A 3rd-century AD metalworking yard at Wijnaldum (prov. of Friesland, the Netherlands) and its smithy floor: A contextual and micromorphological reference description

This paper describes a metalworking yard from the 3rd and early 4th
century AD, which was excavated in 1993 in the terp settlement known as Wijnaldum- Tjitsma (NL). This site is situated in a dynamic salt-marsh landscape. We describe the various features that belong to the workshop and provide a micromorphological description of one of its components: a smithy floor. The reconstructed house and adjacent metalworking yard provide data for the production of several, different metals, besides iron. The Wadden Sea region itself is devoid of metal ores though rich in cattle that probably provided surplus. The metals recovered in Wijnaldum largely come from scraps probably obtained through exchange with Germanic communities to the South and East and also with the Roman Empire. Based on the examination of the metallurgical and other traces in the yard, a contextual interpretation is given of the metalworking activities and the degree of specialisation achieved.