1. Sarmizegetusa Regia is among the few Late Iron Age sites for which by means of the artefacts, from turning iron into ingots to crafting finite products, all stages of these activities can be fully documented.

2. The iron blooms were the raw material used in metal workshops. They were obtained in smelting furnaces.

3. At Sarmizegetusa Regia and its surroundings, over 400 iron blooms were discovered, intact or fragmentary (bloom halves), with a total weight of approximately 2500 kg.

4. Once delivered to the workshop, the blooms were heated on special hearths in order to be transformed into ingots through repeated sledgehammer strikes.

5. The forge operations were carried out using indispensable tools in blacksmith workshops: anvils. In the Dacian capital area two types were found: the first was shaped as truncated pyramids and the second one looks like a cube equipped with four small legs in its lowers side.

6. The largest anvils were reaching a weight of approximately 50 kg.

7. Tongs were used for grabbing and holding metal items on the blacksmith`s hearth, where they were heated or on the anvils during hammering.

The Capital of Dacia - A LIVING MUSEUM OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO-CULTURE Programme.

EEA and Norway Grants
RO-Culture Programme
EEA & Norwegian Grants
Ministry of Culture
Project Management Unit - UMP
National Heritage Institute -
Hunedoara County Council
Mihai Eminescu Trust
Møre og Romsdal fylkeskommune