Ancient Metalworking in Southern Kuhdasht County: A Study of Smelting Slag from Botkhaneh Cave

A field survey of Southern Kuhdasht County around Botkhaneh cave was conducted in order to prospect the area for archaeological sites related to ancient metalworking industries. The first field season identified sixteen locations with abundant amount of slags, which may represent potential metalworking installations. The present study has been carried out on by means of analysis of iron-smelting slags from the survey in terms of their mineralogy, phase-states, and chemical composition in order to determine particular metallurgical extraction techniques. The results of this study show that the Kuhdasht samples are primarily ferrous slags resulted from ironworking in a reduction furnace. Furthermore, based on the phases that appear in the slag mixture, it is proposed that the iron extraction system of this region relied on open furnace technology and high temperatures, ca. 1100-1220 degrees Celsius.