Presentations of experimental archeology based on the programme "Man and Iron in the First Centuries A.D." prepared by the Świętokrzyskie Association of Industrial Heritage.:

Slag-pit furnace cluster - full presentation of ancient iron metallurgy:

• Iron ore mining
• Ore roasting and grinding
• Making bricks of loess and construction of pit furnaces
• Charcoal kiln operation - charocoal production
• Pit furnace bellows operation and dismantling of the pit furnace after the process termination
• Blacksmith's workshop - forging of tools and ornaments, melting the surface of the iron sponge after the pit furnace dismantling

People involved in iron metallurgy were not able to deal with other handicrafts at the same time. However, they need food, clothes, tools and objects of everyday use.
These needs were satisfied by workshops operating close to metallurgical areas. Numerous settlements and cementaries from the Roman times provide us with examples of various handicraft products produced in the Holy Cross Mountains as well as coming from Roman provinces. During the "Iron Roots" event we try to present almost all types of handicrafts and everyday life scenes such as military encounters or tribal public meeting.

Other elements of the presentations:

1. Pottery stands
2. Weaver's workshop
3. Bone and horn processing
4. Leather processing stand
5. Bronzing and goldsmithing
6. Plaiting
7. Amber processing workshop
8. Birch tar and wood tar production
9. Glass beads production
10. Archery stand
11. Roman legation - presentation of armament and everyday life of the Roman legionary
12. Excavation research - presenation of one of the methods of archeological research
13. Presentation of experimental research on the process in the slag-pit furnace typical for Holy Cross Mountains Region
14. Presentation of the household - also of an ancient cuisine
15. "Holy Grove" - an attemt at reconstruction of the barbaric cult center

Most of the stands is designed in such a way as to enable visitors participation in the presentations, that is to try to carry out presented activities by oneself. During workshops the participants can try to operate pit furnace bellows, crush the ore with a wooden hammer or to make loess bricks used for furnace construction with the use of available brick forms. The archery stand and the Roman legionaries camp provide opportunity to try bow shooting, throw Roman pilum and to test the importance and the efficiency of other elements of the armament from the Roman times. Visitors can also taste ancient food, form clay utensils or become an archeologist excavating the remnants of sedimentary holes, slag-pit furnaces or graves.
Owing to the presentations prepared by our archeologists, historians, metallurigists, students, monument conservation specialists as well as experimental archeology lovers, "the travel back in time" allows true "touch" of the distant reality. Feel welcome to join in the discovery of "what is now old and was once new".