelting products: Iron bloom and slag. Several parameters attesting to the ability of a given ore to be successfully reduced and consolidated into a solid metal mass were quantified. The generated results highlight the significance of a ‘correct balance’ between iron oxides and other major elements in the smelting system in order to form fluid slag and a well-consolidated bloom. These data contribute to the understanding of factors, potentially influencing choices of iron ore exploitation by past human societies in the Southern Levant.
Highlights
Iron was produced in antiquity in most parts of the world, via a direct method—the bloomery process
We present the results of a series of iron smelting experiments, conducted in a muffle furnace using graphite crucibles
Analysis of the ores and smelting products enabled us to correlate between the ore composition, bloom, and slag formation, and to generally determine the suitability of each of the ore samples for use in a bloomery process
Summary
Iron was produced in antiquity in most parts of the world, via a direct method—the bloomery process. Identification of ore resources that were exploited in the past, has a particular significance as it can contribute to the understanding of the socio-technological factors affecting development of craft-production in the past societies. This identification can be achieved through the study and comparison of chemical and mineralogical composition of archaeological slags and ores, as well as through experimental smelting of ores from local geological outcrops to determine feasibility of their exploitation in the bloomery process [13,14,15,16]
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