Chris Salter wrote
>
>This sounds like corroded smithy floor debris. Originally it would have
>been a mixture of fuel, hammer-scale, the odd small lump of slag and
>occasional off-cut of metal. Or it is simply a hard-pan concretion due to
>iron leaching out of the metal and slag in the context.
>
How is hammer-scale defined, and what are the ways of telling the
difference between it and the normal flakes of de-laminating iron
associated with corroding artefacts that one generally finds in
excavations?
Dr Susan Lawrence
Department of Archaeology
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Victoria
Australia 3083
ph 03 9479 1790
fax 03 9479 1881