Tracing multimetal craftsmanship through metallurgical debris - open-air workshops and multimetality in late iron age scandinavia

This paper serves as a detailed research proposal for a newly started PhD-project concerning multimetal craftsmanship in the Scandinavian later Iron Age. The project employs landscape survey, material and archaeometallurgical analysis of metallurgical debris, and a theoretical framework grounded in economic theory to counter fundamental key questions surrounding metalworking, metalworkers, and their societal and cultural implication. The methods and material chosen are evaluated with a focus placed especially on the landscape surveys, and elements of the discussion on the conceptual aspects of multimetal craftsmanship - multimetality - that are central to the project, are presented. Finally, open-air workshops, a common interpretational shortcut applied to many of the sites included in the landscape survey, are discussed to exemplify the motivations for method and material prioritisations within the PhD-project.