ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL ANALYSIS OF MARITIME STEEL NAILS FROM CRUSADER JAFFA, ca. 13TH CENTURY AD
Keywords:
Levant; Crusades; Middle Ages; SEM-EDS; metallography; shipbuilding; ship nails; ferrous metallurgyAbstract
The harbor town of Jaffa (Tel Yafo) was vital for the medieval Crusader States, functioning as a place where
reinforcements, pilgrims, and communications entered the Latin East. An assemblage of five ship nails from
Jaffa that were removed for reuse in the 13th century AD are examined and shown to be informative for
understanding Crusader iron production, economic sustainability in the Crusader States, and the
connections between northern European and Mediterranean ship construction traditions. Archaeometallur
gical analyses of these ship nails demonstrate the first metallographically documented examples of Crusader
steel recovered from archaeological contexts, as well as rare evidence of uncorroded Crusader alloys (non
numismatic). The analysis also provides likely evidence for the use of iron hardware from the northern
European tradition in the Crusader-period Levant.