Dense forest covered the entire Siegerland and the neighbouring areas. It’s only in the swampy valleys where brooks and small rivers cut through the lighter forests. At that time neither road, way, nor path is there nor any villages or settlements. Back then, about 500 BC, small groups of Celtic settlers came to the Siegerland from the southern areas of today’s Germany. They came because of the large amounts of iron ore in the local mountains. The Celtic scouts had spotted numerous outcrops where iron ore appeared on the surface. Here, they would live and work for the next centuries. The poor soil wasn’t suitable for growing crop or vegetables. So the people living here had to trade with the iron, which they had smelted and processed to forgeable steel. Weapons and other equipment forged of Siegerland iron were products in great demand.
The Celtic settlers were not only miners but also smiths, charcoal burners, hunters and farmers. They lived and worked in the Siegerland area until around 100 AC, then they disappeared. The surface ore was exploited and the techniques for deep mining weren’t developed yet. About 800 AC the Franconians settled in the area and mining recovered because of advanced exploiting techniques. In the valleys of the Eisernhardt there were lots of smelting places. Numerous slag dumps prove the smelting activities here for several centuries till the late Middle Ages.

Windoefen 1Windoefen 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smelting furnaces in Wilnsdorf/Obersdorf (Visit: Info:02739/802211)

 

Windoefen 3

New technologies: Shaft and tunnel construction and decrepitation to collect the ore.