Hello all,
Has anyone come across a large quantity (800+) of iron nails encased in a block of wax? Apparently several such bundles were excavated at Jamestown in the 1930s and 40s.
I had wondered if it could have been some arrested stage in the production process. More probably I thought it was an effort to rustproof the suckers for storage in a humid climate.
Any other insight into the uses of beeswax by blacksmiths would be of great interest to me...
Cheers.
Karen Bellinger Wehner
PhD candidate
Anthropology Department
New York University