Posted on 03/08/2023 10:20:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Summary: Researchers have discovered what they believe is the earliest use of steel in Europe -- on Iberian stone pillars from the Final Bronze Age... Using geochemicalanalyses, the researchers were able to prove that stone stelae on the Iberian peninsula that date back to the Final Bronze Age feature complex engravings that could only have been done using tempered steel. This was backed up by metallographic analyses of an iron chisel from the same period and region... that showed the necessary carbon content to be proper steel. The result was also confirmed experimentally by undertaking trials with chisels made of various materials: only the chisel made of tempered steel was suitably capable of engraving the stone. Until recently it was assumed that it was not possible to produce suitable quality steel in the Early Iron Age and certainly not in the Final Bronze Age, and that it only came to be widespread in Europe under the Roman Empire...
The archaeological record of Late Bronze Age Iberia... is fragmentary in many parts of the Iberian Peninsula: sparse remains of settlement and nearly no detectable burials are complemented by traces of metal hoarding and remains of mining activities. Taking this into account, the western Iberian stelae with their depictions of anthropomorphic figures, animals and selected objects are of unique importance for the investigation of this era.
Until now, studies of the actual rocks from which these stelae were made to gain insights into the use of materials and tools have been the exception. Araque Gonzalez and his colleagues analyzed the geological composition of the stelae in depth. This led them to discover that a significant number of stelae was not as had been assumed made of quartzite, but silicate quartz sandstone.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
The 333 topics of the Bronze Age keyword have been processed into nice-looking sorted links, but not posted, because I'm a big tease.
They got the technology from China, as we’ll soon discover :)
Wakanda already had space travel but hid the technology from everyone else. Dey was Kangs!
Technology does not move forward in one smooth, continuous wave. Scientists could manufacture a diamond decades before the technology became cheap(er) and easy. The concept of submarines and diving bells has been around for centuries. The idea only became widely usable in WWI. Iron was known throughout much of the bronze age, but it was rare to find and difficult to work. There have always been technological oddities that were ahead of their time. Betamax comes to mind. I wonder what already exists today that we aren’t recognizing as the next jet engine or penicillin.
AND clovis points, which are European have been found in the US that predate the American indian.
https://freerepublic.com/tag/solutrean/index
https://freerepublic.com/tag/solutreans/index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis
Didn’t the Romans get their sword designs from Spain? And if so, might this be their origin of steel, as well?
Northern Spain is rich in coal and iron.
This is interesting story.
Forging a [Viking] Seax from Blister Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCVOMCCH0ao
In the above vid, the smiths start out with thin strips of iron and use charcoal to case harden it (turn the outside to steel).
Making small tools such as engraving or chiseling implements would probably end up case hardened just as a by-product of the time spent in the charcoal fire pit to heat to forging temps.
And since there was no access to high-speed belt sanders and stone grinding wheels would take a whole heck of a lot longer for the same post-forging shape work done by the sanders, I suspect the tools were very closely “forged to shape” and then tuned up by grinding. Which would in some cases, if not most, leave a layer of case-hardened material on the outer surface.
Thanks Grimmy!
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