Early Iron Age iron-smelting debris from Rwanda and Burundi, East Africa

Abstract

Iron smelting is attested from at least the first part of the 1st millennium BC in both West and East Africa. In both regions the earliest furnaces seem to have been the slag-pit type. In this study the slags and furnace remains from such a furnace have been studied. The clays used for the furnace structures and for the tuyères were not especially refractory. Fayalite and hercynite with some wüstite were the main phases present in the slags, with compositions suggesting either the deliberate addition of clay as a flux or a significant clay contribution from the refractories. Such slags are known from contemporary and more recent African smelting practice. The significant differences in the slag mineralogy were found to be due to quite minor differences in composition rather than real variations in the processes carried on at the various sites studied.

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