Overview
- An international team led by the University of Geneva documented an iron‑smelting workshop at Didé West 1 in eastern Senegal that operated from the 4th century BCE to the 4th century CE.
- The site preserves about 100 tons of slag, roughly 30 used clay tuyères set in a semicircle, and 35 circular furnace bases about 30 cm deep.
- The assemblage matches the FAL02 tradition, which used small circular furnaces with a removable chimney, large clay tuyères, and palm nut seeds packed at the furnace base.
- The tuyères have multiple small outlets linked by side ducts that spread air along the furnace bottom to sustain the high heat where an iron bloom forms.
- Researchers report long technical continuity with only minor tweaks, interpret the output as small and local, and are comparing other Senegal sites to gauge how widely this tradition spread.