""Wo das Eisen wächst""

The volume Anschnitt, Beiheft 51 collates the results of the research project 'The La Tène iron economy in the Siegerland region: interdisciplinary research on economic archaeology', funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out between 2002 and 2019 by the Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum in cooperation with LWL-Archäologie für Westfalen and the Ruhr-University Bochum. The focus of our research and the excavations we initiated were the smelting sites of 'Trüllesseifen' in Siegen-Oberschelden and 'Gerhardsseifen' in Siegen-Niederschelden. These two excavations are the most extensive archaeological interventions on iron smelting installations of the Iron Age and Medieval period to have been carried out in the prominent mining region of the Siegerland. The various authors provide detailed accounts of the results achieved at the two sites, reconstruct the iron smelting processes step by step, discuss the extent of Iron Age and medieval production and also address aspects of the conservation and presentation of the features through a protective structure and a heritage path at Gerhardsseifen.