The technology of iron production was one of the most important innovations of Antiquity. Its diffusion at the beginning of the 1st millenium BCE had profound impact on the human history, including not only social and economic structures of the ancient socities but also the trans-cultural networks in the whole Mediterranean. It is surprising that the study of iron technology in the Aegean from its adoption to the Classical period (11th-5th c. BCE) is insufficient and the field was not studied at all for the Hellenistic and Roman period.

The main goal of the international project Σίδηρος is the reconstruction of the iron technology in the Aegean in the pre-Classical period. Following sociological concept of “technological choices” the iron production is approached as a social phenomenon and then analysed, focusing on interdisciplinary study combining archaeology and metalurgy. The research is focusing on new finds from the Eastern Aegean, the historical Ionia and Miletus. It is a pilot study which will develop methodology and approaches that will be used to study and provide conclusions about the iron technology in the Ancient Greece during the 1st millenium BCE.

The project is funded in the framework of the Charles University program PRIMUS/17/HUM/30 in the years 2018-2020.

Team members:
Dr. Marek Verčík, ÚKAR (director)
Mgr. Miloš Roháček, ÚKAR
Dr. Jana Mokrišová, Department of History, Classics, Archaeology. Birkbeck, University of London
Ümit Güder, PhD., ÇOBİLTUM, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (external)
Dipl. Rest. Petra Hoffmann, Berlin (external)