information contact Philip Wise, Museum Resource Centre, 14 Ryegate Road, Colchester C01 1YG. Tel. 0126 282928. e-mail: [email protected] Historical Metallurgy Society International Seminar on the Conservation and Restoration of Arms and Armour. Oct. 23–25th 2002. Malta. For further particulars see HMSNews No. 49 or contact Robert Smith, Royal Armouries, Armouries Drive, Leeds, LS10 1LT. 50 Spring 2002 Tel . +44 (0) 113220 1920. E-mail : [email protected] Forthcoming events ARCHAEOMETALLURGY HMS Annual Spring General Meeting and AGM 2002 will be held on Saturday 11th May at Archaeometallurgical research in Britain - new Ironbridge. A two day event with presentations on guidance document Structural Metalwork. Field trips on the Sunday - Members of the Archaeology Committee of HMS see separate leaflet already sent out. Anyone wishing will be organizing the production of a document to present a paper, contact Paul Bedford Ironbridge summarizing past research and suggesting future Gorge Museum Trust. (tel 01952 432141). priori- ties in ancient metallurgy. The idea was stimulated by English Heritage's Regional HMS Annual Conference 2002 13-15 September Frameworks initiative, which aims to set priorities (starting Friday evening) on Iron in the Weald. for archaeological research within their English Members will stay at Seaford (which has a railway regional groups. If we can feed into these it should station with half hourly trains from London Victoria, help ensure that the remains of ancient metallurgy change at Lewes.) Full board £85 per person. Our are appropriately considered when conditions are hosts will be the Wealden Iron Research Group, and imposed on construction projects in the planning Jeremy Hodgkinson will outline the bloomery and process. However, rather than being restricted to blast furnace activity that took place in the region. England, the committee plans to extend coverage to The operating experiences gained on the Scotland and Wales. A core of people from the experimental bloomery furnace operated by WIRG Archaeology Committee (Justine Bayley, Gill Juleff, will be reviewed by Brian Herbert and Tim Smith. A David Cranstone, Peter Northover, Vanessa Fell and demonstration smelt is planned for Sunday David Starley) will draw together the views of a afternoon. There will be a coach trip to the Anne of much larger tier of informants. The framework for Cleeves Museum in Lewes for the famous Every this consultation will be decided very shortly, with a collection of Ironwork, Newbridge (the site of the target date for “final” presentation at the 2003 HMS earliest blast furnace in Britain) and Wadhurst ( iron AGM. Publication would be in the form of a grave slabs). This promises to be an exceptionally supplementary volume to the society's journal. interesting meeting and an opportunity for long standing members to renew acquaintance with the Excavation of a Sheffield cutlery and tool making Weald on a new basis. Leaflet available, if you have site not already received one contact Tim Smith, 15 ARCUS carried out excavations during November Hazelwood Road, Partridge Green, Horsham, RH13 and December 2001 in Sheffield City Centre on the SEX Tel (0) 1403 710148. site of the former Suffolk Works, prior to its redevelopment as a car park. In 1834 the firm of Finds Research Group 700 - 1700 ‘Getting more Thomas Turner and Sons (knife, steel and tool for your money : coins for archaeologists’ manufacturers), moved to the purpose-built Suffolk Colchester Castle Museum Monday 10th June. Road site from Norfolk Street in Sheffield. The site Anglo-Saxon, medieval and post-medieval coinage, had previously been unoccupied, and the and how they should be published. For further development of the site provided the impetus for 1 substantial development in this area of the city Copper Mines in Llandudno. The find was made by centre. the mine’s manager Nick Jowett and Patrick Hammond. The floor of the chamber was scattered The excavations, directed for ARCUS by Richard with animal bone and stone tools, including eight to O’Neill, revealed substantial structural remains ten stone hammers. It was reported that dozens of relating to the Suffolk Works, including a 12-hole tunnels lead away from the chamber, which it was crucible furnace, grinding workshops, and numerous estimated will take three or four years to excavate, other floors and foundations associated with forges, survey and record. file manufactories and warehouses. The structures formed a range of buildings around a central Late Bronze Age metalworking debris from courtyard. Stratified artefacts recovered from the site Scotland included thousands of unfinished table knife blades, Trevor Cowie of the Department of Archaeology, in addition to pocket knives, files, ingot moulds, National Museums of Scotland has provided news crucible vessels and slag. It is hoped that further of an unexpected discovery at Galmisdale, Isle of analysis of the finds from the site and comparison Eigg. with other excavated industrial sites in the city centre, will further the understanding of the social In the course of burying a cat near a prominent and industrial history of Sheffield. boulder, one of the islanders had encountered fragments of clay piece-moulds, crucibles and other Historic Sheffield Steel associated casting debris. In Spring 2001, the find Research on historic Sheffield steel is currently was reported to members of a team from the Royal underway at the University of Sheffield. Rod Commission on the Ancient & Historical Mackenzie’s postgraduate research project aims to Monuments of Scotland, who were engaged on a combine historical, archaeological and analytical field survey of the island. On their return to evidence to give a more detailed understanding of Edinburgh, the RCAHMS team brought the finds to pre-Bessemer Sheffield steel and steelmaking. the attention of the NMS, where their initial identification and the late Bronze Age date of the Archaeological material from recent excavations in material was confirmed and the potential importance Sheffield, together with provenanced artefacts from of the discovery was underlined. The character of museum and private collections are being analysed. the clay refractory material and the metal types that The analyses concentrate on characterising slag were manufactured indicate a date for this activity inclusions in the metal at each stage of the between about 1000 and 800 BC. production sequence; from the raw material (Swedish wrought iron), to the converted product Exploratory fieldwork was undertaken to assess the (blister steel) and the finished artefacts, (shear steel). original context of the finds. Surface indications, The results will aid identification of steel in cou-pled with the finder's account of his own unprovenanced artefacts. excavation, initially suggested that the metalworking activity might have been taking place within an oval A further aim of the project is to build up a reference setting of large boulders. In the event, it was found collection of 18th and 19th century steel making that the boulder structure was later than the slags for the University of Sheffield archaeology metalworking episode, and probably represents the department. If you have any slag that you would be construction of a small pen or shelter in the course willing to donate please contact: R- of agricultural activity on the hillside. However, the [email protected] or at the University of largest of the boulders, which drew the finder to the Sheffield, Research School of Archaeological spot initially, was clearly an original feature of the Science, West Court, 2 Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 terrace on which the site lay and would undoubtedly 4DT. have been a distinctive feature of the terrace when the metalworking was taking place. For the moment, Bronze Age copper mining find in North Wales it seems that the metalworking episode at the site A submission to the email discussion list, may have been small-scale and short-lived, and BRITARCH reported that cavers had found a 3,500- possibly unmarked by any formal built structure. year-old Bronze Age chamber at the Great Orme 2 Together with clarification of the various phases of rotational wear in the two constrictions at the outer human activity in the immediate vicinity of the end. The hub has a slight reduction in diameter boulder, the detection and excavation of any toward the blade-bearing shaft. The end at edge “A” remaining undisturbed portions of the actual locus of has a hexagon opening that is 1 48mm across with a the metal- working are the chief priorities for further 32mm oval extension at one side of the hexagon. A work planned for 2002. Between the need to find a rod or shaft of that shape had originally been suitable place to bury the cat and an unusually inserted into the opening, and had broken off flush observant finder, serendipity has provided an with that end of the unit. A 13mm diameter, off- exceptional opportunity to investigate a site that in centre depression, 10mm deep, in the broken off rod normal circumstances would have defied discovery. appears to be an aborted attempt to drill into the broken piece. Ironworks web site For those with internet access, Jeremy Greenwood has written to say that he has prepared a draft article on the Sowley (Hants.) ironworks at www.hants.gov.uk/newforesthistory/ironsowl/htm Comments from HMS members would be welcome. Help needed to identify iron object Gordon Pollard at the State University of New York would like help in identifying a heavy cast iron artefact which came to light during the 2001 excavations at a 19th century bloomery forge site (1830–1890) adjacent to a river in the Adirondacks up upstate New York. They have so far been unable to identify its function. It was found standing in the corner of what is interpreted as a blacksmith’s work space that lies between the smith's forge and a long row of 16 bloomery forges used for the reduction of iron ore.