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Where Did the Iron Age Begin?
Archaeology News ^ | January 27, 2025 | as reported by Times of India

Posted on 02/06/2025 8:08:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv

The Times of India reports that the dating of charcoal and pottery discovered with iron objects at the burial site of Sivagalai in southern India indicates that the Iron Age began in Tamil Nadu some 5,300 years ago. The testing, including accelerometer mass spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence dating, was conducted by three different laboratories. It had been previously thought that iron was first worked in the Hittite Empire, in what is now Turkey, around 1380 B.C. “The recent radiocarbon dates indicate that when [the] Indus Valley experienced [the] Copper Age, south India was in [the] Iron Age,” said archaeologist K. Rajan. “In this sense, [the] Iron Age of south India and [the] Copper Age of the Indus were contemporary,” he explained. People living in southern India may have turned to iron, he added, because the amount of copper used by the Indus Valley civilization made copper ore difficult to obtain. The scientists will next analyze the chemical composition of the iron objects, which include knives, arrowheads, rings, chisels, axes, and swords.

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; godsgravesglyphs; history; hittiteempire; hittites; india; ironage; tamilnadu
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To: SunkenCiv

“Where Did the Iron Age Begin?”

Michigan.

That’s my answer and I’m stickin to it.

5.56mm


21 posted on 02/06/2025 9:13:20 PM PST by M Kehoe (Thank you Jesus. )
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To: ckilmer

Due to the superiority of iron over bronze why did the technology not spread to the rest of India and beyond. I have my doubts.


22 posted on 02/06/2025 9:16:28 PM PST by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist ,MAGA)
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To: SunkenCiv

I’ve often wondered why scientists are trying to find out how mollusks can make extremely strong ceramic, aka seashells, without heat........


23 posted on 02/06/2025 9:18:20 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: SunkenCiv

Damascus steel originated in India


24 posted on 02/06/2025 9:23:32 PM PST by Cold Heart (Democrat party is indefensibly evil)
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To: TigersEye

The closest thing to a silver age was the Spanish conquest of what’s now Bolivia. The silver deposits there were being mined in Precolumbian times, but the Spanish efforts dwarfed it. It’s been estimated that 30-40 percent of all the silver ever mined came from there.

There’s never been a Gold Age, and never will be. :^)


25 posted on 02/06/2025 9:23:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv (When one has no more recourse to law, the only recourse is to lawlessness.)
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To: SunkenCiv

There is no evidence that I’ve ever seen that technologies moved back and forth from the old world to the new world prior to columbus.

So the wheel was said to be invented by the steppe herders circa 3000-4000 BC. But that invention never made its way to the new world until columbus. Same with horses.

from what I’ve seen steppe herder genetics flow from the indus river southward. North india has more steppe hereder genetics than south india.

The hindu nationalists don’t like the tale told by the steppe herder genes.

So how is it that pyramids were built in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Mexico? It can be said that the pyramids of Mesopotamia and Egypt predate the ones in Mexico by 2000 years or so.

Things can be invented in two places at roughly the same time. That’s the current thinking on clovis points.

There are a lot of holes in the archaelogical evidence trail.


26 posted on 02/06/2025 9:27:03 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: Cold Heart

Thanks, I’ll look into that.

https://freerepublic.com/tag/ironpillarofdelhi/index

https://freerepublic.com/tag/damascussteel/index

https://search.brave.com/search?q=where+did+damsacus+steel+originate&summary=1


27 posted on 02/06/2025 9:28:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (When one has no more recourse to law, the only recourse is to lawlessness.)
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To: ckilmer
"One thing that can be said about this story is that it fits in nicely with the current hindu nationalist orthodoxy."

A completely wrong take. This was found/reported in the one place in the south of India where they would like to believe that they are different. Certainly unconnected to "Hindu nationalist orthodoxy", whatever that means. Entirely possible that this claim is an overreach but if it was, it would be for the opposite reasons stated by you.

28 posted on 02/06/2025 9:34:25 PM PST by cold start
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To: SunkenCiv
It’s been estimated that 30-40 percent of all the silver ever mined came from there.

That is amazing!

I was thinking of when gold and silver were first found and produced and thus made an economic and social impact on mankind.

While my post was lighthearted I did think that if anyone knew off the top of their head when that happened it would be you. :)

29 posted on 02/06/2025 9:39:01 PM PST by TigersEye (The Golden Age of MAGA is upon us! )
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To: SunkenCiv

Where did the Iron Age begin?

I’d lay odds on “in some iron mine.”


30 posted on 02/06/2025 9:50:54 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." The Weapons Shops of Isher)
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To: SunkenCiv

Ask Mitch. He’ll know.


31 posted on 02/06/2025 9:58:41 PM PST by sasquatch (Do NOT forget Ashli Babbit! c/o piytar)
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To: SunkenCiv

Perhaps someday the iron age will come to Africa


32 posted on 02/06/2025 10:10:29 PM PST by montag813
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To: SunkenCiv

Probably meteoric iron: it took a lot of experience smelting bronze for people to apply the technique to iron ore which requires a much higher temperature just to get sponge iron.


33 posted on 02/06/2025 11:13:00 PM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: Hebrews 11:6

bttt


34 posted on 02/06/2025 11:18:34 PM PST by linMcHlp
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To: SunkenCiv

Who gives a Tinker’s Dam?


35 posted on 02/06/2025 11:55:35 PM PST by bunkerhill7 (Don't shoot until you see the whites of their lies)
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To: SunkenCiv

Right after the Laundry Age?


36 posted on 02/07/2025 2:01:02 AM PST by cqnc (sic transit gloria mundi...)
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To: SunkenCiv
"There’s never been a Gold Age, and never will be."

Actually, the Gold Age started a couple of weeks ago.

37 posted on 02/07/2025 4:57:57 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Freud: projection is a defense mechanism of those struggling with inferiority complexes)
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To: cold start

you could be right. I don’t know.
/////
I asked perplexity ai exactly what the hindu nationalists believe about the aryans. This was the reply.
///////////////
many Hindu nationalists believe that Aryans originated in India and spread westward, rather than migrating into India from elsewhere. This view, known as the “Out of India” theory or “Indigenous Aryans” theory, is popular among Hindu right-wing groups and some Indian scholars.

The “Out of India” theory emerged in the 1980s and posits that India is the homeland of the Aryans, who composed the Vedas, built the Indus Valley cities, and then migrated out to Iran and Europe2. This belief aligns with Hindu nationalist ideology, which emphasizes the indigenous origins of Indian civilization and rejects the idea of Aryan migration or invasion from outside1.

Hindu nationalists often find the concept of Aryan migration unpalatable for several reasons:

It challenges the idea that Aryans or Vedic culture were the singular source of Indian civilization1.

It puts Aryans on the same footing as later Muslim conquerors of India.

It conflicts with the emphasis on racial purity in some Hindu nationalist ideologies.

However, it’s important to note that current genetic, linguistic, and archaeological evidence generally supports the theory of Aryan migration into India, rather than out of it. Despite this, some Hindu nationalist groups continue to promote the “Out of India” theory and campaign to remove mentions of Aryan migration from textbooks


38 posted on 02/07/2025 7:20:46 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: pierrem15

Yup.


39 posted on 02/07/2025 7:21:30 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: norwaypinesavage

Wholeheartedly agree!


40 posted on 02/07/2025 8:06:01 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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