IAMS Beno Rothenberg Memorial Lecture 2023: A millennium of Iron Production at Meroe, Sudan

A millennium of Iron Production at the Royal City of Meroe, Sudan: New insights and future directions

The lecture will discuss the findings of a decade-long research project on the technological practices of the Meroites and the fundamental role of iron in the success story of the Kingdom of Kush. Drawing on diverse data sets and applying archaeometric techniques, Dr Humphris will share new insights and future research priorities for further archaeometallurgical research at the site.

Professor Beno Rothenberg (1914-2012), acclaimed photographer of the emerging state of Israel, self-taught scholar and founding father of archaeo-metallurgy, was one of only a handful of scientists who between them revolutionised the way in which we study and understand the production of metal prior to the Industrial Revolution. He pioneered the fusion of traditional archaeological and science-based approaches which later came to be known as archaeometry, with a strong emphasis on painstaking data gathering and photographic documentation in the field, chemical and mineralogical analysis of the archaeological remains unearthed, and visionary, if sometimes contentious interpretation of his observations. While his interests went well beyond the beginnings of mining and metallurgy, these are where he left his strongest legacy, not least through coining the very term 'archaeo-metallurgy', now used world-wide for the study of ancient metals and their production using scientific methods, and through establishing, directly and indirectly, two of the leading academic schools in this field. He was the founder of the Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies in 1973.