Iron Archaeometallurgy in the Triangle of the Sirdjan, Neiriz and Shahr- e- Babak

During the course of our studies on archaeo metallurgy in southeastern iran, we triedto survey the triangle of the sirdjan, neiriz and shahr- e- babak.as a result, remains of old iron mining residues of smelting furnaces, and iron smelting slag heaps were observed and recorded. a few samples of iron ore and smelting slag have been analysed classically and instrumentally. according to the acquired results, it has been suggested that the black smiths of this region applied twomethods to produce iron: first, producing sponge iron, and second, of molten castiron. according to the classification and the dating, these metallurgical activities have been estimated as old as 500 years before the advent of islam and that continued till the beginning of islam.