Zubia, Bego

From the Iron Age to the 14th century, iron was produced in hillside forges and furnaces using just manual force. Hundreds of such forges have been catalogued in the Basque Country and, although they have been described in detail, the technique used in these furnaces is still not fully understood. In their search to recover this former means of production, archaeologists are using Experimental Archaeology and are reproducing the work process followed in the haizeola furnaces.

Scientific advances often have interesting applications in the field of Archaeology. This is the case of new techniques for analysing mitochondrial DNA, which can be carried out on human remains from the past. In this case, the University of the Basque Country leads the investigation into the Metal Ages skeletal remains of the Santimamiñe Cave, relating them to the current population of Kortezubi.