The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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<strong>The</strong> Iron Age<br />
• 125 •<br />
PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE<br />
<strong>The</strong> manufacture and exchange <strong>of</strong> finished goods be<strong>ca</strong>me increasingly complex during the Iron<br />
Age (Morris 1994). Three levels <strong>of</strong> craft activity are identifiable: output to meet individual<br />
household or community needs; more specialized products for wider distribution; and luxury<br />
goods for the wealthiest sections <strong>of</strong> society. For most commodities, little or no evidence <strong>of</strong><br />
production sites has survived, and the finished goods provide our main guide to the organization<br />
and s<strong>ca</strong>le <strong>of</strong> activity. Only a minority <strong>of</strong> craft workers are likely to have been full-time specialists;<br />
many activities, such as coastal salt production, metal ore extraction and pottery manufacture,<br />
could have been <strong>ca</strong>rried out by ordinary agricultural communities at slack times.<br />
Signifi<strong>ca</strong>nt technologi<strong>ca</strong>l advances during the Iron Age included the <strong>introduction</strong> <strong>of</strong> lathes for<br />
turning wooden and shale objects; the potter’s wheel; and the ability to make glass beads and<br />
bracelets. In bronze-working, the use <strong>of</strong> lost-wax <strong>ca</strong>sting be<strong>ca</strong>me widespread, and both gilding<br />
and tin-plating were introduced late in the period. Other important innovations included the<br />
development <strong>of</strong> the rotary quern for grinding grain and the <strong>introduction</strong> <strong>of</strong> iron-tipped plough<br />
shares, which greatly facilitated the cultivation <strong>of</strong> heavier soils.<br />
Successfully forging iron into durable artefacts required new skills and techniques, and was<br />
extremely time-consuming, helping to explain why iron objects were relatively s<strong>ca</strong>rce until after<br />
the mid-first millennium BC. Unlike bronze, iron could not be <strong>ca</strong>st be<strong>ca</strong>use the available bowl<br />
furnaces were unable to achieve sufficiently high temperatures. On smelting, a spongy mass<br />
(‘bloom’) collected in the furnace base, and had to be repeatedly heated and hammered to remove<br />
slag and impurities. Since artefacts produced in this way were not inherently superior to bronze,<br />
the principal reasons why iron was adopted were presumably that most parts <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> have<br />
access to iron ore and that wrought iron could be forged into shapes that bronze could not. While<br />
the earliest iron artefacts—like the sword and sickle <strong>from</strong> the Llyn Fawr hoard (Glamorgan)—<br />
are simply bigger versions <strong>of</strong> existing bronze types, new tool types, better suited to the tensile<br />
properties <strong>of</strong> wrought iron, were gradually developed, including cutting discs, shaft hole axes,<br />
shears, and tongs. Many types <strong>of</strong> edge tools in use by the Later Iron Age remained essentially<br />
unchanged until the Industrial Revolution (Figure 7.9).<br />
Most Iron Age settlements yield evidence <strong>of</strong> iron smithing, although this may simply indi<strong>ca</strong>te<br />
that metalworkers visited periodi<strong>ca</strong>lly to make and repair implements. Smelting was generally<br />
<strong>ca</strong>rried out away <strong>from</strong> the homestead. Two exceptions are the early Iron Age settlement at<br />
Brooklands (Surrey), where areas were set aside for smelting and for forging, and the Later Iron<br />
Age defended site at Bryn y Castell (Gwynedd), where furnaces inside the enclosure were used<br />
for refining raw blooms; a more extensive iron-working area was lo<strong>ca</strong>ted outside. At both sites,<br />
the output was probably sufficient only for lo<strong>ca</strong>l needs.<br />
Comparatively few artefacts show evidence for advanced techniques like the deliberate use <strong>of</strong><br />
steel, or even quenching and tempering, but smiths gradually learned enough about the properties<br />
<strong>of</strong> different ores to choose those best suited for particular tasks; thus implements like adzes and<br />
large sickles were generally manufactured <strong>from</strong> high-phosphorous ores, while high-<strong>ca</strong>rbon ores<br />
were used for chisels (Ehrenreich 1985). As the period progressed, the best ores—<strong>from</strong> areas like<br />
Northamptonshire and the Forest <strong>of</strong> Dean—were increasingly exploited. By the third century<br />
BC at latest, good quality iron was exchanged over considerable distances as standardized ingots.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se were clearly <strong>of</strong> considerable value, frequently being hoarded or used as <strong>of</strong>ferings. Three<br />
main forms are known: sword-shaped bars, spit-shaped bars and ploughshare bars; but detailed<br />
examination reveals over 20 types, each potentially indi<strong>ca</strong>ting a different source. Stone weights<br />
found at many Iron Age settlements similarly imply an interest in standardization and equivalence<br />
in other spheres <strong>of</strong> exchange.