The Dor 2002/2 Shipwreck, Israel: Characterization of Surviving Ironwork

The Dor 2002/2 shipwreck provides evidence of a 15-m-long vessel built to a high standard, and adds essential information to our knowledge of the construction of small vessels that plied the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman period. During the underwater excavations of the shipwreck, two metal objects were retrieved: a wooden heart (rigging element) with an iron ring-bolt, and a broken iron chain link with a piece of metal cable. This study aims to understand the manufacturing processes of the objects, and to propose their possible dating. The artifacts were studied by archaeometallurgical testing methods, including, HH-XRF, metallographic stereo, light and SEM–EDS microscopy, and microhardness tests. The results revealed that the ring-bolt was made of ferrite phase with preferred oriented slag inclusions microstructure, as typical for indirect smelted wrought-iron. The chain link was made of gray cast-iron. The suggested date of the shipwreck was 1800; however, based on the archaeometallurgical test results, it is suggested that the two iron artifacts were manufactured between the years 1839 and 1856. This research demonstrates the important contribution of the study of metal finds to the dating of shipwrecks.