ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES OF CHARCOAL KILNS USED FOR IRON PRODUCTION.

日本古代的炼铁方法之一是多田拉冶炼法，它使用铁砂作为原料，木炭作为燃料。最近对中国山区炼铁的考古研究导致了许多重要的发现，填补了多田拉炼铁历史上的间断。其中最重要的发现是在熔炉下面被称为Tokotsuri的地下结构，本研究采用Kanna-nagashi水冲法从风化花岗岩中分离铁砂，并利用炼铁和炼铁生产木炭。炼铁所用的木炭有硬炭和软炭两种，硬炭叫大炭，软炭叫小炭。大炭用于炼铁，小炭用于炼铁。我们在广岛县的这一年发掘出了一些用于制作大津的木炭窑。但是，目前还不清楚使用铁冶炼作为燃料的木炭是何时何地起源于日本的。目前，我们可以肯定木炭的制作可以追溯到古坟时代。

One of the ancient methods of Iron Production in Japan is Tatara smelting process which used iron sands as raw mearial and charcoal as fuel.Recent archaeogical studies of iron production in Chugoku Mountains resulted in many important discoveries which fill the discontinuities in the history of Tatara iron smelting.Some of the most important discoveries are underground structure called Tokotsuri below the furnaces, sluicing method named Kanna-nagashi to separete iron sands from weathered granite, and charcoal production used iron smelting and iron refining.This research took up the kilns made charcoal for iron production. The charcoal used iron production are hard one called OHZUMI and soft one named KOZUMI.Ohzumi is used for iron smelting, Ozumi is for iron refining. We excavated some charcoal kilns for Ohzumi making in this year, Hiroshima prefecture.It is, however, yet unclear that when and where making charcoal as fuel used iron smelting, was originated in Japan. At present, we are sure that the charcoal making is dated back to Kofun period.