[angryoldfatman]

I did a little research, and it turns out you, elcid1970, and I are at least partially all correct.

Here’s a high-school level lesson on the subject:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/iron-vs-bronze-history-of-metallurgy.html

It turns out that tin was relatively rare. When a lot of trade routes were eliminated (for whatever reasons), tin couldn’t be obtained easily, so metalworkers looked around for substitutes. The Iron Age was born from their efforts.

Iron ore was plentiful, but hard to smelt and process. Nevertheless, human ingenuity prevailed and steel weapons (along with other handy implements) were invented and turned out to be even stronger and better than their bronze counterparts.

[elcid1970]

Actually I heard of early steel in the 1954 epic “Sinuhe the Egyptian” where as Pharaoh’s physician he journeys to Asia Minor to cure a Hittite general, who gives him a steel sword in payment.

The captains of Egypt are appalled at how the Hittite sword “slices our Egyptian copper like a knife through cheese”.

Still a great movie, IMO.