Metallography of five flat Iron bars with socket from the river Saône (France)
Résumé
This paper studies five iron bars, discovered among other objects in the river Sadne. They seem to belong to a new type of Gaulish iron bar that could be called the ‘La Sadne’ type. Metallo graphic examination shows that these bars, as stock iron, are rather ill-refined, semi-finished products. They are made from a single bloom of soft phosphorus-free steel. The smithing sometimes induced decarburization but, due to special conditions, local surface recarburization has occasionally occurred.