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Experiment on historical iron production at Kultur-Schloss Theuern / Mining and Industrial Museum of Eastern Bavaria

On Sunday, 27 September 2020, an experiment on iron production using bloomery furnaces took place at the Mining and Industrial Museum of Eastern Bavaria. As a result of the experiment, which lasted for more than eight hours, an approx. 9 kg slug (immediately forgeable but still relatively impure iron) was recovered. In the course of the process, almost 100 kg of charcoal were fired and 40 kg of iron ore were filled into the shaft. 

Direct iron production in bloomery fires (coal-filled pits supplied with oxygen via bellows) and bloomery furnaces was the common method of producing malleable iron from the dawn of the Iron Age around 800 BC until the late Middle Ages (around 1300 to 1500 AD).

At the beginning of this year, as part of the cooperation between the University of Regensburg and the district of Amberg-Sulzbach in the field of experimental archaeological iron research, a shaft furnace was set up on the museum grounds together with students from the Department of Ancient History, based on a historical model. After drying and pre-firing of the clay construction and a forced break due to corona, the furnace campaign – as the smelting process is called – could finally be carried out on 27 September 2020.

The spongy bloom will be on display as part of the free exhibition series "Fascination of Mining and Industrial History" at the Mining and Industrial Museum of Eastern Bavaria from 20 October 2020.

A continuation of the work is envisaged during a subsequent project exercise in the spring.

Christmas Lecture 2020

Christmas Lecture 2019

Series of Lectures of the Centre for Classical Studies winter term 2019/20:

Europe - The Ancient Heritage

Inaugural lecture Prof. Dr. Angela Ganter

A video of the lecture is available at Youtube.

Bavarian Ancient Historians' Conference