The Roman Iron Industry in Britain: The comprehensive study of the Romans use of Iron in Britain

The comprehensive study of the Romans use of Iron in Britain.

The invasion of AD 43 began the Romans settlement of Britain. The Romans brought with them a level of expertise that raised iron production in Britain from small localised sites to an enormous industry. Rome thrived on war and iron was vital to the Roman military establishment as well as to the civil population.

In this pioneering work, David Sim combines current ideas of iron-making in Roman times with experimental archaeology. The Roman Iron Industry in Britain stretches far beyond dry theory and metallurgy alone; it covers all the stages of this essential process, from prospecting to distribution, and describes the whole cycle of iron production.

Photographs and line drawings illustrate the text well enough to allow keen readers to reproduce the artefacts for themselves. Fascinating to the general reader and all those with an interest in Roman history, this book is invaluable to students of archaeology and professional archaeologists alike.

Dr David Sim is an archaeologist who has combined studies of the technology of the Roman Empire with his skills as a blacksmith.

The Roman Iron Industry in Britain (ISBN 0752468650) is available from Amazon and other book stores.

Roman Imperial Armour: The Production of Early Imperial Military Armour.

I’m happy to annouce that the collaboration with J. Kaminski entitled Roman Imperial Armour: The Production of Early Imperial Military Armour (ISBN 1842174355) is available for pre-order from Oxbow Books, Amazon and other outlets.

The Roman Empire depended on the power of its armies to defend and extend the imperial borders, enabling it to dominate much of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Success was, in large part, founded on well-trained, well-disciplined soldiers who were equipped with the most advanced arms and armour available at that time. This is the story of the production of that armour. Roman Imperial Armour presents an examination of the metals the armour was made from, of how the ores containing those metals were extracted from the earth and transformed into workable metal, and of how that raw product was made into the armour of the Roman army. The policing and protecting of such a huge empire required a large and well-organised force and the book goes on to consider the organisation of the army, its size, composition, the logistics involved in its deployment and provisioning and the training, remuneration and benefits offered to its men at arms.