The volume Anschnitt Beiheft 51 collates the results of the research project The La Tène iron
economy in the Siegerland region: interdisciplinary research on economic archaeology funded by
the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out between 2002 and 2019 by the Deutschen
Bergbau-Museum Bochum in cooperation with LWL-Archäologie für Westfalen and the Ruhr-University
Bochum. The focus of our research and the excavations we initiated were the smelting sites of
Trüllesseifen in Siegen-Oberschelden and Gerhardsseifen in Siegen-Niederschelden. These two
excavations are the most extensive archaeological interventions on iron smelting installations
of the Iron Age and Medieval period to have been carried out in the prominent mining region of
the Siegerland. The various authors provide detailed accounts of the results achieved at the
two sites reconstruct the iron smelting processes step by step discuss the extent of Iron Age
and medieval production and also address aspects of the conservation and presentation of the
features through a protective structure and a heritage path at Gerhardsseifen.
