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Pre-Incan Metallurgy Discovered Charles Q. Choi Special to LiveScience Thu Apr 19, 9:50 AM ET Metals found in lake mud in the central Peruvian Andes have revealed the first evidence for pre-Colonial metalsmithing there. These findings illustrate a way that archaeologists can recreate the past even when looters have destroyed the valuable artifacts that would ordinarily be relied upon to reveal historical secrets. For instance, the new research hints at a tax imposed on local villages by ancient Inca rulers to force a switch from production of copper to silver. Pre-Colonial bronze artifacts have previously been found in the central...

Metallurgy in ancient India was advanced HT Correspondent Varanasi, January 25 EMINENT METALLURGICAL engineer and former rector of the Banaras Hindu University Prof TR Anatharaman said that ancient India contributed a lot in the field of metallurgy. He was delivering a lecture on ‘Metallurgical Marvels of Ancient India’ on the third-day of four-day seminar on ‘History of Indian Science and Technology’ at Swatantrata Bhawan in BHU here on Thursday. Prof Anatharaman, also former director of Institute of Technology (IT-BHU) and presently Chancellor of Ashram Atmadeep (Gurgaon) said that recent historical studies and scientific researches have thrown considerable new light on...

Secret's out for Saracen sabres 15 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service DURING the middle ages, the Muslims who fought crusaders with swords of Damascus steel had an edge - a very high-tech one. Their sabres contained carbon nanotubes. From about AD 900 to AD 1750, Damascus sabres were forged from Indian steel called wootz. Peter Paufler of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and colleagues studied samples of a 17th-century sword under an electron microscope and found clear evidence of carbon nanotubes and even nanowires. The researchers think that the sophisticated process of forging and annealing the steel formed the...

PARIS - The mystery of an ancient Mesopotamian city has finally been lifted after 25 years of meticulous work by a French archaeologist who has revealed it was one of the first "modern cities", purpose-built in the desert for the manufacture of copper arms and tools. In a new book entitled "Mari, the Metropolis of the Euphrates", Jean-Claude Margueron said the third millennium BC city, in modern day Syria, was "one of the first modern cities of humanity. Created from scratch in one phase of construction with the specific goal of becoming this (metallurgical) centre." This was an astounding concept...

The first illustrated "how-to" book for mining and metallurgy was written by the German Georg Bauer in the mid-16th century. The book has been in print and used from then to now with only minor changes were needed to accommodate modern materials. ("Bauer" was Latinized to "Agricola", probably by his teachers at the University of Leipzig.) Agricola was a teacher, philosopher and doctor as well as the world's first industrial publicist, and the opening of De re Metallica ("Concerning Metals") reflects his philosophical bent. While re-reading it recently, I was struck by this passage in Chapter One. In the midst...

Old balls still scorch Pores made shipwrecked cannon balls glow spontaneously. 6 May 2002 DAVID ADAM Cannonball run: iron may heat rapidly in air after years in the ocean. © AP Goodness gracious! Two British chemists believe they have solved the 26-year-old mystery of how shipwrecked cannonballs that were rescued from the deep spontaneously erupted into great balls of fire."They were glowing bright red and you could feel the heat coming off them as the desk began to smoke," recalls Bob Child, now a chemist at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff.It all happened in 1976,...