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The remains of the smelting workshop at Hlebine – Velike Hlebine site
Tajana Sekelj Ivančan
orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-8434
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Valent
; Koprivnica, Croatia
Abstract
During a preventive archaeological campaign, conducted in the summer of 2016, on the position Velike Hlebine, near the village Hlebine, in Koprivničko-križevačka county, parts of a smelting workshop for processing the iron ore were excavated. The position of the 200 m2 excavated trench was carefully determined according to the geophysical research of the site, conducted on a surface of one hectare, during the spring of 2016. The purpose of that research was to retrieve precise data concerning the recognition and the layout of the different parts of the smelting workshop.
Within the researched complex of the melting ore workshop four smelting furnaces, in different stages of preservation, were discovered in situ. The documented situation indicates to the existence of one certain, and other most probably super-posed, pair of furnaces. Based on the circumstances of the discovery the authors present their thoughts concerning the features of the furnaces and the spatial organisation of the excavated part of the workshop.
Momentarily, without the 14C analysis, which are yet to be made, it is still difficult to determine at which time the space of Velike Hlebine was used as a place where iron ore was smelted. But, one must emphasise that this is the second archaeologically researched site, not just in Podravina but in all of northern part of Croatia, on which activities connected with the primary treatment of the iron ore were recognised. Moreover, giving that the furnaces were discovered in situ they are of most important significance not just for the regional, but also for the wider European scientific and professional community.
Keywords
Hlebine; Velike Hlebine site; archaeological excavations; smelting furnaces
Hrčak ID:
189455
URI
Publication date:
21.11.2017.
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