Iron Age Life: Experimental Archaeology in Denmark

Day three         

          

Dr. William Schindler building the top layers of the furnace.

The first order of business once the museum opened was to tend to the charcoal pile.  During the night the mound had started to slump.  Kim decided to consolidate the mound and smother it.  By pressing in the sides, the mound was pushed back onto itself.  Soil was loosened and piled over the mound.  Wherever there was smoke rising from the mound, we covered it with soil.  Smothering the charcoal pile would cause the internal fire to die out and tomorrow when the smelt took place, the fire would have been extinguished and hopefully charcoal would fill the pile.  For several hours a member of our group kept watch on the pile adding dirt whenever smoke appeared.  

            We began building the furnace again.  It was decided that too many people were involved in the process the day before.  Only four of us were involved in the construction for the day, one doing the construction, two making billets, and one working the clay.  As each billet of straw and clay was added, they were blended on the inside and out to create one continuous surface.  A cord-wrapped paddle was used to help the process along.  As an artistic choice the top of the furnace was flared out like a lip of a vessel. The base of the furnace was wide and tapered towards the top.  The base was about 76 inches in circumference with the door measuring 13 inches wide.  The circumference at the top of the furnace was 40 inches below the flared rim.  The furnace was 30.5 inches tall at ground level.  With the additional 23 inches below ground level that brought the total height to 53.5 inches.  

Net impressing the furnace.

            There are very few archaeological remains of bloomery furnaces.  A bloomery furnace is generally dismantled in the process of the smelt to retrieve the bloom.  Much of what is known about smelting iron comes from ethnographic records and experimental accounts.  The ethnographic accounts documented by Schmidt and others discussed the superstitious behaviors of the smelters.  I considered myself superstitious on some accounts but not when it came to luck.  I was only half joking when I remarked about Schmidt’s accounts of magic among the iron smelters of East Africa.  The smelters of Africa believe that the furnace is a woman and gives birth to iron.  To protect the fertility of the iron the smelters draw symbols on the furnace.  Kim, our wizard, knew that in Poland a wall from a smelting furnace had been found in a bog and had on it symbols of the female body.  Kim believed it was evidence of similar practices.  If these were traditions in the past, it seemed reasonable for us representing the past to follow a similar practice.  It was agreeable to everyone else involved.  The furnace was not complete until the symbols were in place.  A ceremony did not seem right; it would just be me making up words.  Schmidt says the furnace is referred to as a woman; she is impregnated by the master smelter and gives birth to iron.  As I stand before the furnace hands wet with clay I decide to make the furnace a woman.  With additional clay, the furnace gains a set of breasts and a pelvic arch. Now she is ready.  

           

The furnace all done and ready for our smelt to start the next day.

As we worked throughout the day the wind was blowing.  Clouds raced each other leaving dark striations in their wake.  A storm was coming.  The furnace would not dry in the rain.  We set a small fire in the furnace to dry the clay.  Kim suggested the fire should burn through the night.  It was growing colder and darker.  The night came early.  We raised a tarp over the furnace to protect it from the rain.  It did not last long before the wind drove in down near the mouth of the furnace and burned a hole in it the tarp.  It started to rain around dinner.  We invited all of the other families into our long house.  We crowded around the hearth where we had placed round loaves of bread, fresh butter, and cheese.  Outside on a long bench were two large salmon that had been baked in the bread oven.  There was salad and soup.  It was a feast reminiscent of ancient times and sagas past.  After dinner the other families returned to their beds and we to our furnace.       

Someone called for marshmallows.  We all laughed.  There was nothing else to do but huddle around the furnace wrapped in cloaks and shawls with our backs to the wind.   This was the sort of wind that could be used to power a bloom without bellows.  It was a stiff wind that never took a breath and crawled inside shirts and skirts.  It left us packed tight around the furnace with its small fire meant to dry the clay and not to provide warmth.  It was the illusion of heat that kept us there so long, but it was not strong enough to last through the night.  We let the fire burn out and crawled to our beds, not thinking it would matter that the base of the furnace was still damp.  The next day we would find out that the dampness would rob the fire of heat and solidify the slag, thus ending our bloom early.  But that was tomorrow; today we cared only for the straw beds and the warmth of our friends beside us since there were no marshmallows.