1989 Volume 38 Issue 12 Pages 667-673
Recently, many kinds of iron remains have been excavated by an archaeological investigation. In this study, iron remains-an iron sand, a granular iron mass, an iron outflowed and residual slag, an iron lump, a small sword and an arrowhead-were analyzed by an instrumental neutron activation analysis to identify the production and processing techniques of iron and ironware. As a result, a total of 38 elements in the various iron remains were determined over the range of concentration from several ppm to several 10%. The concentrations of elements except rare earth elements, Hf and Th in the granular iron mass were similar to those of the iron sand. The concentrations of elements except K and Co in the outflowed and residual slag were homogeneous in the every slag. The concentrations of elements in a metallic iron of the iron lump and ironware were quite different from those of elements in a rust. The concentrations of Fe, Co, Ga, As, Cu, Sb and W in the metallic iron decreased with increase of the rust, whereas those of Na, Al, Sc, Ti, V, Mn, rare earth elements, Hf and Th in the metallic iron incresed with the rust.
