PIXE STUDIES ON ARTIFACTS FROM SAUGUS IRON WORKS

The Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site at Saugus, MA is one of t he few sites where colonial Americans manufactured iron in the mid 160 0s. At Saugus, a local rock called gabbro replaced the limestone tradi tionally used in the 17th century iron works of England. Cast iron sow bars were manufactured from ore, charcoal and gabbro which was used a s a fluxing agent and an aid to smelting. Original Saugus sow bars wer e examined using external beam PIXE to detect the elemental compositio n present in these archaeological samples. Results of such an ion team analysis are discussed.