The medieval bombards of Meaux: Manufacturing processes and supply of the metal

Emilie Bérard (1, 2) , Philippe Dillmann (1, 2) , Alexandre Disser (1, 2) , Enrique Vega (1, 2) , Catherine Verna (3) , Valérie Toureille (4)

1 LAPA - UMR 3685 - Laboratoire Archéomatériaux et Prévision de l'Altération
2 IRAMAT-LAPA - IRAMAT - Laboratoire Archéomatériaux et Prévision de l'Altération
3 ArScAn - Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité
4 Héritages - UMR 9022 - Héritages : Culture(s), Patrimoine(s), Création(s)

Well-dated and preserved medieval bombards are rare and, most of the time, only exist in single exemplar. They are nevertheless exceptional testimonies of the medieval metallurgical skills. The musée de l'Armée (Paris), owns six impressive powder chambers, found in the same place (Meaux, France) and dated from the same period (15th c.). For the first time, this unique set has been studied by classical metallographic investigation, and recent approaches on slag inclusions using SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS analyses. The analyses permit to discuss the nature of the metal as well as the process used to obtain the metal (bloomery or finery) but also to consider the diversity of provenances for the metal that was used. These results suggest that five bombards may have been forged in the same area and possibly even in the same workshop, but anyway using metal produced through the bloomery process.

Mots clés: Archaeometallurgy; Bombard; Iron artefacts; Provenance study; Middle Ages

Domaines: Matériaux

Emilie Bérard, Philippe Dillmann, Alexandre Disser, Enrique Vega, Catherine Verna, et al.. The medieval bombards of Meaux: Manufacturing processes and supply of the metal. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2022, 41, pp.103307. ⟨10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103307⟩. ⟨cea-03681025⟩