Previous research

The Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies has been involved in a number of highly significant projects since its inception in 1973. 

These projects have continuously refined our understanding of past metallurgical practices and many of their related activities. Past IAMS projects include:

• Timna Bronze Age Copper Mining and Smelting
  Starting in 1964, Professor Beno Rothenberg has systematically surveyed and excavated the smelting sites of Timna in the Arabah Valley of the southern Negev. 

This project, spanning over 3 decades, directly led to the creation of IAMS and has been central to the Institute since its inception.

• Silver Mining and Smelting at Rio Tinto
  Excavations led by Professor Beno Rothenberg in the mines of Rio Tinto, south-west Spain, became the second major research project of IAMS. 

The investigation of Rio Tinto has presented an astonishing picture of large-scale silver mining and sophisticated smelting from the European Middle Bronze Age 

of the second millennium BC onwards. The scale of the operation was immense - the processing of silver ore has left millions of tons of lead-silver slag that rises 

in mounds to a height of twenty metres and more. Located in the middle of this there is an astonishing layer of Phoenician material with Phoenician-influenced 

pottery and imported material. There is a definite connection with the Biblical story (Ezekiel 27:12) about Tarshish and the huge Phoenician metal trade during the 

8th-6th centuries BC. The basic metallurgy does not change from the earlier period, but there are huge differences in scale and efficiency, indicating that at this 

period the Phoenician trading connections from the Middle East with mining in southern Spain became a major operation of great geopolitical significance.

• Iron Smelting in Modakeke, Ife, South Western Nigeria
  This joint project with Dr. Akin Ige from the Natural History Museum of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria has been aimed at shedding light on the little 

studied iron smelting metallurgy of West Africa. Results have shown the iron metallurgy of this part of the world to be much more complex than previously thought, 

indicating the use of a mixed ore comprising limonite iron stone and ilmenit-rich black sand which resulted in a titania rich bloomery slag capable of extracting iron 

from the ore much more efficiently.