Between archives and the site: the 19th-century iron and steel industry in the Monklands,Central Scotland

Abstract

A case is made that attention should shift from the archaeology of process, guided largely by the archival evidence, to the archaeology of practice by scrutinizing the material record. Holistic Context Analysis applied to the industrial soils and finds at Moffat Upper Steam Forge has led to a more coherent and realistic picture of construction and demolition at the site, as well as of its puddling industry, than could be learned from the historical narrative of the iron and steel industry in the Monklands, the most industrialized part of Scotland in the 19th century.