A Middle Saxon Iron Smelting Site at Ramsbury, Wiltshire

Abstract

EXCAVATIONS on a site in the High Street, Ramsbury revealed an iron smelting and smithing site datable by radioxcarbon determination and analysis of the finds to the late 8th and early 9th centuries. The industrial structures consisted of bowl furnaces and associated features of at least three phases, and included a timber-framed shelter. A ‘developed bowl’ furnace with slag-tapping facilities was built in the last phase, and had survived to a sufficient height to exhibit an unfamiliar ‘funnel’ shape. Besides being unique for its date, the site is important because of its relatively good state of preservation, and because the furnaces show a sequence of technological innovation over a short period. Iron ore was brought some distance to the site. Associated finds included quantities of animal bones, as well as some pottery, bronze and iron artifacts and fragments of imported lava querns. This and other evidence hints at patronage by an important royal estate.