Afalleh: A Parthian Iron Foundry Site on Northern Slopes of Central Alborz

The archaeological site of Afalleh is located in the north of Khachak village, in the intermountain plain of Kojour, in southern end of Nowshahr District, Mazandaran Province. Drawing on the available evidence, the site is dated to the Parthian period. Afalleh is clearly an archaeo- metallurgical center in the area, and by virtue of its relatively large size (more than 5 ha) might be one of the most significant and/or important archaeo- metallurgical sites of the Parthian period in the entire region. Large and dense scatters of slag and kiln wasters, especially in southern and western quadrants, hint at extensive and/or long-termed archaeo- metallurgical activities at the site. The surface slag could be divided into two groups of sponge and dense with a dark color near to black. Most slags are seen on southern part of the site. A stone building is partially exposed in western side of the site, where a dirt road has cut a part of the archaeological deposits. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses indicate that the slags are rich of fayalite and wustite, ferrous silicate and iron oxide minerals, respectively. Inside one of these slags a thick prill of iron is observed that has been largely replaced with secondary iron oxides. This observation indicates an indirect reduction of iron from its ore-producing carbonized iron (steel and cast iron)-and refers to its separation from silicate melt more probably outside of furnace. In this paper we describe the site and data has produced concerning the probable extent of the smelting activities, this is a comparative study and is a discussion on possible provenance of ore deposits.