Ferrum Noricum Hüttenberg, archaeoprospection

The goal of the prospection project is to make a representative selection of find sites specific to smelting available according to number, type and situation as planning base and cotribution to interpretation to archaeological research by means of consistently applying a newly developed specific prospection methodology (prospection model). The main methods employed are geophysical measurements comprising several methods (geomagnetics, geoelectrics, electromagnetics and rock magnetism) and geochemistry (trace elements in soil samples, ores and slags) according to an approach developed specifically for mining archaeometric research. Besides prospecting find sites, the interdisciplinary approach results in special problems in developing typological characteristics for ores and slags, searching for the ancient mines or in areal extrapolation of punctual results obtained in excavations to areas that are not accessible to excavation. As a further issue to be addressed, prospection pursues a higher goal by using special spatially extensive geophysical methods (search profiling) to attempt to determine the outer boundaries of the Roman-Noric mining district in the Görschitztal valley covering at least several kilometres square and to areally cover an assumed Roman smelting centre in the Möselhof/Raffelsdorf area. The overall goal of these activities is an initial orienting distribution map of the Ferrum Noricum in the Hüttenberger Erzberg-Görschitztal region which is considered to be the superseding fundament of research as well as an impulse for sustainably effective development of the potential of the region`s cultural properties (archaeotope management, educational tourism etc.).

Noricum became part of the Roman Empire in 15 BC. Ferrum Noricum, Noric steel, is mentioned extensively in the written sources of the 1st century AD. It has long been known that the area around Hüttenberg was a centre of iron production in Preroman and Roman times. The iron produced in Hüttenberg (in an area covering approximately 20 km 2 ) was transported to the Magdalensberg from where it was brought to Aquileia, the main port in the Northern Adriatic. In this area the production of iron has a long-standing history and dates back at least for more than 2500 years. Iron production in the area of Hüttenberg ceased in the second half of the 20th century. The main target of this project was a geophysical surveying campaign and the regional mapping of selected target areas in order to supply information for a second archaeological project dealing with the excavation of the localities where iron smelting was indicated (Ferrum Noricum Hüttenberg, Archäologie, project of the Austrian National Science Foundation no. P16069). In the "Geozentrum Hüttenberg" the main results achieved by these projects are exposed. Within the course of the surveying campaign geophysical standard methods were applied. Mainly geomagnetic, electromagnetic and geoelectric methods were used. Various physical parameters of rock samples and slag samples (density, magnetic susceptibility etc.) were also analyzed. During different field campaigns and the application of the above mentioned methods it was possible to locate 5 smelting furnaces from the Roman period in one target area (Semlach/Eisner). The geophysical methods applied differentiated very clearly between the structure of the single furnaces and the slag dumps around them, which in some places achieved a thickness of some metres. The precision of the geophysical mapping highly increased the efficiency of the archaeological excavations which were carried out immediately after the geophysical surveying campaign. Additionally to the furnace sites and the slag dumps also relics of different walls were traced indicating an important centre of Roman iron smelting in this area. The geophysical and archaeological investigation of these indicated anomalies will be the target of a geophysical and archaeological project in preparation.