ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL ANALYSIS OF MARITIME STEEL NAILS FROM CRUSADER JAFFA, ca. 13TH CENTURY AD

Abstract

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.