Tag: Slag analysis
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Kvemo Bolnisi: Iron Age Origins Revealed by Workshop
Uncovering a 3,000-Year-Old Workshop The Iron Age is one of humanity’s most transformative periods, marking a shift from bronze-burnished tools to the hard, durable metals that would shape empires. A fresh look at the Kvemo Bolnisi site in southern Georgia is helping researchers understand how iron metallurgy may have emerged. Rather than proving that iron…
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The Accidental Discovery That Forged the Iron Age
Kvemo Bolnisi: From iron to copper in a 3,000-year-old workshop In southern Georgia, a 3,000-year-old workshop called Kvemo Bolnisi has long puzzled archaeologists. Early excavations in the 1950s unearthed piles of hematite (an iron oxide mineral) and slag, which led researchers to declare the site an early iron-smelting workshop. New analyses, however, rewrite that history:…
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Iron Emergence from Copper: Kvemo Bolnisi Discovery
Unearthing Kvemo Bolnisi: A 3,000-Year-Old Copper Workshop In the southern Caucasus, the Kvemo Bolnisi site in Georgia preserves a workshop dating back roughly three millennia. When archaeologists excavated the area in the mid-20th century, they unearthed caches of hematite, an iron oxide mineral, and extensive slag—byproducts of metal production. Based on those finds, the original…