Réseaux de production et standards de commercialisation du fer antique en Méditerranée : les demi-produits des épaves romaines des Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône)

Abstract

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

A study of the Roman iron bars of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône, France). A proposal for a comprehensive metallographic approach

“…Furthermore, considering the weights of the PPMs e indicating that they could originate from selected parts of a cut bloom, a practice attested for other periods (Verna, 2001) e and the global good quality of the work (compared to the same type of bar for other periods or places), the blacksmiths seemed to have completely mastered their work, probably through precise organisation (task synchronising, adapted infrastructures, etc.) (Pagès et al, 2008(Pagès et al, , 2011Pagès, 2010).…”

“…1). Archaeological evidence leads to the hypothesis that these ships were meant to go up the Saint-Ferréol Rhône from the Mediterranean, or at least to cast anchor in front of this former Rhône branch in order to transfer their cargo on to other ships, adapted to fluvial conditions Long, 2003;Long and Sintes, 2003;Coustures et al, 2006;Pagès et al, 2008;Pagès, 2010). This shipwreck collection is exceptional in terms of its state of conservation, richness, contemporaneousness and readability.…”

Microbiologically influenced corrosion of archaeological artefacts: characterisation of iron(II) sulfides by Raman spectroscopy

“…Secondly, a set of iron ingots from a marine medium was studied. The ingots were discovered by A. Chabaud in 1996 in two wrecks dated from the Gallo‐roman period and immersed at a depth of 11 m, 1.5 miles off Les Saintes Maries de la Mer in Mediterranean Sea 19, 20. The artefacts described in the present work were extracted in 2006.…”

Cargoes of Iron Semi‐Products Recovered from Shipwrecks off the Carmel Coast, Israel

“… Values of Israeli semi‐products and values of unpublished bipyramidal semi‐products from eastern France (grey dots), with bars from S aintes‐ M aries‐de‐la‐ M er ( P agès et al . ) (grey circles) for comparison. (a) P 2 O 5 ** and MnO ** contents measured in SI ; (b) NRC ratios in SI — Al 2 O 3 */ SiO 2 * versus K 2 O */ CaO *; (c) NRC ratios in SI — MgO */ Al 2 O 3 * versus CaO */ SiO 2 *; (d) NRC ratios in SI – MgO */ Al 2 O 3 * versus K 2 O / CaO *.…”

“…The four graphs in Figure 17 include the results obtained for the three samples discussed here. To better represent their possible variation, the results obtained for two additional sets of data have been added: a set of bipyramidal semi-products from eastern France, dating from the local early Iron Age (800-500 bc) and a set of semi-products formed as quadrangular bars, coming from Roman-period shipwrecks found off Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Pagès et al 2008(Pagès et al , 2011. The three semi-products have a strong resemblance, a very low content of discriminating elements (P 2 O 5 , MnO, MgO and K 2 O) and a high CaO content.…”