ABSTRACT
Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) is considered as one of the most severe forms of corrosion of iron and carbon steel and is often characterised by broad pits penetrating deeply the metal. The composition and the morphology of the rust layer covering an object or a structure buried in a biologically active medium may be connected to the various metabolic activities of the whole bacterial population present in its nearest environment and taking part to MIC phenomenon. The microbiological and physicochemical study of archaeological iron nails extracted from anoxic soils revealed that interactions between sulphate reducing bacteria and corrosion products took place. The corrosion system of the nails analysed for the current study matches the description already proposed from previous works, indicating that all the nails excavated from anoxic zones of the site of Glinet behave similarly. The nails come from the archaeological site of Glinet. This site corresponds to an ancient forge and is dated from the sixteenth century.
