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Posted on 09/30/2025 6:09:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In a fascinating twist of ancient chemistry, copper-smelting artisans may have stumbled upon a technique that would eventually lead to the intentional extraction of iron from ore, a discovery that was both accidental and revolutionary.
A fresh analysis of slag, ores, and furnace residues from the 3,000-year-old site of Kvemo Bolnisi, Georgia, is rewriting the story of how humankind first learned to make iron.
A team of researchers from Cranfield University in England, reexamining old finds from Kvemo Bolnisi using modern techniques, suggests that what had once been labeled an early iron-smelting site was actually a copper workshop that utilized iron oxides as a flux...
The site at Kvemo Bolnisi was first excavated during the 1960s. Early archaeologists recorded significant stockpiles of hematite (an iron oxide) alongside smelting slags, which led them to conclude that this workshop had been an early iron smelter...
By studying the microstructure of the slag and residual phases, the researchers demonstrate that the iron oxides behaved as a "flux," a substance added to the smelting mix to help separate impurities and improve copper yield, rather than forming new iron metal.
In effect, the smelters were tinkering with iron-bearing minerals to optimize their copper output. However, that level of experimentation suggests a sophistication that may have seeded the later invention of iron smelting proper...
Instead of seeing copper and iron technologies as being sequential, the Cranfield study weaves them together. In that sense, the Iron Age might owe a kind of accidental debt to copper artisans who were seeking better yields, rather than a new metal.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedebrief.org ...
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What sparked it? Fabric clothing, obviously. Unlike furs, it wrinkles, so...
Whoever smelt, dealt it.
That smithy was always trying to get everyone to play “pull my finger”.
women’s work
Seems like a long time for iron to supplant bronze, as I know nothing about it, but there was supposedly a civilizational collapse around 1200 BC brought on by interruption of tin trade routes. You tube genius here.
As a metal worker that actually makes sense. They might actually be on the right track with this one...
“One of the unusual things about sulfides is that when heated to high temperatures they will melt. The product of melted sulfides is called a matte, and is highly corrosive liquid. Converting that molten sulfide matte to metal is called smelting. Small scale smelting can be done in a crucible – in fact that is what a fire assay is. When smelting assays are done on high sulfide ores, a couple of iron nails are added to the mix. The metal in the nails reacts with the metals in the sulfides reducing the metals to their metallic state. This is handy when processing silver containing minerals to convert them to silver metal. The addition of scrap iron to smelt mixes is a useful technique to small-scale operators experimenting with smelting techniques on gold-silver ores. It could also be used with small lots of sulfide concentrates.”
https://www.nevada-outback-gems.com/Reference_pages/smelting_n_roast.htm
I find this interesting. I don’t really have any good comment to make because I did not know the tin and bronze age came before the iron age.
I’m learning :)
there was supposedly a civilizational collapse around 1200 BC brought on by interruption of tin trade routes. You tube genius here.
It is difficult to show which is cause, which is effect.
true, but they were still using bronze and not iron, which this article says was smelted from ore long before.
maybe they didn’t that’s an ignoramus’s take on it.
Iron laying all over the ground in parts of North America. Injuns must not have been interested.
The article says 3,000 years ago so around 1000 BC. So this would have been after the collapse that was around 1200 BC.
(3,000-Year-Old Discovery Reveals Surprising Clues to What May Have Accidentally Sparked the Dawn of the Iron Age)
Some 1x4x9 Black Monolith Monkey 🐒🐒🐒 Business?
Wait, don’t go ape 🦧🦧🦧🦧...
😜
How ironic!
How did people so long ago figure out stuff like that? There were some really smart characters way back then.
You’re right, sorry for skipping over the “ago” rather than “B.C” OTOH, if you use the Bible concordance, iron is mentioned as being used in objects some time before 1200 BC, according to the time line presented in the 1200 BC hypothesis I saw.
I always wonder the same thing, how could there have been all smart people living the village life way back when and in ten generations, so much scientific advance?
Anyone who has the chance to go to Georgia should go. Very nice place and fun people. Just do yourself a favor. Save your alchohol quitting day until you get back. They love their wine and this amazing walnut liquor. AND wear loose pants because they will tighten with all the food.
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