Gone to smelt iron in Courland: technology transfer in the development of an early modern industry

Mārīte Jakovļeva, Dita Auziņa, Rūdolfs Brūzis, Ingar MØrkestØl Gundersen, Bernt Rundberget, Viktorija Bebre, Inga Doniņa, Valda KĻava, Gvido Straube, Valdis Bērziņš, Arturs VĪksna, Andris Actiņš, Raimonds Meija, Konrāds Popovs, Raitis Upmalis, Anton Parfentev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

SUMMARY: In the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, corresponding to the southern and western parts of present-day Latvia, an iron industry based on blast-furnace technology, mainly using local bog iron ore, existed in the 17th and 18th centuries. Transfer of knowledge and skill through the recruitment of specialists from other countries of Europe was crucial to the development of this industry; technology was also re-exported to Russia and elsewhere. Recent archaeological and archaeometallurgical investigations supplement the written evidence, highlighting the specific local conditions that influenced the development of ferrous metalworking here in the early modern period.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)102-124
Number of pages23
JournalPost-Medieval Archaeology
Volume53
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes

Field of Science*

  • 6.1 History and Archaeology

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

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