Copper Workers' Experiments Might Have Helped Usher in Iron Age
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Research suggests that copper workers' experiments may have inadvertently led to the discovery of iron smelting, marking the beginning of the Iron Age; the discussion revolves around the plausibility of this theory and its implications for understanding ancient technological developments.
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Like, who else would it be who led the transition from copper to iron, if not the people working with copper?
Karl Benz wasn’t a teamster.
Hematite colours ochre clay red. I could see just as plausible a route of origin coming through pottery, where someone stuck a lump of hematite into a kiln or whatnot.
Well, no, but he was a locomotive engineer before going into automobiles.
> I could see just as plausible a route of origin coming through pottery,
Oh, that makes sense.
It looks like kilns for pottery can be hotter than for copper, hot enough for iron (although I don't know if that's modern kilns or ancient ones), so it does seem possible you'd first notice the new metal around pottery kilns instead.