Publication details
The political economy of iron production in the Early Middle Ages
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | In the younger Early Middle Ages (c. 700–900 AD), the resource iron played a pivotal role in everyday economy but also in political decision-making. The consolidation of early political entities, such the Carolingian and Great Moravian realm, increased the demand for weapons, agricultural tools, and infrastructural elements. Iron production and distribution therefore influenced both technological development and relations between elite and non-elites. The investigation of such resource-specific questions requires a multi-proxy approach combining archaeological, metallurgical, and palaeoenvironmental evidence, including anthracological, palynological, and geoarchaeological data. Although the reconstruction of the technical chaîne opératoire and the study of human-landscape interactions are well established in medieval mining archaeology, their integration into a broader analysis of political economy remains limited. This contribution examines selected iron-producing sites in northern Bavaria and southern Moravia. It compares the technological organisation of iron production, its environmental effects, and its connection to settlement structures and political entities. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether iron production was directly controlled by elites or remained largely embedded in rural communities and local economic networks. The aim is to outline a model of the early medieval iron economy that moves beyond a purely technological perspective. Iron production is understood here as part of a wider sociotechnical systems involving access to natural resources, agricultural production, specialised labour, exchange, taxation or levying, and the mobilisation of surpluses. |
| Related projects: |