Traces of iron production and ironworking at the unfortified settlements of the Volga-Klyazma interfluve in the 10th -14th centuries

The paper reports on the traces of production activity related to extraction of ferrous metal and metalworking at medieval rural settlements in the center of Northeastern Rus. The aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which the rural settlements of the region were involved in iron metallurgy and metalworking. The analysis used materials from the excavated archaeological sites which provide sufficient information on the archaeological context of the finds and their chronology. Besides, published finds, data from the field reports were also taken into account and some finds were examined and analyzed in laboratory conditions. The materials from the unfortified settlements are complemented with assemblages retrieved during excavations of kurgan burial grounds. The distribution analysis of the artifacts used as iron metallurgy and ironworking markers shows that in the 10th-14th centuries production of iron and iron goods in the Volga-Klyazma interfluve was common almost everywhere.