Characterization of metallurgical slags from archaeological sites in Navarre (2nd century BC through 4th century AD)

The Archaeology Section of the Government of Navarre put forward a proposal to undertake research in the characterization of a set of pieces from 2nd century B. C. to 4th century A. D. retrieved from excavations in different archaeological sites in this province, to obtain data related to the manufacturing process of the investigated artefacts and to compare the level of technical skills in different times and places, so as to achieve a better understanding of technological abilities and material culture. The finds discussed in this paper are of interest from an archaeometallurgical point of view, and they consist mainly of metallurgical slags, remains of manufactured pieces, and minerals residues used to obtain various metals. In addition to carrying out their chemical analyses by inductively coupled plasma (ICP), the study of six samples was performed by optical and scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) which revealed the composition of large areas of the slags, and the study was finally completed by the determination of the phases present by X rays diffraction.