Experimental Archaeology: Iron Smelting

A great article on an iron smelting experiment made its way to my desk from Expedition, the organ of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (a.k.a. Penn Museum). Pre-industrial iron smelting is fascinating to me, and experimental archaeology reproducing the fiery furnaces must be an incredibly exciting event. While I was looking for some support for this little blog, I discovered that the entire catalog of articles from Expedition is available for free to anybody to download on the Penn Museum website. Bravo!

And, since you can read the article yourself, I'm going to link to it and leave it at that.

• Hamilton, Elizabeth G. 2008 Adventures in experimental smelting: Iron the old-fashioned way. Expedition 49(3):13-19. Article can be downloaded for free
• Expedition, their entire catalog
• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Inagina, Last House of Iron, a video on a similar experiment conducted in Africa by ethnoarchaeologist Eric Huysecom and eleven Dogon master blacksmiths