Producing and working with iron

Combining archaeological studies and archaeometric analyses, this synthesis presents the importance of the iron economy in the eastern part of the Paris Basin from the First Iron Age to the early Middle Ages. The first contributions of this research project concern technological changes in the production system of iron objects. The attention paid to the share of recycling in production somewhat modifies the previous discourse in attempts to quantify the types of forged objects (tools, weapons, ornaments, etc). Additionally, the link between the status of the excavated sites (agricultural holding, rural hamlet, fortified site, large settlements) and the type of forging activity that was carr…