Iron smelting and smithing in major urban centers in Israel during the Iron Age

Adi Eliyahu-Behar*, Naama Yahalom-Mack, Yuval Gadot, Israel Finkelstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

By-products of iron production, mainly slag and bloom fragments, unearthed at three Iron Age urban centres in Israel (Hazor, Tel Beer sheba and Rehov), were analysed in order to better understand the organization of iron production during the Iron Age. The production remains studied are all dated not earlier than the Iron Age IIA, and thus shed light on a period of transition from bronze to iron production. Chemical composition and microstructural analyses enable us to determine that both the smelting of iron ores and the refining of the bloom took place within the urban centres of Hazor and Beer-Sheba. We show that slag cakes are the products of smelting, possibly carried out in pit-furnaces. Hammerscales, products of primary and secondary smithing, were attached to slags. From these observations we infer that all stages of iron production were practiced in these urban centres.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4319-4330
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Archaeological Science
Volume40
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2013
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was undertaken under the auspices of the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007e2013)/ERC grant agreement no 229418. Laboratory work was undertaken in the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science.

Keywords

  • Bloom fragments
  • Iron Age
  • Iron production
  • Israel
  • Slag cakes

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