Norican Steel ‐ An Assessment of the Archaeological Finds at the Magdalensberg Site,Carinthia, Compared to the “Celtic Trove” of Gründberg Hill,Linz

The analysis of Celtic steel products from depots found in the area north of the Danube has shown that their excellent properties are due to the choice of unalloyed or alloyed steel bars that were shaped by fire‐forging. Phosphorus was used as an alloying element, while carbon was added through carburizing of the workpiece. Was this forging technique also known to regions in the very heart of the Alps? Our analysis set out to find an answer to this question. The Celtic smiths in the inner Alpine regions used shaft furnaces to produce steel loops with numerous slag inclusions but very low contents of trace elements in the steel matrix. In a series of process steps in the smithy ‐ trimming the steel loop, forging into bars, “sheafing”, carburizing, hardening ‐ the steel properties demanded by the customers were achieved. Phosphorus was not deliberately employed as an alloying metal in the valleys of the Central Alps. The fact that the forging technique was tailored to the actual product appears to underlie the high quality of “Norican steel”.