• Pagès, Gaspard

Abstract

The world « slag » is frequently used in the archaeological papers relating the Romans countries. However, if it is useless to insist on the importance of the iron in the western Europe society since the Protohistory, today is useful to revisit one of the questions which is raised by this typical metallurgic waste: the integration of the forging activities in the Roman countries, while taking here in bias not to discuss the iron ore reduction. Fertile discussions were committed since 1970/1980 on the craft industry and on its insertion in the habitat around two broad topics: the place of the craft industry in the gallo-roman world and economic relations between the city and the countryside. Now, the role of the secondary agglomerations (villages and smalls towns) in the manufactured productions achieves the unanimity in spite of the current introduction of nuances, but the polemics always exist around the craft function of the villa. This situation comes mainly from the various economic and technical positions in which the craft industry evolves; between temporary or local production and factories. So, we propose to give the fact proof the question of the integration of various forging in the Romans countries, while taking as tallies of reflexion the Southern Gaul (Gallia Narbonnensis) during the Roman Empire and, more particularly, the case of eastern Languedoc (France). Finally, The study is founded on recent archaeological excavations and on an interdisciplinary step: in an archaeological approach is integrated a archeometric process especially adapted to analysed the metallurgy: the metallography. This archeometallurgic investigation is confronted with the state of knowledge for release a first series of tracks and assumptions about the productive function of the roman countries occupations and the importance of this factor in their definition.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• laser emission spectroscopy
• iron
• forging