Some reflections on the classification of prehistoric and medieval iron‐smelting furnaces

Abstract

The classification problems of bloomery furnaces arc considerable. On the one hand, the furnaces are complicated structures with a great number of typological elements; on the other, a high percentage of them are badly preserved. Starting with the shape, three basic types ‐ bowl furnaces, shaft furnaces and domed furnaces — are used, with definitions based on elements of proportion to differentiate between them. The other most frequently used typological elements are divided into elements of working and elements of building, with subgroups. Since all these elements show a wide range of variety in detail, one has to form groups which can be fitted into a flexible typological system. The paper proposes a classification based on these principles. Special attention is paid to the problem of natural as opposed to artificial draught, stressing that this is a matter of interpretation, not of classification.

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