Technological characteristics of iron items from the Early Iron Age (based on the materials from the Moscow region settlements)

The paper reviews the metallographic study of iron items from Nastas'ino, which is an Early Iron Age site (Dyakovo culture). The iron objects found at the site were made using all technological schemes known in the Early Iron Age. The materials from Nastas'ino demonstrate that blacksmithing was rather technologically advanced for the period under study. Until recently such high level of blacksmith craft was recorded only at the Troitskoe fortified settlement. However, there are no traces of local iron production in the archaeological record at Nastasyino. We can assume that besides the Troitskoe hillfort, there existed another, not yet identified, center in the Moscow region where the level of ironworking was quite advanced, as for the Early Iron Age.