Use traces on crucibles and tuyères? : An archaeological experiment in ancient metallurgy

• To what extent can we identify sites where metallurgy has been conducted by studying the ceramic residue found at the site? Ceramic tools used for metal casting, such as crucibles, claymoulds and tuyères- so called ‘technical ceramics' - are often used as indicators of metalcrafts.Their often vitrified and sintered appearance is, on many occasions, used as traits of identification.This article discusses a crucible and a tuyère that show no clear traces of vitrification, and whether or not the objects should be disregarded as technical ceramics. By building reconstructions of these two objects and testing them in an archaeological experiment, we have been able to study the traces of use on the reconstruction and compare them to the two artefacts. In this article we argue that signs of use, such as vitrification and sintering, are not always present on used tuyères and crucibles and that we should also try to look for other signs of use when classifying archaeological materials as technical ceramics.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- Archaeology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Technical ceramics

Tuyére

Crucible

Bronze casting

Experimental archaeology

Ceramic artefacts

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

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