What Are These Artifacts, and Why Are They Here?

Week 2: As we continue to dig through layers, the students have come across peculiar artifacts that wouldn’t normally be identified by any passerby. For example, slag or bone fragments that oftentimes look like rocks or wood. They are actually very important artifacts for archaeologists because they can give insights into past behaviour or even the previous purpose of the site.

Slag

Bone Fragments

But- why are they here?! The bone fragments can be identified as culinary animals such as a chicken, cow, pig or sheep/goat. These indicate the diets of previous Strawbery Banke residents and where they could be discarding their food. As food acquisition and diet changes with different cultures, these fragments can produce more information than you would think! Slag indicates iron metallurgy, but we wanted to know more details about the process behind it and why it could have ended up here.

Slag is defined as the glass-like product left over after the desired metal has been melted by smelting from its raw ore. Slag contains many different elemental metals, as the initial metal product is rarely ever in a pure form. They are often connected to iron forges, and have a deeper history that goes back to 900 BC in Turkey! Initially funded by England, the colonies used iron forges to produce many products such as pots, pans, musket barrels, and other households products. Since slag is a by-product of these smelting forges, its disposal location wouldn’t be too far from the forge sites.

So what does this indicate for our site near the Penhallow house? Since Puddle Dock was once a junkyard, it could be indiscernible trash. As it is often used for construction purposes, the slag could also be left over from various projects.

Whatever our artifact's purposes were, knowing the process and history behind them can prove to be very important information for both research and the public!

Source: http://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/iron-forge-in-colonial-america/