Recent archaeological research, supported by radiocarbon dates, indicates that iron production in India can now be dated to the earlier part of the 2nd millennium BC, pre-dating the Bronze-Iron transition in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Conventional bulk chemical analysis of silicates (e.g smelting slag, ore, furnace lining) and metal artefacts is destructive. We will use neutron and muon instruments at ISIS to obtain genuine bulk compositions, without dissolving or crushing-up samples, or cutting metallographic sections from the irreplaceable archaeological material. We propose to use negative muon analysis to do non-destructive bulk chemical analysis of the earliest-dated smelting slag, furnace lining, and ore fragments from archaeological sites in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India. We request 9 days of muon beamtime, and 5 days of INES beamtime, to carry out the work.