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Archaic iron pins from Mantineia : art and technique

• Καράγιωργα-Σταθακοπούλου,  Θεοδώρα

The systematic employment of iron as an alternative material for jewelry construction during the Archaic Age is not among the data of archaic metalworking and jewelry-making generally known and familiar to scholars.For this reason, the large number of Archaic iron pins collected from the excavation of the sanctuary on the western slopes of the hill of Mantineian Ptolis may be considered a find of exceptional interest.The first part of the study offers detailed descriptions of 251 examples from the assemblage, classifying them typologically in agreement with their exact parallels in bronze, and dating them internally on the basis of stylistic criteria from the early 7th to the late 6th century BC.The second part of the study, concerning their technology of production, presents the results of the relevant chemical and metallographic research, according to which the objects under examination were made of pure, malleable wrought iron, subjected to surface carbonization following forming, and transformed into steel.In agreement with these results and with all others resulting from laboratory observations, during the attempt to copy these objects with the methods and means of traditional iron-working, we propose to reconstruct the production process of these particular miniature artifacts by: a) cold- or warm-hammering of the general shape of the head on the end of an iron rod; b) detailed working of the head by wheelcarving; c) re-heating and formation of the shank by hammering; d) red-heating and "submersion"; e) annealing to soften, and f) smoothening and polishing with emery and leather.In conclusion, it is hypothesized that these pins were the products of traditional production methods in a local workshop, with their likely raw material being the well known and relatively easily-accessible iron ores of Lakonia.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Archaeology and art
• Τέχνη

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