Iron Age axe, Gotland, Sweden
The spread of Iron Smelting and Blacksmithing during the Iron Age could have led to a much more widespread familiarity with technology among the general population, than had been the case during the preceding Bronze Age. Although mining of ore and production of iron products was often under the purview of powerful business entities and state authorities, iron can also be obtained by small groups and in informal contexts, and there is evidence that this sort & level of activity was present. The shortlived and perhaps temporary Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, engaged in iron-production, in a very isolated and remote setting; a boat-load of hard-scrabble Greenland colonists, recent refugees from Iceland, out exploring on their own. They needed nails for the boat; they made small pieces of iron from local stuff, and beat-out some nails. … cont’d >