June 2007 HABA Houston Area Blacksmith's Association

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Welcome to HABAIRON.ORG, the website of the Houston Area Blacksmith's Association, the Internet resource of choice for the blacksmith in and around Houston, Texas. We have the technology!

June 23, 2007

HABA's In-Door Lecture

BOUDICCA
and
IRON AGE SWORDS

with

David Furlow

HISTORIC RING BITS

with

Don Minzenmayer

at Heights Library Conference Room
in Houston

HABA will move to the comfort of indoors for our June meeting. We are fortunate to have two distinguished gentlemen who will present two programs which are of great interest for themselves and the HABA Membership.

BOUDICCA
and
IRON AGE SWORDS
David Furlow's presentation reveals how archaeology can bring back to vivid life early traditions of metal-working.

Boudicca was Queen of the Iceni people of Eastern England and led a major uprising against occupying Roman forces. Her history in the first century A.D. has been featured on the History Channel and the BBC.

David Furlow's program covers both the revolt and the technology of weaponry at the time of the revolt: the swords, spears, shields, armor, and other weaponry of the Romans and the Celtic Britons. This will include slides of the Kelvedon Sword and the as-yet-unpublished Oxford Metallurgical Unit's analysis of its composition and likely creation, which should interest our group. This period in history is routinely discovered in England where the Romans brought their technology and clashed with native Iceni and Pict peoples of the late Iron Age. Although discovery is common, it is also highly regulated.

Iron Age technology is commonly considered to begin around 1000 B.C. and lasting through 100 A.D. in Celtic Britain and ended with the arrival of Roman influence.

We asked David for a brief summary to announce and he provided the following note:

"Many of the slides come from the Kelvedon excavations, and the rest from the British Museum and several Scottish museums. The Kelvedon excavation is the one in which my wife and I paid for the Oxford Metallurgical Unit to analyze a sword and other implements buried ca. 43 A.D. Colchester Museum archaeologist Paul Sealey (one of my fellow talking heads on the Boudicca documentary) has completed an archaeological excavation paper that reveals all of the details about the construction of an Iron Age iron sword, the woven fabric that cloaked it, the bronze scabbard that protected it, a spearhead, a shield umbo, a tankard, and other metal gear. These slides are the ones that will appear as black and white and color plates in the book, The Iron Age Warrior Burial at Kelvedon, Essexis a 52-page paper with photographs, to be published on July 31, 2007 in East Anglian Archaeology Reports (website at eaareports.demon.co.uk).

The Kelvedon Warrior Grave images include some super-detailed microscopic photographs of the sword's composition, and the two principal ways of making Iron Age swords: edge-to-edge layering and surface-to-surface banding.

I've woven those Kelvedon artefact images into a presentation that retells the story of Boudicca's rebellion against Rome in 60/61 A.D., using some stills from the recent History Channel and PBS documentaries about the rebellion and some good maps that show the principal events of the rebellion. So I'll retell Boudicca's story, then stop and analyze the golden neckring she would have worn, the bronze brooches of her warriors, and the swords, shields, and chariots they would have used, based on the excavated swords, brooches, snaffle-bits, horse-rein terrets, and other artefacts that came out of the ground.

The presentation will include a few slides that show re-enactors engaging in Iron Age smithing of swords, spears, shield-bosses (umbos) and tankards, and related forms of metallurgy, e.g., the smithing of a bronze scabbard and the crafting of the golden torcs (neck-rings) worn by Boudicca and other members of her Iceni tribe of Late Iron Age/Early Roman Empire Britain. You should enjoy seeing the images of Iron Age chariots, swords, spears, etc. in the ground, then how they're cleaned up, and then how they appear in modern paintings (from the book) that show how they would have appeared in the "real life" of the Late Iron Age world, i.e., village life, rolling through Britain in a chariot, and in battle."

HISTORIC RING BITS
Don Minzenmayer is an avid collector of equine ring bits. Bits in his collection come from different parts of the world and some may be hundreds of years old. Some bits have small holes drilled in them where chain mail was once connected. Don's hobby grew and grew to a point where he was encouraged to write a book on the subject. That book is close to being printed and will be very important in the world of collectors and others interested in cowboy hardware.

Don plans a presentation describing the development of horse ring bits through time and the writing of his new book. A sample of ring bits will be available for people to view and ask questions about. Since many of the bits are so old it is obvious that many are made of wrought iron and all of the forge welds are visible. Some are made of steel and others are inlayed. This will be a rare opportunity for most of us to take a peek back in time via international cowboy hardware.

A collection of photos from the meeting are placed on their own page Historic Ring Bits.

Ring Bit in Horse Mouth

When & Where :

Saturday, June 23 :

The schedule looks like this for Saturday morning:

10:00 am : Library Opens, Sign in and setup
10:25 am : HABA Meeting and Announcements
10:30 am : David's Presentation begins
12:00 am : Break for Lunch
1 pm : Don's Presentation begins
3 pm : Conclude

Where :

Heights Library Conference Room
1302 Heights Blvd (at 13th St)
Houston

Directions to Houston Heights Library

From the intersection of IH10 and Heights go North on Heights. The library will be on the right at 13th Street at 1302 Heights Blvd.

What to Bring

You do not have to be a member to attend our meetings! Bring a Guest!

Bring your Membership Dues if you want to work at a forge and are not a current Member !

Minors are welcome but must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

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Enjoy!