Скачать или смотреть The project "Turning Bog Iron Ore into Gold"

by Andra Simniškytė-Strimaitienė
Department of Archaeology, Institute of Lithuanian History

Prospecting for local bog iron ore deposits and iron smelting experiments in Lithuania

Mankind was introduced to metallic iron almost 5000 years ago, but it took a long time to learn how to extract iron from ore. This knowledge reached the present-day territory of Lithuania much later, around the turn of the millennium. Almost 2000 years later, with the development of technology, the experience of smelting iron using archaic methods was lost again.
The project "Turning Bog Ore into Gold", initiated by the Kazlų Rūda Tourism and Business Information Center for educational purposes, recalls the activities and crafts related to iron metallurgy in Lithuania. It has been repeated for several years and is unique in two aspects: the search for bog ore during educational activities and the scientific nature of the iron smelting experiments. What we do is not only spectacular iron smelting experiments in the style of living history. Outside the events, a whole series of steps and experiments are carried out to revive the whole technological process from the collection of bog iron ore to the extraction of the "right" metal and slag. The results of the experiments are analyzed morphologically and metallographically and compared with archaeological data. In our experiments, we try to take into account what science and theory say, while remaining open to what our experiments can teach us.
In the presentation, we will first review the experience of ore prospecting and the type of ore we have at our disposal. Then we will look at what kind of iron we are able to smelt, and finally, we will look at what our successes and failures are, the reasons for them, and the way forward.