New2EstIronElectronicSupplements.zip

The aim of this study is to answer some of the preliminary questions about the differences in chemical composition of iron smelting slag finds inEstonia. The chemical analyses of smelting slag will allow to establish a production regions reference dataset for further research. Our analysis also includes currency blooms, of which some have been dated to the Estonian Viking Age (800 – 1050) and the Late Iron Age (1050 – 1227). The blooms are examined about their relationships with possible production regions. Using a multi-method analytical approach (SEM-EDS, LA-ICP-MS) and a multivariate data analysis (PCA, AHC and a set of supervised methods) it is argued thatEstoniamost likely had a highly interconnected local exchange with iron between different regions. An existence of exchange centres which specialised in the production of such blooms is also possible. A key methodological finding is that, contrary to results reported in the literature covered in the introduction, there exists a considerable overlap between the discussed production regions. This indicates that even with a large number of samples, chemical elements and sophisticated statistical methods, a perfect separation of production areas may not always be achievable, especially when solely bog ores served as raw material for ironmaking. However, this study demonstrates that despite such a strong overlap of data in the chemical composition of the slags, a successful provenance study of artefacts is still possible.