THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF IRON IN FIRST MILLENNIUM BC IRELAND

Archaeological data available for reconstructing the Irish Iron Age have expanded rapidly due to the large number of excavations conducted in recent decades as part of large infrastructure projects. This article interprets iron‐production sites dating to the first millennium BC, many of which were discovered as part of those projects, as representing discrete but overlapping communities of ironworking practice. Through a synthesis of recent excavation data, I outline the evidence for different modes of iron production that range from very small scale to ironworking specialists attached to high‐status persons. Developing a socially‐driven reconstruction of this technology provides insight into various aspects of Iron Age society as embedded in local, regional, and pan‐regional communities.     

REDEFINING THE NORTHERN BRITISH IRON AGE

Summary.   Unlike Southern Britain, the Iron Age in Northern Britain spans two millennia from the introduction of iron technology to the Norse settlements. Northern Britain is divided into a series of geographical and archaeological regions, including for the pre-Roman Earlier Iron Age the whole of aceramic and non-coin-using northern England. Despite a wealth of settlement evidence, the Earlier Iron Age lacks diagnostic material assemblages, even in the ceramic Atlantic regions, where radiocarbon dating is now confirming the origins of Atlantic Roundhouses in the mid-first millennium BC. External connections may have been long-distance, reflecting a complex variety of selective connections. For the Later Iron Age, interpretation based upon historical sources has inhibited a proper archaeological evaluation of the 'Picts' and of the traditional view of Dalriadic settlement in Argyll, both of which are now under review.     

PROSPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND SE'ITLEMENT IN THE NORTHERN YENISEY REGION

A long-range regional planning forecast of economic development and settlement in the North Yenisey region of Siberia, up to the year 2000, envisages the formation of several territorial production complexes based on the development of mineral resources (the nickelcopper-platinum reserves of the Noril'sk district, aluminum raw materials, iron ore, oil and gas and graphite) and hydroelectric development (hydro stations at Osinovo, Stony Tunguska, Maygunna, Kureyka and Khantayka, and ultimately Igarka and Lower Tunguska). The basic urban centers, in addition to Noril'sk, would be Osinovo, Novoturukhansk and Igarka. Urban population is expected to increase from 220,000 in 1970 to 480,000, and rural population from 40,000 in 1970 to 300,000.     

IRON IN ANCIENT COPPER

Analysis of early copper-base artifacts invariably reveals traces of iron. Iron enters the copper during the smelting process and the level of iron in the metalwork is an indication of the smelting technology. In areas such as Western Europe where prehistoric slag heaps are absent even in the proximity of undoubted ancient mines, the iron content is low reinforcing the link between smelting technology and iron content. Very occasionally the iron content was deliberately encouraged and alloys containing between 30% and 50% of iron in copper were made, mainly for use in currency. These alloys are without modern parallel and their metallography and method of production are considered in some detail here.     

岐山县出土北宋铁钱窖藏和小银铤范模

1998年12月28日,岐山县城西大街公安办公大楼工地发现一处宋代铁钱窖藏,岐山县博物馆对窖藏进行了清理,现将清理结果简述如下: 窖穴距地表5米,呈不甚规则东西向长方形,长1.5,宽1.1,高度（因上部破坏）不详。距窖穴南壁1米处有一口直径     

安庆出水北宋徽宗铁钱——兼谈同安监址

2002年初,安徽省安庆市西郊皖河入 长江口附近,一艘吸沙船采吸江沙时,民工 们从吸出的江沙中发现一批铁钱。该批铁钱 吸出水面时与沙土粘结在一起,呈一铁砣 状,后经分离、清理,全为北宋徽宗时期的 折三铁钱,计有崇宁、大观、政和三个年 号,总数两千余枚。未见其他品种铁钱或铜 钱,其中崇宁年号约占20%,大观与政和 年号约各占40%。这批北宋徽宗铁钱保存 完好,精美程度不亚于同时期精致铜钱,现 据其年号及书体选具有代表性的介绍如下。 1.崇宁通宝:(插六图1)素背,钱径 32.5,穿径8,厚3毫米,重11.5克。钱 文“崇宁通宝”为北宋徽宗赵佶亲…     

Grass Cutters IN NORTHERN TIBET

Alongside with allround economic andsocial development inTibet, there have beengratifying changes inthe pastoral areas.Herders have developed a scientific senseof livestock breeding.Those who cut grass inDamxung in the photoare representative ofthese herders.Grass farm management was in a mess inthe past, but the situation has now changed.Supply of grass isample, and farm workers can sell their surplus. Under the situation, grass merchantshave appeared to shipthe grass from thesefarms to are…     

APPALACHIAN MIGRANTS IN NORTHERN CITIES

A lot of places won't hire people from the South. They say, “They won't work.” If they paid a little bit more money they might damn work a lot bit better. Like Chicago Cork, you know what they pay an hour? A dollar and a quarter an hour. And I wouldn't work for no sonofabitch for no dollar and a quarter an hour. Shit, I'd steal off the street first. Can't pay your rent on it. Now down home I'd work for a dollar and a quarter an hour, but that's different. You know what they should do? They should take some a these damn factories, say from Chicago, and just spread em around, you know. Not just only in this state but in different states, or make more in different states or somethin. People from the South down there, they have to leave to come up to this shithole. They don't want up here. That's the only other place. You gotta realize these goddamn people from the South is the ones run most of these plants—most of their employees is people from the South. I can't understand them sonofabitch factories.