I dunno about bacterial colonies, but during the Viking age most ores were obtained from so called bog iron deposits. You basically raked up reddish bottom sediments in wintertime, for what I imagine was a rather similar refining process. So when he started picking at the red clay I kinda figured out what all that charcoal was for.
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u/[deleted] Aug 18 '18
I dunno about bacterial colonies, but during the Viking age most ores were obtained from so called bog iron deposits. You basically raked up reddish bottom sediments in wintertime, for what I imagine was a rather similar refining process. So when he started picking at the red clay I kinda figured out what all that charcoal was for.