Mineralogy of antique metallurgical artifacts from the Markula hillfort

In 2021, at the Markula hillfort (Republic of Abkhazia) in the Pithoi section, multiple iron slags and melted ceramics were discovered in the Hellenistic period layer. a great amount of iron slag and melted ceramics. These artifacts indicate the presence of iron-making production at the site. In order to determine the features of ferrous metallurgy technology, the mineralogical and geochemical composition was determined using a set of methods: petrographic and mineralogical description of thin and polished sections, determination of the composition of minerals using SEM-EDS. The studies carried out showed that the Markula hillfort could have used brown-iron ores from the upper horizons of the oxidation zone of copper VMS or copper-iron skarn deposits. The most likely source of iron ores for the Markula hillfort seems to be brown iron ores of copper-pyrrhotite occurrences in the Kodor river basin, located north of the hillfort. The conducted research presents a preliminary characterization of iron metallurgy artifacts at the Markula hillfort. Follow-up archaeological excavations and archaeometallurgical studies are required to achieve full reconstruction of the melting technologies, identify source deposits, the scale of production and potential export, for instance, to the nearby Ancient city-state of Gyenos.