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Metallurgy

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Ancient Greek Diadem, a photo from Halkidiki, Macedonia.

Evidence of casting

385: African Steel Making. The Emergence of Iron Smelting and Blacksmithing: 900 B. C. to the Early Roman Empire. The Emergence of Iron Smelting and Blacksmithing: 900 B.

The Emergence of Iron Smelting and Blacksmithing: 900 B. C. to the Early Roman Empire

C. to the Early Roman Empire The technology required to separate iron from its ores and convert it into durable and useful objects is far more complicated than that needed to work successfully with copper and bronze. For one thing, it requires a temperature of about 3650 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2020 degrees Celsius) to cause iron to melt sufficiently so that it will flow. The principles outlined in the article on smelting copper also apply to iron, but the techniques developed by the copper workers did not generate enough heat to cause iron ore to give up its oxygen. Also, the quantities of carbon monoxide had to be much greater than required for copper.. The answer was to first make a high quality charcoal from hardwoods. One thing that many people studying history today don’t realize is that ancient metalworkers were not able to heat iron to the point that it flowed as a liquid.

A note on the books cited below -- (1) Cast iron from a bloomery furnace (2011) Primitive Smelting of Iron Ore. Metals and Power at Great Zimbabwe - Eugenia Herbert. The Journal of African History, Vol. 35, No. 1 (1994), pp. 1-36. History of the Blacksmith. Gold is for the mistress -- silver for the maid --Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.

History of the Blacksmith

"Good! " said the Baron, sitting in his hall,"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of them all. "Rudyard Kipling What is a BlacksmithA Blacksmith makes many kinds of tools and other objects out of metal. He heats the metal in the forge to make it soft, and then hammers it on an Anvil to shape it. Ancient Africa: The Iron Age in Sub-Sahara Africa. Unlike Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa lacks a Bronze Age, a period in which softer metals, such as copper, were made into artifacts.

Ancient Africa: The Iron Age in Sub-Sahara Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa there is a Stone Age and an Iron Age. Ancient African Metallurgy, The Sociocultural Context - Google Play. Roman metallurgy. Central Italy itself was not rich in metal ores, leading to necessary trade networks in order to meet the demand for metal from the Republic.

Roman metallurgy

Early Italians had some access to metals in the northern regions of the peninsula in Tuscany and Cisalpine Gaul, as well as the islands Elba and Sardinia. With the conquest of Etruria in 275 BC and the subsequent acquisitions due to the Punic Wars, Rome had the ability to stretch further into Transalpine Gaul and Iberia, both areas rich in minerals. At the height of the Roman Empire, Rome exploited mineral resources from Tingitana in north western Africa to Egypt, Arabia to North Armenia, Galatia to Germania, and Britannia to Iberia, encompassing all of the Mediterranean coast.

Britannia, Iberia, Dacia, and Noricum were of special significance, as they were very rich in deposits and became major sites of resource exploitation(Shepard 1993). . [edit] Sources of ore[edit] IRON IN AFRICA: REVISING THE HISTORY : UNESCO. IRON IN AFRICA: REVISING THE HISTORY Paris - Africa developed its own iron industry some 5,000 years ago, according to a formidable new scientific work from UNESCO Publishing that challenges a lot of conventional thinking on the subject.

IRON IN AFRICA: REVISING THE HISTORY : UNESCO

Iron technology did not come to Africa from western Asia via Carthage or Merowe as was long thought, concludes "Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale". The theory that it was imported from somewhere else, which - the book points out - nicely fitted colonial prejudices, does not stand up in the face of new scientific discoveries, including the probable existence of one or more centres of iron-working in west and central Africa andthe Great Lakes area.

The authors of this joint work, which is part of the "Iron Roads in Africa" project (see box), are distinguished archaeologists, engineers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists. But the facts speak for themselves. Iron: Iron mineral information and data. Native metal. Only gold, silver, copper and the platinum metals occur in nature in larger amounts.

Native metal

Over geological time scales, very few metals can resist natural weathering processes like oxidation, which is why generally only the less reactive metals such as gold and platinum are found as native metals. The others usually occur as isolated pockets where a natural chemical process reduces a common compound or ore of the metal, leaving the pure metal behind as small flakes or inclusions. Non-metallic elements occurring in the native state include carbon and sulfur. Silicon, a semi-metal, has been found in the native state on rare occasions as small inclusions in gold.[1] Native metals were prehistoric man's only access to metal, since the process of extracting metals from their ores, smelting, is thought to have been discovered around 6500 BC. Native gold partially embedded in quartz gangue Occurrence[edit] Gold[edit] Gold is the most well known of the native metals.

Silver[edit] Platinum group[edit] Bleb (mineralogy) Specimen of goethite with blebs of green malachite.

Bleb (mineralogy)

In geology, mineralogy, and petrology, a bleb is a small bubble-like inclusion of one mineral within a larger mineral. An example is a bleb of sylvite within chlorite. Blebs tend to be brightly coloured. Kamenetsky VS et al. Seeking Africa's First Iron Men. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 - Christopher Ehret.