“The Sack of Good Charcoal”. Production and Use of Charcoal in Metallurgy in Medieval Serbia and Czechia

Fostikov, Aleksandra (2025) “The Sack of Good Charcoal”. Production and Use of Charcoal in Metallurgy in Medieval Serbia and Czechia. In: Homage to Academician Desanka Kovačević Kojić Trade, Mining, Settlements, and Politics in Medieval And Early Modern Southeastern Europe. Institute of History, Belgrade, pp. 95-109. ISBN ISBN 978-86-7743-160-0

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Abstract

Charcoal (drveni ugalj, ćumur) is a product that was as necessary as wood itself for all processes related to the use of fire, and its use is particularly emphasised in metallurgy due to its specific needs, all the way up to more recent times. However, despite this, the topic of charcoal production has remained on the margins of medieval historiography. Therefore, in this paper, we have attempted to examine this issue in more detail within the territory of medieval Serbia, both based on existing sources and through a comparative approach, from the perspective of medieval Europe, with a particular focus on the regions of medieval Czechia due to the fact that both states had not only highly developed metallurgical and mining centers, such as Kutná Hora or Novo Brdo, but also that their mining legislation, which is interconnected, addresses the issue of charcoal supply

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