The
fact that the man discovered the ways to obtain metal and the fact that he
used it to manufacture different tools and weapons had as result the
development of the ancient societies and of course, the rise of economical
values and populations. In Dacia, the iron started to be massively used with
the second half of the IInd century B.C., a period of time which dovetails
with the quick progress of the Dacian society and the birth of the Dacian
state.
However, the first iron pieces found in this land come from the
first Iron Period, Hallstatt A1 (XII th century B.C). The great number and
variety of iron pieces indicates that the Dacians had certain knowledge
about deposits and of course, the possibilities to exploit these.
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A helmet and Dacian iron tools |
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The
most important ores from the Dacian territories are those rich in oxides :
magnetite, hematite, limonite and chalcopyrite; there have been discovered
over 100 such deposits where the coal-mining was made either at the surface
or in depth through galleries. The certainty that these places were used by
the Dacians was given to us by the fact that near the mines there have been
discovered kilns and the very material they had extracted from the earth.
The variety of the archaeologycal pieces
discovered, the large number and the weight of the iron chunks lead us to
the conclusion that here, the coal-mining and its values were at high praise.
A simple calculus shows us that for one workshop in Gradistea Muncelului the
Dacians had to use around 50 tons of ore. It is an impressive number for a
young state such as the Dacian one, based on the labour of the youngsters.
Iron Dagger (Sica) discovered in Oltenia and its scabbard
The iron is a metal which
melts at high temperatures and it is obtained from the ores by removing
-under high temperatures- the non-ferrous component parts or the soil. After
this operation that had to be made in special kilns, a chunk of rough iron
was obtained. This iron was to be mould in smith workshops. This procedure
was used all over Dacia-sometimes even in the areas where there was no
ore-but it was more frequent in the mountains, where the mines were richer.
The iron was melt at temperatures over 1000 Celsius degrees and the heat was
obtained by burning charcoal (they got the charcoal either from strong
essences-beech or oak-or from resin usually found in the pine wood). The ore
was first crushed, washed ,sorted and before it was introduced into the kiln
it was roasted to eliminate the water and the non-ferrous component parts.
After that, sequential strata of ore and charcoal
were laid and sometimes some pieces of limestone were added. This would
finish the preparatory stage and the actual burning followed. The burning was
helped by air currents produced by huge fans. In the kilns, the temperature
reached 1300-1450 Celsius degrees and the purity of the chunk obtained in
this manner reached around 99% iron. The chunks usually had around 10-12
kilos-but there were found chunks of 40 kilos!-and they were sent to the
numerous workshops in which the skilled Dacian smiths processed them in
different ways. The Dacian smiths used tools like : anvils, sledgehammers,
hammers, tongs, fishing taps, chisels, files to give perfect shapes to the
iron. The iron pieces were mould by the hammer-wrought technique ; first
they were heated and then the iron was stretched and shaped in certain
forms. With the chisels the Dacian smiths cut the pieces and then welded
them together by beating the iron while still hot or they made holes through
the iron pieces.
Iron battle knives discovered at Capilna
The high
quality of these pieces is proved by the lack of slag in the finished
articles and by the lack of the awkward pieces. There were special
techniques of hardening that secured the strength of these articles. The
skill of the Dacian smiths in hardening iron is proved by the fact that all
the pieces found are perfectly hardened and more, the hardening is not the
same everywhere on the piece. The parts frequently used are hardened more
than the other parts and are done in different ways.
This extraordinary activity that was
the iron processing gave birth to a great number of collateral
trades, impressive and various as proportion and craftsmanship making the
historians talk about a true iron civilization in the classic era of the
Dacian state.
Author Cătălin Borangic aka Burebista
Translated and adjusted Codruta aka Pãdure
Bibliography
Ioan Glodariu---Civilizatia fierului la daci, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1979
Grupul Sarmizegetusa
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