ABSTRACT
A number of iron sites appeared in remote locales, though this was probably due to the haphazard nature of prospecting, especially across the thickly wooded hills of the vast Rajeuses and Venizy forests that separate the clearings at Arces-Dilo and Boeurs-en-Othe. While direct processing characterized iron metallurgy in the Othe forest, as it did in neighboring lands, archival evidence suggests the early introduction of advanced methods of indirect iron processing. The iron was produced on site and kept in piles before being loaded into packsaddles for transit out of the woods, as witnessed in a 1370 property survey occasioned by the death of the bishop, Henri de Poitiers. In the early sixteenth century, iron ore mining continued in the woods at Jarruyer, although it was no longer refined on-site but rather carted down into the valley to places like the Cosdon forge on the Vanne river.
