S5002317

188 MAockó 2chrovico in Bohomin

Raw iron bloom weight - minimal 132 kg		Raw iron bloom woight - prosumod 660 kg
	CHARCOAL WEIGHT bloom :charcoal (weight )■
1 Laumann 1993 1:6.7	Bielenin 1992 1:11.25	Laumann 1993 1:6.7	Bielenin 1992 1:11.25
0.884 t	1.485 t	4.422 t	7.425 t
	WOOD WEIGHT charcoal: wood (weight) = 1:5 (Laumann 1993)
4.4201	7.425 t	22.1101	37.125 t
m^3 OF WOOD 0.7 t of wood (wood density: 0.7) (Eschenlohr - Serneels 1991)
6.3 m^3	10.6 m^3	31.6 m^3	53.0 m^3
HECTARES OF FOREST 1 ha = 40 t of wood (Laumann 1993)
0.11 ha	0.19 ha	0.56 ha	0.9 ha

Table 26. Estimation of wood consumption for bloomory production at MSeckó 2ehrovice.

tigated is compared to the area of the whole site, and it is taken into account that other accumula-tions of bloomery slag comparable in size with feature 1/79 or trench 3 were identified on the site by fieldwalking indicating a minimum of two morę bloomery workshops (the 1993-95 Lodćnice field survey project no. 404/93/1037 sponsored by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic). Table 28 shows the consumption of wood for the production of the above-mentioned q u ant i ty of raw bloom.

It is obvious from the table that even according to the maximum estimates of the volume of bloomery production and of the consumption of wood, less than a hectare of forest would suffice for the bloomery production on the site, or less than two hectares if we multiply the consumption of wood by two for wood required for iron ore roasting and raw bloom refining, for construction wood in connection with the production, etc., as has been estimated by L. Eschenlohr and V.Ser-neels (1991, 106).

Finał bloomery product The finał product in the form of trade iron (billet or bar) was not recovered on the site, neither is it known in the whole of Bohemia or Mora-via. Sem i products in the form of bars (or "currency bars") have so far been completely absent in the part of Europę in question, though abundant in Western and Northern Europę (cf. Crew 1994 with ref.). It is questionable whether the half-finished product, or ingot, could have taken on a di Ile rent, less conspicuous form. C. Doswald (1994,334-336,

Fig. 3:4-6) presents as ingots or their fragments smali fiat rectangular or even irregular objects max. 3x10x1 cm in size and of various weight. So far they have been known mainly from the Roman period, but they also occurred in the La Tbne oppidum in Manching (Jacobi 1974, 253, nos.1502-1504, PI. 77). J.Waldhauser (1993, 331, Abb. 49:20, 28, 36) considers a similar func-tion for the iron rods from Radovesice. On the site of Mfieckć Żehrovice, the iron object of unspecified function from feature 9/81 (length 105, width 9-15.5, thickness 4.5-13 mm, Fig. 67:2), should be pointed out, differing from the other iron artefacts on the site by its dimensions and shape. It may be taken as one of the first indica-tions perhaps leading to an alternati ve conclusion conceming the question of ingots in the La Tćne period Central Europę.

Another possible alternative of the finał bloomery product that could have been traded should, though, be considered the bloom itself. Ethnohis-torical examples of iron sold in the form of un-worked bloom or its fragments havo been recorded (Rostokcr - Bronson 1990,96), and possible prehistorie parallels have already been suggested (Drda - Rybovd 1995, 108).

Ibols

Unfortunately, tools that could with certainty have been associated with bloomery activitios aro completely absent from the archaeological contoxt. Industrial feature 1/79 and the ploughsoil abovo it appear to be the richest in iron artefacts, with

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Induitrial settlement, LT B2-C1

189

n total of 6 rod-ahuped implcme.nta which olodc morę detailed idontificntion. Thoro Ib, howovor, no ovidcnco that they wora connected with iron making on the aito and they may even have bo-longed to the nettlement component on th<- site. Ploughaoil in the area of trench 29 produced 9 objecie, two of which were wodgea and two hooks. The poaaibility of their belonging to the plentiful production activities which took place in the area under investigation is queationable, and aois their dating.

Other artefacts

Sherds of ordinary vessels as woli as other artefacts of domestic use aro evidently not connected directly with production activities and were probably transported to the filia of most of the production features by post-depositional proces-bcs. The quantity of such artefacts is smali with the exception of feature 1/79 where it is assumed that at least part of the pottery was depoeited in the working pit by Burface wash from the settle-ment features high er up the stopę.

IRON WORKING

Archaeological complexes and artefacts Smithing slag

The investigations on the site yielded a total of 22 pieces of smithing slag (determination by R. Pleiner). Some of these were plano-convex smithing hearth bottoms (PCB) (Fig. 95). The slag originated from production feature 11/86, from a narrow gully of unspedfied function and from the ploughaoil base, all of which were situated in the Southern part of the settlement (trench 29). Morę fragments were unearthed in the eastern ditch of the walled endosure (trench 8B) noar the accumulation of bloomery slag located in trench 3, as well as in the settlement layer in the north-em part of the walled endosure. It may be sum-marized that the smithing slag occurred in the vicinity of areas with the concentration of bloomery slag where bloomeries or other iron Processing workshops ara assumed to have existed. The exception is feature 1/79, probably a bloomery workshop, where no smithing slag was found either within the feature itaclf or in the im media te surroundings. These findings make it possible to postulate that smithing was performed mostly in the vicinity of places where iron was mado. Futuro analysea will hopcfully recognize tho kind of smithing work that the slag represents - w het hor it was working the raw bloom to smithod bloom, smithing it to billet or bar iron, or smithing (or ropairing) the iron artefacts/implemcnts. Ac-cording to the Professional opinion of R. Pleiner it was probably ordinary smithing (not rcheating)

slag. A feature that could pass aa a smithy has not been idontified and the samo applics to Products of smithing as it is not known whether the iron artefacts found on the site were locally produced.

FOOD PRODUCTION

Evidence of food production was provided by tho finds of agricultural tools, plant macro-residues (grain and weed, edible fruit) and palaeozoological materiał.

Difficulties may arise if we try to attribute the finds to the individual phases of activities on the site. An example of this may be the surface find of iron ploughsbare which may have, on formal grounds, belonged to the LT B2-C1, but to LT C2-D actwities as well. The same applies to the qucrn-stone which has already been mentioned in con-nection with the dwelling component to which it belongs, as it providee evidence not of food production but of food preparation.

The finds of carbonized grain seem to be less frequent in the LT B2-C1 period and their dating is ambiguous: the grains of the Hordeum uulgare, Hordeum tp. and Triticum diccoccon species como from settlement layer in the NE comer of the endosure, where it can be attributed to the earlier as well aś Inter (LT C2-D) settlement The same is true of the finds of grain in feature 2A/83, which could have been cantaminated by earlier materiał. Hus scardty may be misleading: the finds of grain come from filia that have been wet-sieved. This unfortunately was not the case with most of the Early Horizon settlement features (wet sieving was not possible on the site for technical reasons during the initial years of investigations). The absence of grain in the sieved samples from the industrial features (e g. 3/86) is not surprising. The collecting of wild plants provided another component of the diet. This is attested to by the finds of hazei (features 3/86 and 39/86) and black-thorn wood (3/86).

According to the finds of animal bones (Beech this volume), the breeding of cattle provailed over that of pig and sheep/goat (moro probably sheep) in the early settlement phase in Mfieckd Zehrovice. Horee remains occurred only infrequently. The wildlife is represented mainly by deer, by the finds of antlers, whilo other species were only rarely found. A characteristic feature of the industrial settlement at MAeckć 2ehrovice seems to be the age of the slaughtered cattle and sheep, higher than that in the La te Horizon, or than in production settlcments in generał. As M. Beech pointa out, it may indicate that older cattle were used as traction animals and as dairy cows. According to the marka on bones, their skin was also processed on the site, while sheep were kept both for milk