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Iron in Dark Age England

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2025 10:13 am
by Zen9
intriguing piece here
"The results presented here substantially alter our perception of northern England in the immediate post-Roman period. Roman practices of metal production, comprising ore selection and use of coal are shown to have continued. Production/working of iron only declined slightly in the early to mid-fifth century before a continuous rise until the mid-sixth. This has fundamental significance for our understanding of metal production, specialisation and societal organisation c. 400-550, arguing against previously suggested total economic collapse.

… From the ninth century, trends in large-scale iron- and lead-production at Aldborough may mark it as a royal centre and subsequent fluctuations track major economic phases and sociopolitical events. The fall across all metal production in the mid-to late sixth century may provide the first economic proxy for the impact of the Justinianic plague and other pathogens on north-eastern England.”

Open access ar https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server ... 22/content

Re: Iron in Dark Age England

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2025 7:26 pm
by Craiglxviii
Given that the Vikings were raiding constantly throughout the Dark Ages and into the early Mediaeval period… they were after more than just women. I’ve always firmly believed that Britain was producing more valuable resource than was being accounted for traditionally.

Re: Iron in Dark Age England

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2025 5:26 pm
by M.Becker
Craiglxviii wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 7:26 pm Given that the Vikings were raiding constantly throughout the Dark Ages and into the early Mediaeval period… they were after more than just women. I’ve always firmly believed that Britain was producing more valuable resource than was being accounted for traditionally.
Stop being misogynistic. :mrgreen: