35 Iron Smelting
The Scharmbeck racing furnace is the best preserved furnace shaft of a smelting furnace in Central Europe. It is therefore an important technical monument. The slag blocks shown here are "industrial waste"; they were produced during the smelting of grass iron ore in the Rennfeuer furnaces. This technique of iron extraction, known since the pre-Roman Iron Age, was practised until the Middle Ages, but is now extinct. Often, slags are the only surviving traces of iron smelting; they are therefore particularly valuable to archaeologists.
Info: Showcase 35
Racing Furnaces
Age: um 100 n. Chr. Roman Imperial Period
Roman Imperial Period: With the beginning of iron smelting around 700 BC, the new, harder iron took the place of bronze. The Iron Age is the third major period in human history after the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. In northern Europe it is divided into the Pre-Roman Iron Age, which covers the period from the end of the Bronze Age to the expansion of the Roman Empire at the turn of the century. And the Roman Imperial Period, in which the completely new way of life introduced by the Romans, can also be clearly seen in Free Germania. With the introduction of writing, European prehistory ends - early history begins.
Material: Clay, ... (?)
Location: Scharmbeck