Owing to the research conducted for the past several years by the team managed until not long ago by the Prof. Kazimierz Bielenin [1], the associate director of the Archaeological Museum in Cracow in the years 1967-1993, it is possible to define precisely the territory where traces of ancient metallurgy in the Świętokrzystkie Mountains can be found. The area covers the north-eastern forelands of the Main Range reaching the Kamienna river at the north. From the South it is limited by the Łysogórskie and Jeleniowskie Ranges. In the eastern part the furnace sites can also be found on the southern slopes of these massifs. The eastern border of the district is pretty clearly defined by the Kamionka river and the upper current of the Opatówka river. To the west the border of slag-pit furnace units’ locations lies in the Bodzentyn area, on the eastern slopes of the Klonowskie Range. The whole area covers about 800 sq m with over 6000 registered slag-pit furnace sites grouping about 400 000 furnaces. The latest research indicates that these numbers can be even higher.
Outside of this region which is formally recognized as the Świętokrzystkie metallurgical center, there is also a number of areas where slags can be found – to the north of the Kamienna river, in the area of Mirzec, Tychów and Jasieniec as well as farther to the north at the Iłżanka river. A similar enclave of the Świętokrzystkie metallurgy are slag-pit furnace sites at the Nida river in the vicinity of Morawica and Tokarnia.
[1] Prof. Kazimierz Bielenin died on 19th Nov 2011. Presently his work is continued by Dr.Szymon Orzechowski – the employee of the History Institute at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce in cooperation with other archaeologists and metallurgists. (compare: Dymarki festival/ History).
