A Comparative Archaeometallurgical and Topographic Analysis of Metallurgical Waste from Fort Ouiatenon

Fort Ouiatenon, built in 1717, was the first French settlement established in present day Indiana. Located along the Wabash River, Fort Ouiatenon was deeply embedded in the Indigenous and colonial dynamic within the context of the fur trade in the Midwestern United States. Historical documents identify the presence of a blacksmith at the fort, as well as the possible use of locally available coal and iron ore. Over 100 kilograms of waste from pyrotechnological activities were excavated from an area within Fort Ouiatenon believed to be related to a forge during the 1970’s.

A sample of metallurgical waste from unspecified metalworking activities at the Fort was compared to a sample of metallurgical waste from an iron smelting archaeological site in present day Uzbekistan, known as Abu Muslim qala, in an effort to identify the metallurgical activities at Fort Ouiatenon. X-ray microtomography was used to identify the internal structure of the metallurgical waste samples excavated from the two sites. From the tomography analysis, internal sedimentation layers, porosities, cracks and spatial distribution of various particles present in the samples were observed. Differences in metallurgical processes between the two sites were quantified and will be discussed. Analysis of the metallurgical waste aims to understand more about metalworking activities within Fort Ouiatenon, as well as the impacts of colonial metallurgical processes within the Midwest during the 18th century.