Experimental Bloomery Iron Smelting in the Study of Iron Technology in the Southern Levant

Iron production is often considered one of humankind’s most significant technological advances. While the identification of ironworking remains has improved our understanding of this practice in the early Iron Age in the southern Levant, several major technological and sociopolitical aspects remain unanswered. Particularly significant is the source of the raw material. Several geological iron-rich ore deposits are known in the southern Levant. However, archaeological evidence for exploitation in antiquity derives solely from the Mugharet el-Wardeh ore deposit in modern Jordan. To identify the use of other ore sources, a reliable prov-enancing method for ferrous metals is required. This paper describes the use of experimental bloomery iron smelting in order to investigate some of the technological aspects of iron production, particularly the role of raw materials and provenance. A series of systematic smelting experiments were conducted under carefully controlled scientific conditions. Several aims were put forward for the experiments, the main one being to establish a provenancing method for archaeological iron based on osmium isotopic analysis. The experiments were run by professional and experienced iron smelters, utilizing ore deposits from the Negev region in southern Israel in two types of furnaces: the shaft-tapping furnace and the bowl furnace. I share some of the decisions made while planning and conducting the experiments and their implications for the results obtained. I then summarize several significant contributions of the experiments to interpreting the archaeological record, as gleaned from previous field and analytical observations.