Late Antique Blast Furnace Found in South Tyrol

[Eleatic Guest]

The archaeologists sent the iron slag to the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum für Archäometrie Mannheim to be analysed and maintain that some of the different types of furnaces could have been used for the typical production sequence of cast iron (p. 33). The cast iron slag was found in some of them. They conclude that the evidence is such that it safe to assume that a blast furnace was operated there ("Damit kann als gesichert gelten, dass die Bewohner des Berges in der Spätantike in dem großen Steinbau des Grabungsareals Zinnenmauer eine Eisenschmelze betrieben, um in einem mehrstufigen Arbeitsprozess Eisenerze nach dem indirekten Verfahren zu verhütten.")