Iles, L. orcid.org/0000-0003-4113-5844 (2020) Exploring the impact of iron production on forest and woodland resources : estimating fuel consumption from slag. Science and Technology of Archaeological Research, 5 (2). pp. 179-199. ISSN 2054-8923
Abstract
Reconstructing past anthropogenic influences on forest and woodland resources is an important tool to understand the development of present patterns of land use, and their long-term impacts. Past metallurgical activity undoubtedly consumed significant charcoal, exploiting forest resources for fuel at various stages of metal extraction and processing. This study aimed to quantify this fuel consumption from archaeometallurgical remains, with North Pare as a case study – a prominent centre of precolonial iron production activity in north Tanzania, and a mountainous region subject to considerable erosion processes attributed to changes in forest cover. Archaeometallurgical remains from Pare were examined with bulk chemical analysis, optical microscopy and elemental analysis to reconstruct Pare’s past iron production technologies. The data was interrogated to distinguish the contribution of the fuel ash to the smelting system, with implications for our understanding of past forest degradation processes in relation to metallurgy, reducing reliance on potentially problematic analogy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Iron; environment; slag; fuel ash; WD-XRF |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Archaeology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 Mar 2020 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 09 Dec 2021 12:14 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/20548923.2020.1718366 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:156954 |