Pielgrzymowice – A Przeworsk culture iron smelting site from the Roman period in Silesia

Lehnhardt, Enrico; Błażejewski, Artur; Madera, Paweł; Meister, Julia

doi:0079-7138

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Title: Pielgrzymowice – A Przeworsk culture iron smelting site from the Roman period in Silesia

Abstract:

In 2013 and 2014 fieldwork was carried out in the Widawa valley near Namysłów (Opole voivodeship) to investigate sites with iron smelting slag assumed to belong to Przeworsk culture. It was supposed that these surface sites dated back to the late pre-Roman Iron Age (phases A1–A3) and thus belonged to the earliest Przeworsk culture. To verify this chronological classification, we conducted surveys at various sites and investigated the structure of iron smelting and especially its chronological position at the Pielgrzymowice site (municipality Wilków) by trial trenching. This paper presents the results of geophysical and archaeological as well as archaeobotanical investigations. Our studies in Pielgrzymowice show that iron smelting was carried out during the middle to late Roman period and under no circumstances during the late pre-Roman period. This unambiguous result is based on radiocarbon data from the lowest charcoal layer of a furnace and is supported by further absolute data from features in the surrounding area. The furnaces are those with a ‘very big’ slag pit, which are typical for the Roman period in Silesia and are themselves a relative means for chronological classification.