| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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"During the Spring and Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
First steel adapted by Chu in 5th century BCE
[2]
, likely spread quickly to other states "As the smiths in time learned the possibilities of their material, and began producing quench-hardened steel swords ... bronze swords could not longer compete and went out of use completely. This seems likely to have occurred all over China by the late third century B.C. at the latest."
[3]
"As early as the later Han dynasty and the early Jin dynasty, the Chinese were already capable of producing steel."
[4]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[5]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: Hangang, Cao. Undated. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005, 96) [3]: (Wagner 1996, 197) Donald B Wagner. 1996. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. 2nd Edition. E J BRILL. Leiden. [4]: (Lu 2015, 251) ed. Lu, Yongxiang. 2005. A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press. [5]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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"During the Spring & Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
[1]: (Hangang undated) Hangang, Cao. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm |
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Bone and stone tools; ceramics.
[1]
[1]: (Liu and Chen 2012: 142: 146: 148) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DE5TU7HY. |
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First steel adapted by Chu in 5th century BCE
[1]
, likely spread quickly to other states "As the smiths in time learned the possibilities of their material, and began producing quench-hardened steel swords ... bronze swords could not longer compete and went out of use completely. This seems likely to have occurred all over China by the late third century B.C. at the latest."
[2]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[3]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005, 96) [2]: (Wagner 1996, 197) Donald B Wagner. 1996. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. 2nd Edition. E J BRILL. Leiden. [3]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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"During the Spring and Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
First steel adapted by Chu in 5th century BCE
[2]
, likely spread quickly to other states "As the smiths in time learned the possibilities of their material, and began producing quench-hardened steel swords ... bronze swords could not longer compete and went out of use completely. This seems likely to have occurred all over China by the late third century B.C. at the latest."
[3]
"As early as the later Han dynasty and the early Jin dynasty, the Chinese were already capable of producing steel."
[4]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[5]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: Hangang, Cao. Undated. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005, 96) [3]: (Wagner 1996, 197) Donald B Wagner. 1996. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. 2nd Edition. E J BRILL. Leiden. [4]: (Lu 2015, 251) ed. Lu, Yongxiang. 2005. A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press. [5]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Langebaek’s intent to understand the appropriation of Spanish weapons and tools, such as helmets, swords, arquebuses and steel axes, as a form of acculturation of Tairona caciques and warriors, is another mode of analysis which reduces the adoption of these goods to utilitarian terms. He supposes that these objects were automatically incorporated by the Taironas because of their inherent technological value, and that the Spaniards controlled the flow of goods. "El intento de Langebaek (1985:80- 84) por entender la apropiación de armas y herramientas españolas, notablemente los yelmos, espadas, arcabuces y hachas de acero, por parte de los guerreros y caciques taironas como una forma de aculturación, es otro modo de análisis que reduce la adopción de estos bienes a términos utilitarios. Se supone entonces que estos objetos fueron automáticamente incorporados por los taironas debido a su eficacia tecnológica inherente, y eran los españoles quienes controlaban el flujo de los bienes."
[1]
In [Ciudad Perdida], a few foreign elements of European origin were found, especially steel objects like axes, machetes or halberds. "En el sitio se han encontrado algunos elementos foráneos de orígen europeo, especialmente objetos de hierro (hachas, machetes, alabardas, etc.)."
[2]
No steel before the Conquest.
[1]: (Giraldo 2000, 50) [2]: (Cadavid Camargo and Groot de Mahecha 1987) |
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"During shovel test sampling at Pueblito, the tang section of two steel knives was found.
[1]
Langebaek’s intent to understand the appropriation of Spanish weapons and tools, such as helmets, swords, arquebuses and steel axes, as a form of acculturation of Tairona caciques and warriors, is another mode of analysis which reduces the adoption of these goods to utilitarian terms. He supposes that these objects were automatically incorporated by the Taironas because of their inherent technological value, and that the Spaniards controlled the flow of goods. "El intento de Langebaek (1985:80- 84) por entender la apropiación de armas y herramientas españolas, notablemente los yelmos, espadas, arcabuces y hachas de acero, por parte de los guerreros y caciques taironas como una forma de aculturación, es otro modo de análisis que reduce la adopción de estos bienes a términos utilitarios. Se supone entonces que estos objetos fueron automáticamente incorporados por los taironas debido a su eficacia tecnológica inherente, y eran los españoles quienes controlaban el flujo de los bienes."
[2]
In [Ciudad Perdida], a few foreign elements of European origin were found, especially steel objects like axes, machetes or halberds. "En el sitio se han encontrado algunos elementos foráneos de orígen europeo, especialmente objetos de hierro (hachas, machetes, alabardas, etc.)."
[3]
[1]: (Giraldo 2010, 316) [2]: (Giraldo 2000, 50) [3]: (Cadavid Camargo and Groot de Mahecha 1987) |
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Some ethnographers and travelers report the use of iron and steel tools for the Ecuadorian period. ’The Jesuits were shortly forced to withdraw from Gualaquiza and Macas due to political reasons, but they left behind them at Gualaquiza a few mestizos who constituted the first new permanent white settlement in the Jívaro region since 1599. These mestizos seem to have been tolerated by the Jívaro as a source of Western-manufactured goods, especially machetes and steel lance heads, the latter specially manufactured in the adjacent highland province of Azuay for the Jívaro trade.’
[1]
It remains to be confirmed when the Shuar started to acquire iron and steel tools. We have provisionally assumed this to coincide with the onset of the Ecuadorian period. This remains in need of confirmation.
[1]: Harner, Michael J. 1973. “Jívaro: People Of The Sacred Waterfalls.”, 29 |
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"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Steel is coding as present in previous polities.
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. |
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At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However, note that northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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not in use at this time period
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Sources only mention copper.
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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Sources only mention copper.
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Steel not discovered at this time.
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Steel not discovered at this time.
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Not discovered at this time.
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"The general impression of the Celtic swords, here covering a period from roughly 650 to 100 B.C., is that the blade was normally manufactured from a single iron bar of no particularly good quality. The same material could as well have been utilized for nails. ... Common to all the Celtic swords is the extensive coldwork that has taken place. ... evidently the finishing part of the blacksmith’s usual hotwork, only that he continued hammering in the temperature range 800-600C ... Significant coldwork at room temperature must also have taken place, since the metal is work-hardened to high hardness and displays slip lines and Neumann bands. ... The 24 swords do not show any metallurgical development with time, except for one, the oldest, from Hallstatt. That one seems to be a rather mediocre sword based on an improper ore and an inexperienced blacksmith. ... three of them ... of superior quality, being pearlitic-ferritic and probably representing the famous Noric steel. If this argument, based on slag composition and structure - and an inscription on No. 510 - holds true, the manufacture of Noric steel began as early as 300 B.C."
[1]
"Almost all the Celtic swords here examined were of good quality and would undoubtedly have yielded good service."
[2]
Not sure of the reason for the contradiction between "no particularly good quality" and "of good quality" but we have the 300 BCE date for Noric steel.
[1]: (Buchwald 2005, 122-124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [2]: (Buchwald 2005, 125-127) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. |
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Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
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Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
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Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
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"The Hallstatt civilisation knew case-hardening only, but the Celts had various methods of ’steeling’ such as the false-damascening which consisted in welding harder and weaker strips together. Some of the natural steel quite free of of sulphur and phosphorus must have been difficult to forge as it was liable to form cracks."
[1]
"The general impression of the Celtic swords, here covering a period from roughly 650 to 100 B.C., is that the blade was normally manufactured from a single iron bar of no particularly good quality. The same material could as well have been utilized for nails. ... Common to all the Celtic swords is the extensive coldwork that has taken place. ... evidently the finishing part of the blacksmith’s usual hotwork, only that he continued hammering in the temperature range 800-600C ... Significant coldwork at room temperature must also have taken place, since the metal is work-hardened to high hardness and displays slip lines and Neumann bands. ... The 24 swords do not show any metallurgical development with time, except for one, the oldest, from Hallstatt. That one seems to be a rather mediocre sword based on an improper ore and an inexperienced blacksmith. ... three of them ... of superior quality, being pearlitic-ferritic and probably representing the famous Noric steel. If this argument, based on slag composition and structure - and an inscription on No. 510 - holds true, the manufacture of Noric steel began as early as 300 B.C."
[2]
"Almost all the Celtic swords here examined were of good quality and would undoubtedly have yielded good service."
[3]
Not sure of the reason for the contradiction between "no particularly good quality" and "of good quality" but we have the 300 BCE date for Noric steel.
[1]: (Forbes 1950, 464) Robert James Forbes. 1950. Metallurgy in Antiquity: A Notebook for Archaeologists and Technologists. E J BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Buchwald 2005, 122-124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [3]: (Buchwald 2005, 125-127) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Akan rulers and fighters started to acquire firearms and wrap them in brass wire at some point in the colonial period: "Gun barrels were wrapped with brass wire or tightly bound cloth to minimise the risk of bursting, a perpetual problem with ill-maintained poor-quality firearms, charged or overcharged with unreliable gunpowder. The addition of golden ‘cockle’ shells was less obviously functional. The way such shells came to adorn guns and ammunition belts again indicates how the exotic was assimilated into Akan culture."
[1]
It remains to be confirmed when this process started. According to this Wikipedia article, firearms were not in widespread use before the Ashanti period: ’The Ashanti became familiar with firearms in the 18th century, and by the 19th century, the bulk of their best troops were armed with a variety of guns, such as the standard European trade muskets, 6 feet in length, so-called "Long Dane".’
[2]
[1]: McLeod, M. D. (Malcolm D.) 1981. “Asante”, 102 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_military_systems_(1800%E2%80%931900)#The_Ashanti_military_system |
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[1]
[1]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Probably not common but it is quite probable that the elite soldiers used wootz steel swords. Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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Guns were absent prior to colonization, but axes, spears and swords are reported: ‘Implements which are mainly used by the Garos are very few in number. Mongreng is a variety of axe, and banuk or oaiseng is another variety. Besides these, they have spears with very big iron heads. They also have mellam, i.e., a short sword, about three feet long. It is made of iron and is straight in shape with sharpened end on both sides. It has a horizontal narrow crossbar from two ends of which they usually tie the taft tail hair of bulls or of yak if they can manage to purchase it from upper districts of Assam. Yaks’ tail is very much in demand by the Garos, and they consider it as a precious possession. The lowermost portion of the sword serves as the grip which is pointed at the end. This, they say, helps them to stick the sword on the ground when necessary.’
[1]
‘The only property which has acquired prestige value after the contact of the Garo with the outside world is the gun (Garos did not have firearms before British occupation). It is not only a useful device to protect the household from enemies, for hunting (in fact, it is the only weapon of hunting of the present day Garos or for killing and warding off wild animals. Besides, a household possessing a gun enjoys a special prestige.’
[2]
The sources mention iron rather than steel. We have therefore assumed that steel was absent prior to the British colonial period.
[1]: Sinha, Tarunchandra 1966. “Psyche Of The Garo”, 11 [2]: Majumdar, Dhirendra Narayan 1978. “Culture Change In Two Garo Villages”, 125 |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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no mention of this technology in the sources
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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Not known to have been in use here yet
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"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
Iron was not used during this period, especially for production of armor.
|
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Steel not discovered at this time.
|
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May have imported high quality steel. "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. |
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Not discovered at this time.
|
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|
Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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|
May have imported high quality steel. Was the Artaxerxes sword a ’trophy weapon’ or representative of swords used by elite Persian forces? Could the same thing be said up until the time of the first manufacture of Damascene swords? "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[4]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. [4]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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Steel is not present at Pirak.
[1]
However, Harappan weapons are "characterised by the absence of shields, helmets and armour".
[2]
[1]: Jarrige, J-F. (1979) Fouilles de Pirak. Paris : Diffusion de Boccard. [2]: Sharma, R. S., ‘Material Background of Vedic Warfare’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 9 (1966):305. |
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|
"The Illinois made tools and utensils out of many different materials obtained from nature, including wood, bone, antler, shell, and stone."
[1]
[1]: Illinois State Museum, The Illinois, Technology: Tools and Utensils (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/te_tools.html |
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|
May have imported high quality steel. Was the Artaxerxes sword a ’trophy weapon’ or representative of swords used by elite Persian forces? Could the same thing be said up until the time of the first manufacture of Damascene swords? "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. |
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|
Luristan borders Susiana region to the NW. Here Vanden Berghe divided the Iron Age into three periods 1000-800/750 BCE in which bronze and iron used together and 800/750-600 BCE when weapons were made from iron and ritual articles from bronze. At this early time we can only code present for bronze (and its constituent copper) with iron and steel both absent.
[1]
[1]: (Kuz’mina 2007, 368) Elena E Kuz’mina. J P Mallory ed. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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|
This could be southern India (and/or Sri Lanka): Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[1]
Northern India as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[2]
[1]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. |
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Given the presence of colonial forces, this remains in need of confirmation.
|
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
|
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-
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|
there was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
|
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|
Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
Moreover, Hassig lists steel weapons among the new military technologies the Spanish introduced to the region in the sixteenth century
[3]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. [3]: (Hassig 1992, 143) Hassig, Robert. 1992. War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. London; Berkeley: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/E9VHCKDG |
||||||
|
Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
Moreover, Hassig lists steel weapons among the new military technologies the Spanish introduced to the region in the sixteenth century
[3]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. [3]: (Hassig 1992, 143) Hassig, Robert. 1992. War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. London; Berkeley: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/E9VHCKDG |
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|
Tatara furnaces, or versions thereof, existed since 300 BCE. Not sure when this steel was first produced. It is unlikely the best steel was produced from the very earliest times. Asuka period seems likely. "If black sand was used it would contain hypter-eutectoid steel (carbon content 1.2-1.7 percent) called tama hagane and pieces of iron with a lower carbon content (less than 0.8 percent). The tama hagane was the first quality steel used in swords."
[1]
References that support tamahagane steel being better than the first steels produced in Japan: "Present study elucidates that the tatara iron and its manufacturing procedure gives distinctive features to Japanese swords which is different from ordinary steel. It is also notable that Japanese swordsmith utilized lath martensite without knowing details about it."
[2]
Tamahagane steel (metal investigated was crafted by a modern swordsmith) has been "investigated with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis methods. Microstructures have been found to be a combination of ferrite and pearlite with a lot of nonmetallic inclusions."
[3]
[1]: (Wittner 2008, 25) David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: Ananda Kumar Das. Takuya Ohba. Shigakazu Morito. Muneo Yaso. "Evidence of Lath Martensite in High-C Japanese Sword Produced from Tamahagane Steel by Tatara Process." 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 138-141 [3]: Go Takami. Takuya Ohba. Shigekazu Morito. Ananda Kumar Das. "Microstructural Observation on Materials of the Japanese Sword under Fold-Forging Process. 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 134-137 |
||||||
|
Tatara furnaces, or versions thereof, existed since 300 BCE. Not sure when this steel was first produced. It is unlikely the best steel was produced from the very earliest times. Asuka period seems likely. "If black sand was used it would contain hypter-eutectoid steel (carbon content 1.2-1.7 percent) called tama hagane and pieces of iron with a lower carbon content (less than 0.8 percent). The tama hagane was the first quality steel used in swords."
[1]
References that support tamahagane steel being better than the first steels produced in Japan: "Present study elucidates that the tatara iron and its manufacturing procedure gives distinctive features to Japanese swords which is different from ordinary steel. It is also notable that Japanese swordsmith utilized lath martensite without knowing details about it."
[2]
Tamahagane steel (metal investigated was crafted by a modern swordsmith) has been "investigated with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis methods. Microstructures have been found to be a combination of ferrite and pearlite with a lot of nonmetallic inclusions."
[3]
[1]: (Wittner 2008, 25) David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: Ananda Kumar Das. Takuya Ohba. Shigakazu Morito. Muneo Yaso. "Evidence of Lath Martensite in High-C Japanese Sword Produced from Tamahagane Steel by Tatara Process." 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 138-141 [3]: Go Takami. Takuya Ohba. Shigekazu Morito. Ananda Kumar Das. "Microstructural Observation on Materials of the Japanese Sword under Fold-Forging Process. 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 134-137 |
||||||
|
Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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|
Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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|
’From all this, we can bear in mind that Khmer breastplates, as we have described them, possibly used the materials cited by Bezacier: buffalo skins, tree bark, and bronze, even if this metal was replaced with iron at the period we are discussing, if indeed metal was used in making this armour. This was the case of the king, if we can believe Zhou Daguan, who in the thirteenth century AD indicates that the sovereign "had his body class in iron, so that even knives and arrows, striking his body, could not harm him".’
[1]
Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 20-21) |
||||||
|
’From all this, we can bear in mind that Khmer breastplates, as we have described them, possibly used the materials cited by Bezacier: buffalo skins, tree bark, and bronze, even if this metal was replaced with iron at the period we are discussing, if indeed metal was used in making this armour. This was the case of the king, if we can believe Zhou Daguan, who in the thirteenth century AD indicates that the sovereign "had his body class in iron, so that even knives and arrows, striking his body, could not harm him".’
[1]
Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 20-21) |
||||||
|
’From all this, we can bear in mind that Khmer breastplates, as we have described them, possibly used the materials cited by Bezacier: buffalo skins, tree bark, and bronze, even if this metal was replaced with iron at the period we are discussing, if indeed metal was used in making this armour. This was the case of the king, if we can believe Zhou Daguan, who in the thirteenth century AD indicates that the sovereign "had his body class in iron, so that even knives and arrows, striking his body, could not harm him".’
[1]
Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 20-21) |
||||||
|
Coded inferred absent. Unlikely to have used high quality steel. Rather, the use of copper/bronze during the MSEA Iron Age is concentrated on the decorative and ideational sphere (bells, bowls, drums, figurines, finger and toe rings, bangles, belts and ear discs), whereas utilitarian objects (adze/axes, knives, digging stick tips,ploughshares, and spearheads) are produced in iron/steel.[212] However, it is not clear from sources if these items are specifically found in this polity. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
|
||||||
|
Rather, the use of copper/bronze during the MSEA Iron Age is concentrated on the decorative and ideational sphere (bells, bowls, drums, figurines, finger and toe rings, bangles, belts and ear discs), whereas utilitarian objects (adze/axes, knives, digging stick tips,ploughshares, and spearheads) are produced in iron/steel.
[1]
However, it is not clear from sources if these items are specifically found in this polity. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Pryce 2014: 5) |
||||||
|
"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
||||||
|
By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
||||||
|
No steel of a high quality until later. By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
||||||
|
No steel of a high quality until later By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
-
|
||||||
|
"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
||||||
|
By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
The first evidence for the introduction of indigenously produced (copper-based) metallurgy in Mesoamerica is c.600 CE for ornamental valuables,
[1]
and the system closest to coinage ever practiced in Mesoamerica was the widespread use of cacao beans and copper axes as media of exchange during the Postclassic.
[2]
[1]: Shugar, Aaron N. and Scott E. Simmons. (2013) Archaeometallurgy in Mesoamerica: Current Approaches and New Perspectives. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, pg. 1-4. [2]: Berdan, Frances F., Marilyn A. Masson, Janine Gasco, and Michael E. Smith. (2003) "An International Economy." In Michael E. Smith and Frances F. Berdan (eds.) The Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, pg. 102. |
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-
|
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|
not in use during this time period
|
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|
At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[2]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[3]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[4]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[1]
[1]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [2]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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Rather, the use of copper/bronze during the MSEA Iron Age is concentrated on the decorative and ideational sphere (bells, bowls, drums, figurines, finger and toe rings, bangles, belts and ear discs), whereas utilitarian objects (adze/axes, knives, digging stick tips,ploughshares, and spearheads) are produced in iron/steel.
[1]
However, it is not clear from sources if these items are specifically found in this polity. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Pryce 2014: 5) |
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not used during this time period
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Metalworking was not widely used in Mesoamerica, with metal products consisting mainly of small beads and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p157 [2]: Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finten, L., Blanton, R. E., Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Volume II. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor. |
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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Tula has yielded no metal of any kind, neither copper nor gold.
[1]
[1]: (Coe 1994: 142) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/5DJ2S5IF. |
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No reference found to steel armour or weapons.
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
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There was no steel/iron before the arrival of the Spanish.
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Ed: Steel may have been produced in the region of modern India at earliest toward the end of this period.
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not in use during this time period
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The first evidence for the introduction of indigenously produced (copper-based) metallurgy in Mesoamerica is c.600 CE for ornamental valuables,
[1]
and the system closest to coinage ever practiced in Mesoamerica was the widespread use of cacao beans and copper axes as media of exchange during the Postclassic.
[2]
[1]: Shugar, Aaron N. and Scott E. Simmons. (2013) Archaeometallurgy in Mesoamerica: Current Approaches and New Perspectives. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, pg. 1-4. [2]: Berdan, Frances F., Marilyn A. Masson, Janine Gasco, and Michael E. Smith. (2003) "An International Economy." In Michael E. Smith and Frances F. Berdan (eds.) The Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, pg. 102. |
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Not known to have been in use here yet
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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not in use during this time
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not used in this time period
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time period
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No reference found to steel armour or weapons.
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Ornaments were usually made from bones and shells, and stonework was present in this period. Weapons were made of stone, wood, and bone. Not till after contact with Europeans and trade with them did Iroquois begin to use metals heavily in their weapons and ornaments.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[1]: (Hasenstab 2001: 453) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/EQZYAI2R. [2]: (Snow 1996: 36) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/TQ4KR3AE. [3]: (Beauchamp 1968: 16) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KJQLGMR6 [4]: Personal Communication with Peter Peregrine 2019. |
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Not mentioned by sources; it seems most Oneota technology derived from wood and stone
[1]
.
[1]: Illinois State Museum, Late Prehistoric, Technology: Weapons (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/lp_weapons.html |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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"Metals were another story. Throughout all these times [before 500 BCE], and even much later, they were essentially unused in Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan’s predecessors [...] and Teotihuacan itself used only stone tools".
[1]
[1]: (Cowgill 2015: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JRFZPUXU. |
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At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However, note that northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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"During the Spring and Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
First steel adapted by Chu in 5th century BCE
[2]
, likely spread quickly to other states "As the smiths in time learned the possibilities of their material, and began producing quench-hardened steel swords ... bronze swords could not longer compete and went out of use completely. This seems likely to have occurred all over China by the late third century B.C. at the latest."
[3]
"As early as the later Han dynasty and the early Jin dynasty, the Chinese were already capable of producing steel."
[4]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[5]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: Hangang, Cao. Undated. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005, 96) [3]: (Wagner 1996, 197) Donald B Wagner. 1996. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. 2nd Edition. E J BRILL. Leiden. [4]: (Lu 2015, 251) ed. Lu, Yongxiang. 2005. A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press. [5]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
|
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Not known to have been in use here yet
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Not known to have been in use here yet
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Technology not found in archaeological evidence until much later
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Not known to have been in use here yet
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Metals acquired through trade gradually displaced wooden and stone tools: "The tomahawk succeeded the war-club, as the rifle did the bow. With the invention of this terrible implement of warfare the red man had nothing to do, except in having it so fashioned as to be adapted to his taste and usage. The tomahawk is known as widely as the Indian, and the two names have become apparently inseparable. They are made of steel, brass, or iron."
[1]
There were considerable time-lags when it comes to the adoption of metal weapons among different indigenous groups of the North-East: "The Northeast was crisscrossed by an extensive series of trade routes that consisted of rivers and short portages. The Huron used these routes to travel to the Cree and Innu peoples, while the Iroquois used them to travel to the Iroquoians on the Atlantic coast. The French claimed the more northerly area and built a series of trade entrepôts at and near Huron communities, whose residents recognized the material advantages of French goods as well as the fortifications’ defensive capabilities. The Huron alliance quickly became the gatekeeper of trade with the Subarctic, profiting handsomely in this role. Its people rapidly adopted new kinds of material culture, particularly iron axes, as these were immensely more effective in shattering indigenous wooden armour than were traditional stone tomahawks."
[2]
"For a period of time the new weapons enabled the Huron confederacy to gain the upper hand against the Iroquois, who did not gain access to European goods as quickly as their foes. By about 1615 the long traditions of interethnic conflict between the two alliances had become inflamed, and each bloc formally joined with a member of another traditional rivalry-the French or the English. Initially the Huron-French alliance held the upper hand, in no small part because the French trading system was in place several years before those of the Dutch and English. The indigenous coalitions became more evenly matched after 1620, however, as the Dutch and English trading system expanded. These Europeans began to make guns available for trade, something the French had preferred not to do. The Huron found that the technological advantage provided by iron axes was emphatically surpassed by that of the new firearms."
[2]
We have adopted 1620 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Morgan & Lloyd 1901, 15 [2]: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American/Native-American-history#ref968222 |
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At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However we code present because the Hephthalites occupied northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) which as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
“In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However we code present because the Kidarites occupied northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) which as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However we code present because the Kushans occupied northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) which as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
Burnished steel represented in image of warrior.
[6]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [6]: The armies of Bactria 70 BC-450 AD, p. 15, 71. |
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|
[Could find no direct mention of steel but seems likely that at least some weapons esp. guns could have been made with steel]
|
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|
Al-Kindi commented on the the high quality steel of the ancient Yemeni sword."
[1]
Likely iron/steel was imported from Sri Lanka and/or India. There is no evidence for an iron-smelting site in Yemen
[2]
The area, like East Africa, could have received iron imports from Sri Lanka toward the end of the first century BCE and was, in any case, conquered by iron-using Axum
[3]
by 200 CE. Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE.
[4]
[1]: (Syvanne 2015, 134) Ilkka Syvanne. 2015. Military History of Late Rome 284-361. Pen and Sword. Barnsley. [2]: (Killick 2015) Killick, David. Cairo to Cape: The Spread of Metallurgy through Eastern and Southern Africa. Roberts, Benjamin W. Thornton, Christopher P. 2015. eds. Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective: Methods and Syntheses. Springer. New York. [3]: (Carlson 2012, 119) Jon D Carlson. 2012. Myths, State Expansion, and the Birth of Globalization: A Comparative Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke. [4]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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|
Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
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|
"Though the iron mines of Lebanon had been virtually exhausted, craftsmen still made high quality arms in Damascus. Those who produced real steel were closely supervised by the Mamluk authorities to stop cheating or a decline in standards."
[1]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd. |
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|
Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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Probably not common but it is quite probable that the elite soldiers used wootz steel swords. Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
Produced in Karnataka and Sri Lanka.
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
Was the Artaxerxes sword a ’trophy weapon’ or representative of swords used by elite Persian forces? Could the same thing be said up until the time of the first manufacture of Damascene swords? Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[4]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. [4]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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May have imported high quality steel. Was the Artaxerxes sword a ’trophy weapon’ or representative of swords used by elite Persian forces? Could the same thing be said up until the time of the first manufacture of Damascene swords? "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[4]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. [4]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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General reference for medieval warfare: Mail armor "was formed from rings of iron (or, more rarely, steel)".
[1]
[1]: (Smith 2010, 67) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[2]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[3]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[4]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[1]
[1]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [2]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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Given the presence of colonial forces, this remains in need of confirmation.
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Inferred, based on presence in the contemporary Pontic kingdom.
[1]
[2]
[1]: McGing, B. C. (1986) The foreign policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus. Leiden: Brill. [2]: Erciyas, D. B. (2006) Wealth, Aristocracy and Royal Propaganda under the Hellenistic Kingdom of the Mithradatids. Colloquia Pontica: Brill, Leiden, Boston. |
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"Ghur had long been renowned for its metal deposits and its manufacture of weapons and coats of mail".
[1]
"According to Togan, the entire mountain region from Ghur and Kabul to the land of the Karluk was metal-working. It exported armour, weapons and war equipment to neighbouring areas."
[2]
[1]: (Jackson 2003, 15-16) Peter Jackson. 2003. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Nizami 1999, 178) K A Nizami. The Ghurids. M S Asimov. C E Bosworth. eds. 1999. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. Part One. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. Delhi. |
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At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However, note that northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[2]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[3]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[4]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[5]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. [2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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"In a passage important for the history of steel making in China, reference is made at this period to a blade able to cut through thirty plates." Note: "this period" is a broad term.
[1]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[2]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: (Dien 1981, 22) Dien, Albert E. 1981. A Study of Early Chinese Armor. Artibus Asiae 43.1/2: 5-66. [2]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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present in preceding polity
|
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Present in previous polities.
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Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[2]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[3]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[4]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[1]
Steel swords produced by Iranians from Indian wootz ingots.
[5]
[1]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [2]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Khorasani) Khorasani, Manouchehr Moshtagh. Terminology of Arms and Armor used in the Shahname: a Comparative Analysis "Swords and Maces" |
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Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[2]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[3]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[4]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[1]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [2]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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We could find no direct mention of steel, but it seems likely that at least some weapons, esp. guns, could have been made with steel. We need to ascertain when the Hmong started to acquire firearms.
|
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"During the Spring & Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
[1]: (Hangang undated) Hangang, Cao. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm |
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"Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[1]
First high-quality steel 450 CE. Japan exported steel swords to China (time not stated, possibly once the Japanese had refined their methods, before the Song Dynasty).
[2]
"according to Wagner there is no direct evidence that cast steel was made in China. ... Exports of bin iron from Persia and Jaguda (Ghazni) to China in 6th-7th centuries are recorded. This was an imported steel of high quality. Curiously, bin iron disappears from Chinese sources after the 7th century, then reappears from 10th-17th centuries. This might have been a consequence of the Islamic conquest of Persia, followed by the rise of trade routes to China used by Arabs. An account of an embassy sent by the Yuan to Hulagu Khan in 1259 mention that bin iron was made in India."
[3]
[1]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Williams 2012, 42) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [3]: (Williams 2012, 39) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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"During the Spring and Autumn period, China developed steel and iron-made weaponry, and as the raw iron castings technique was widely practiced - and the ‘folded hundred times steel’ casting method was on the rise, along with various polishing techniques for steel - Chinese steel weapons were very much on the ascendant."
[1]
First steel adapted by Chu in 5th century BCE
[2]
, likely spread quickly to other states "As the smiths in time learned the possibilities of their material, and began producing quench-hardened steel swords ... bronze swords could not longer compete and went out of use completely. This seems likely to have occurred all over China by the late third century B.C. at the latest."
[3]
"As early as the later Han dynasty and the early Jin dynasty, the Chinese were already capable of producing steel."
[4]
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[5]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: Hangang, Cao. Undated. A Study of Chinese Weapons Cast During Pre-Qin and Han Periods in the Central Plains of China. Retrieved December 2015: http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/cn.article.htm [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005, 96) [3]: (Wagner 1996, 197) Donald B Wagner. 1996. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. 2nd Edition. E J BRILL. Leiden. [4]: (Lu 2015, 251) ed. Lu, Yongxiang. 2005. A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press. [5]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[1]
First high-quality steel 450 CE.
[1]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Wootz steel was "being exported from India to China at least as early as the +5th century. … good steel was manufactured in China by remarkably modern methods at least from that time onwards also."
[1]
First high-quality steel 450 CE. Japan exported steel swords to China (time not stated, possibly once the Japanese had refined their methods, before the Song Dynasty).
[2]
"according to Wagner there is no direct evidence that cast steel was made in China. ... Exports of bin iron from Persia and Jaguda (Ghazni) to China in 6th-7th centuries are recorded. This was an imported steel of high quality. Curiously, bin iron disappears from Chinese sources after the 7th century, then reappears from 10th-17th centuries. This might have been a consequence of the Islamic conquest of Persia, followed by the rise of trade routes to China used by Arabs. An account of an embassy sent by the Yuan to Hulagu Khan in 1259 mention that bin iron was made in India."
[3]
[1]: (Needham 1962, 282) Joseph Needham. 1962. Science and Civilization in China. Volume IV. Physics and Physical Technology. Part 1: Physics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Williams 2012, 42) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [3]: (Williams 2012, 39) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Steel is coding as present in previous polities.
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. |
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The Jesuits were shortly forced to withdraw from Gualaquiza and Macas due to political reasons, but they left behind them at Gualaquiza a few mestizos who constituted the first new permanent white settlement in the Shuar region since 1599. These mestizos seem to have been tolerated by the Shuar as a source of Western-manufactured goods, especially machetes and steel lance heads, the latter specially manufactured in the adjacent highland province of Azuay for the Shuar trade.
[1]
[1]: Harner, Michael J. 1973. “Jívaro: People Of The Sacred Waterfalls.”, 29 |
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"Though the iron mines of Lebanon had been virtually exhausted, craftsmen still made high quality arms in Damascus. Those who produced real steel were closely supervised by the Mamluk authorities to stop cheating or a decline in standards." However many armourers lost as a result of Timur’s invasion and abduction of craftsmen, and although the industry was not finished the Mamluks subsequently made efforts to import European weapons, armour, and craftsmen.
[1]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd. |
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"Though the iron mines of Lebanon had been virtually exhausted, craftsmen still made high quality arms in Damascus. Those who produced real steel were closely supervised by the Mamluk authorities to stop cheating or a decline in standards."
[1]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd. |
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Examples: steel flintlock
[1]
, steel gauntlets
[2]
[1]: (López 2012, 91) López, Ignacio J.N. 2012. The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704. Osprey Publishing. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4EWFWHCQ [2]: (López 2012, 67) López, Ignacio J.N. 2012. The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704. Osprey Publishing. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4EWFWHCQ |
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In the 1st century CE Zoskales was importing iron and steel from northwest India.
[1]
Historical records show steel was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) George Hatke. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World). New York University Press. [2]: (Biggs et al. 2013) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997: 102) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ZU99575D. |
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|
Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
||||||
|
Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Need evidence for high-quality steel. One of Charlemagne’s vassals left an Indian sword (spatha indica) in his will
[1]
, which suggests it was far superior to the steel sword the Franks possessed. Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
Two-edged steel sword used by cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Halsall 2003, 163-176) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge. London. |
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|
"The Hallstatt civilisation knew case-hardening only, bu the Celts had various methods of ’steeling’ such as the false-damascening which consisted in welding harder and weaker strips together. Some of the natural steel quite free of of sulphur and phosphorus must have been difficult to forge as it was liable to form cracks."
[1]
"The general impression of the Celtic swords, here covering a period from roughly 650 to 100 B.C., is that the blade was normally manufactured from a single iron bar of no particularly good quality. The same material could as well have been utilized for nails. ... Common to all the Celtic swords is the extensive coldwork that has taken place. ... evidently the finishing part of the blacksmith’s usual hotwork, only that he continued hammering in the temperature range 800-600C ... Significant coldwork at room temperature must also have taken place, since the metal is work-hardened to high hardness and displays slip lines and Neumann bands. ... The 24 swords do not show any metallurgical development with time, except for one, the oldest, from Hallstatt. That one seems to be a rather mediocre sword based on an improper ore and an inexperienced blacksmith. ... three of them ... of superior quality, being pearlitic-ferritic and probably representing the famous Noric steel. If this argument, based on slag composition and structure - and an inscription on No. 510 - holds true, the manufacture of Noric steel began as early as 300 B.C."
[2]
"Almost all the Celtic swords here examined were of good quality and would undoubtedly have yielded good service."
[3]
Not sure of the reason for the contradiction between "no particularly good quality" and "of good quality" but we have the 300 BCE date for Noric steel.
[1]: (Forbes 1950, 464) Robert James Forbes. 1950. Metallurgy in Antiquity: A Notebook for Archaeologists and Technologists. E J BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Buchwald 2005, 122-124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [3]: (Buchwald 2005, 125-127) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. |
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|
"The Hallstatt civilisation knew case-hardening only, but the Celts had various methods of ’steeling’ such as the false-damascening which consisted in welding harder and weaker strips together. Some of the natural steel quite free of of sulphur and phosphorus must have been difficult to forge as it was liable to form cracks."
[1]
"The general impression of the Celtic swords, here covering a period from roughly 650 to 100 B.C., is that the blade was normally manufactured from a single iron bar of no particularly good quality. The same material could as well have been utilized for nails. ... Common to all the Celtic swords is the extensive coldwork that has taken place. ... evidently the finishing part of the blacksmith’s usual hotwork, only that he continued hammering in the temperature range 800-600C ... Significant coldwork at room temperature must also have taken place, since the metal is work-hardened to high hardness and displays slip lines and Neumann bands. ... The 24 swords do not show any metallurgical development with time, except for one, the oldest, from Hallstatt. That one seems to be a rather mediocre sword based on an improper ore and an inexperienced blacksmith. ... three of them ... of superior quality, being pearlitic-ferritic and probably representing the famous Noric steel. If this argument, based on slag composition and structure - and an inscription on No. 510 - holds true, the manufacture of Noric steel began as early as 300 B.C."
[2]
"Almost all the Celtic swords here examined were of good quality and would undoubtedly have yielded good service."
[3]
Not sure of the reason for the contradiction between "no particularly good quality" and "of good quality" but we have the 300 BCE date for Noric steel.
[1]: (Forbes 1950, 464) Robert James Forbes. 1950. Metallurgy in Antiquity: A Notebook for Archaeologists and Technologists. E J BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Buchwald 2005, 122-124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [3]: (Buchwald 2005, 125-127) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. |
||||||
|
Writing in the 14th century, Ibn Hudhayl "described Frankish swords as mudakkar with ’steel edges on an iron body, unlike those of India.’"
[1]
"The carbon content of Western blades is much lower, but their hardness can be increased by quenching (an easier process when only thin bands of steel along the edges are involved). Despite the evident superiority of crucible steels, Western blades offered a useful combination of properties, at presumably a much lower price, than Oriental ones, and there are references to their being exported to Muslim lands, for examples, Saracen pirates demanded 150 Carolingian swords as part of the ransom for Archbishop Rotland of Arles in 869."
[2]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Williams 2012, 36) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
||||||
|
Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[1]
- did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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|
Metal armour was used for both warriors and horses
[1]
. Type of metal not specified. Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[2]
[1]: D.P. Dikshit, Political History of the Chalukyas (1980), p. 266 [2]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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|
Probably not common but it is quite probable that the elite soldiers used wootz steel swords. Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
||||||
|
Steel technology was not present at this time.
[1]
Which time was mentioned specifically? Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[2]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[3]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[4]
[1]: Avari, B. (2007) India: The Ancient Past: A history of the India sub-continent from c. 7,000 BC to AD 1200. Routledge: London and New York. [2]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [4]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
||||||
|
Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. |
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|
May have imported high quality steel. "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. |
||||||
|
"This type of shield was characteristic of the cavalry of the Ak Koyunlu. It had a high steel boss and, in battle, was generally strapped to the wearer’s left arm."
[1]
[1]: (Jones ed. 2012, 92-93) Gareth Jones. ed. The Military History Book: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the Weapons that Shaped the World. Dorling Kindersley Limited. London. |
||||||
|
"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[4]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. [4]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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|
"Cuirass (char-a’ina). Iran, Qajar period, early 19th century. Steel, gold, and textile."
[1]
[1]: (Phyrr 2015, 6) Stuart W Phyrr. 2015. American Collectors and the Formation of the Metropolitan Museum’s Collection of Islamic Arms and Armor. David G Alexander. ed. Islamic Arms and Armor in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
Shah Ismail’s Qizilbash soldiers described as having steel armour.
[1]
Steel plate armour.
[2]
[1]: Farrokh, Kaveh. Iran at War, 1500-1988. Oxford : Osprey Publishing, 2011. chapter three. [2]: (Khorasani 2014) Moshtagh Khorasani, Manouchehr. 2014. Reproduction of an Early Safavid Armor. https://www.academia.edu/8815598/Moshtagh_Khorasani_Manouchehr_2014_._Reproduction_of_an_Early_Safavid_Armor |
||||||
|
"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[4]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[5]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. [4]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [5]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
||||||
|
"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[2]
"High-carbon steel was being produced in the eastern Iranian region from the tenth century CE."
[3]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. [3]: (Goody 2012, 171) Goody, Jack. 2012. Metals, Culture and Capitalism: An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
||||||
|
May have imported high quality steel. Was the Artaxerxes sword a ’trophy weapon’ or representative of swords used by elite Persian forces? Could the same thing be said up until the time of the first manufacture of Damascene swords? "It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Artaxerxes II of Persia (Achaemenids, ruled around 400 BCE) had a Greek physician called Ctesias of Cnidus who was impressed by his sword of Indian steel.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Ramsey 2016) Ramsey, Syed. 2016. Tools of War: History of Weapons in Ancient Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. |
||||||
|
"By the time of the Roman Republic (c.509-44BC), the use of steel in the manufacture of swords was well advanced and Roman swordsmiths smelted iron ore and carbon in a bloomery furnace (the predecessor of the blast furnace)."
[1]
However, this source is not very academic, so a better source is needed to be sure.
[1]: (http://www.weapons-universe.com/Swords/Ancient_Roman_Weapons.shtml) |
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For example, swords. Noric steel first made by the Celts in 300 BCE. Romans imported Noric steel. Noricum, a region of the Austrian Alps "between Raetia in the west and Pannonia in the east" became a province within the Roman Empire.
[1]
However, use of Noric steel could hardly have been typical. "A sword from the Roman Republican period (3rd-2nd century BCE) in Slovenia was found to have an iron edge and a steel (0.4%C) body, like the much later spatha discussed below; a particularly unfortunate combination."
[2]
[1]: (Buchwald 2005, 124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [2]: (Williams 2012, 51-52) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Noric steel first made by the Celts in 300 BCE. Romans imported Noric steel. Noricum, a region of the Austrian Alps "between Raetia in the west and Pannonia in the east" became a province within the Roman Empire.
[1]
However, use of Noric steel could hardly have been typical. "A sword from the Roman Republican period (3rd-2nd century BCE) in Slovenia was found to have an iron edge and a steel (0.4%C) body, like the much later spatha discussed below; a particularly unfortunate combination."
[2]
[1]: (Buchwald 2005, 124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [2]: (Williams 2012, 51-52) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
||||||
|
For example, swords. Noric steel first made by the Celts in 300 BCE. Romans imported Noric steel. Noricum, a region of the Austrian Alps "between Raetia in the west and Pannonia in the east" became a province within the Roman Empire.
[1]
However, use of Noric steel could hardly have been typical. "A sword from the Roman Republican period (3rd-2nd century BCE) in Slovenia was found to have an iron edge and a steel (0.4%C) body, like the much later spatha discussed below; a particularly unfortunate combination."
[2]
[1]: (Buchwald 2005, 124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. [2]: (Williams 2012, 51-52) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
"By the time of the Roman Republic (c.509—44BC), the use of steel in the manufacture of swords was well advanced and Roman swordsmiths smelted iron ore and carbon in a bloomery furnace (the predecessor of the blast furnace)."
[1]
However, this source is not very academic, so a better source is needed to be sure.
[1]: (http://www.weapons-universe.com/Swords/Ancient_Roman_Weapons.shtml) |
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|
General reference for medieval warfare: Mail armor "was formed from rings of iron (or, more rarely, steel)".
[1]
[1]: (Smith 2010, 67) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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’By the Yayoi Period (50-250 CE) iron tools became more plentiful, as is evidenced by advances in woodworking technologies. By the last century of the Yayoi, iron-working technologies spread quickly across the central region of Japan from west to east. Over the course of the next several hundred years, iron completely replaced stone as the mineral of choice. Iron swords, armor, and arrowheads came to occupy prominent places in the tombs of the Kofun period. From that time onward, iron and its alloy with carbon, steel, were Japan’s pre-eminent proto-industrial metals.’
[1]
[1]: David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. p.24 |
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Tatara furnaces, or versions thereof, existed since 300 BCE. Not sure when this steel was first produced. It is unlikely the best steel was produced from the very earliest times. Asuka period seems likely. "If black sand was used it would contain hypter-eutectoid steel (carbon content 1.2-1.7 percent) called tama hagane and pieces of iron with a lower carbon content (less than 0.8 percent). The tama hagane was the first quality steel used in swords."
[1]
References that support tamahagane steel being better than the first steels produced in Japan: "Present study elucidates that the tatara iron and its manufacturing procedure gives distinctive features to Japanese swords which is different from ordinary steel. It is also notable that Japanese swordsmith utilized lath martensite without knowing details about it."
[2]
Tamahagane steel (metal investigated was crafted by a modern swordsmith) has been "investigated with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis methods. Microstructures have been found to be a combination of ferrite and pearlite with a lot of nonmetallic inclusions."
[3]
[1]: (Wittner 2008, 25) David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: Ananda Kumar Das. Takuya Ohba. Shigakazu Morito. Muneo Yaso. "Evidence of Lath Martensite in High-C Japanese Sword Produced from Tamahagane Steel by Tatara Process." 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 138-141 [3]: Go Takami. Takuya Ohba. Shigekazu Morito. Ananda Kumar Das. "Microstructural Observation on Materials of the Japanese Sword under Fold-Forging Process. 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 134-137 |
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|
Tatara furnaces, or versions thereof, existed since 300 BCE. Not sure when this steel was first produced. It is unlikely the best steel was produced from the very earliest times. Asuka period seems likely. "If black sand was used it would contain hypter-eutectoid steel (carbon content 1.2-1.7 percent) called tama hagane and pieces of iron with a lower carbon content (less than 0.8 percent). The tama hagane was the first quality steel used in swords."
[1]
References that support tamahagane steel being better than the first steels produced in Japan: "Present study elucidates that the tatara iron and its manufacturing procedure gives distinctive features to Japanese swords which is different from ordinary steel. It is also notable that Japanese swordsmith utilized lath martensite without knowing details about it."
[2]
Tamahagane steel (metal investigated was crafted by a modern swordsmith) has been "investigated with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis methods. Microstructures have been found to be a combination of ferrite and pearlite with a lot of nonmetallic inclusions."
[3]
[1]: (Wittner 2008, 25) David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: Ananda Kumar Das. Takuya Ohba. Shigakazu Morito. Muneo Yaso. "Evidence of Lath Martensite in High-C Japanese Sword Produced from Tamahagane Steel by Tatara Process." 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 138-141 [3]: Go Takami. Takuya Ohba. Shigekazu Morito. Ananda Kumar Das. "Microstructural Observation on Materials of the Japanese Sword under Fold-Forging Process. 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 134-137 |
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|
ET: Tatara furnaces, or versions thereof, existed since 300 BCE. Not sure when this steel was first produced. It is unlikely the best steel was produced from the very earliest times. Asuka period seems likely. "If black sand was used it would contain hypter-eutectoid steel (carbon content 1.2-1.7 percent) called tama hagane and pieces of iron with a lower carbon content (less than 0.8 percent). The tama hagane was the first quality steel used in swords."
[1]
References that support tamahagane steel being better than the first steels produced in Japan: "Present study elucidates that the tatara iron and its manufacturing procedure gives distinctive features to Japanese swords which is different from ordinary steel. It is also notable that Japanese swordsmith utilized lath martensite without knowing details about it."
[2]
Tamahagane steel (metal investigated was crafted by a modern swordsmith) has been "investigated with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis methods. Microstructures have been found to be a combination of ferrite and pearlite with a lot of nonmetallic inclusions."
[3]
[1]: (Wittner 2008, 25) David G Wittner. 2008. Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: Ananda Kumar Das. Takuya Ohba. Shigakazu Morito. Muneo Yaso. "Evidence of Lath Martensite in High-C Japanese Sword Produced from Tamahagane Steel by Tatara Process." 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 138-141 [3]: Go Takami. Takuya Ohba. Shigekazu Morito. Ananda Kumar Das. "Microstructural Observation on Materials of the Japanese Sword under Fold-Forging Process. 2010. Materials Science Forum. Vols. 654-656. Trans Tech Publications. pp. 134-137 |
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Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.”
[1]
Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators."
[2]
Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century."
[3]
"The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India."
[4]
"The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.”
[1]
[1]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris. [2]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [4]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
Islamic polities in the West Mediterranean seem to have been well acquainted with fine steel: Al-Zuhri, writing in the 12th century CE, "said that Seville produces ’Indian steel’."
[1]
[1]: (Williams 2012, 35) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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|
By the seventh century the "Sogdians and Turkic peoples "had their own sophisticated metallurgical industries."
[1]
"The other peoples who were heavily involved with arms production and trade with the Tibetans were the Turkic peoples and especially the Karluks, allies of the Tibetans during the eighth and early ninth centuries ... The Karluks ... were noted by Islamic geographers as producers and exporters of iron artifacts and weapons to Tibet and China."
[2]
[1]: (Clarke 2006, 21-22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven. |
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This could be southern India (and/or Sri Lanka): Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[1]
Northern India as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa.
[2]
[1]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press. |
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|
"It is believed that Indian steel was exported in the early centuries A.D. and was known even in the time of Alexander. By the sixth century there is more definite evidence of the manufacture of Damascene swords and the steel used for this purpose came from India."
[1]
Use of Damascene steel certainly by 540 CE: "This unique type of steel was a major technological innovation and Iran played an important role in its production over the centuries. Circumstantial evidence suggests that a trade in a special steel, conceivably the ingots from which damascene steel was made, was underway in the Parthian and Sasanian period. Sometime after 115 A.D. the Parthians were importing iron (steel) from some point to the east"
[2]
[1]: (Abraham 1988, 171) Meera Abraham. 1988. Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. [2]: (Piggott 2011) Pigott, V C. 1984 (2011). “Ahan.” Encyclopedia iranica. I/6. pp. 624-633. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahan-iron Site accessed: 25 September 2017. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present for armor.
[1]
Byzantines imported steel swords from the Baltic and the forest peoples of Russia.
[2]
"The timber and beaches of Chalybia could always provide it, but villages in less fortunate areas may hardly have qualified for the Iron Age. On the other hand the armouries of Constantinople itself were capable of producing numbers of complex bronze, iron and steel weapons at short notice - for example for the Cretan expedition of 949."
[3]
Al-Kindi (801-870 CE) in a letter to the Caliph of Baghdad mentions that "swords may be made out of shaburqan by Rus, Slavs & Byzantines". Shaburqan meant ’hard iron.’ Al-Kindi also said the Byzantines and others also made narmahan (’soft iron’).
[4]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Cunliffe 2015, 378) Barry W Cunliffe. 2015. Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Bryer 1988, 41) Anthony Bryer. 1988. Peoples and settlement in Anatolia nad the Caucasus: 800-1900. Variorum Publishing. [4]: (Williams 2012, 27-29) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Byzantines imported steel swords from the Baltic and the forest peoples of Russia.
[2]
"The timber and beaches of Chalybia could always provide it, but villages in less fortunate areas may hardly have qualified for the Iron Age. On the other hand the armouries of Constantinople itself were capable of producing numbers of complex bronze, iron and steel weapons at short notice - for example for the Cretan expedition of 949."
[3]
Al-Kindi (801-870 CE) in a letter to the Caliph of Baghdad mentions that "swords may be made out of shaburqan by Rus, Slavs & Byzantines". Shaburqan meant ’hard iron.’ Al-Kindi also said the Byzantines and others also made narmahan (’soft iron’).
[4]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Cunliffe 2015, 378) Barry W Cunliffe. 2015. Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Bryer 1988, 41) Anthony Bryer. 1988. Peoples and settlement in Anatolia nad the Caucasus: 800-1900. Variorum Publishing. [4]: (Williams 2012, 27-29) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Byzantines imported steel swords from the Baltic and the forest peoples of Russia.
[2]
"The timber and beaches of Chalybia could always provide it, but villages in less fortunate areas may hardly have qualified for the Iron Age. On the other hand the armouries of Constantinople itself were capable of producing numbers of complex bronze, iron and steel weapons at short notice - for example for the Cretan expedition of 949."
[3]
Al-Kindi (801-870 CE) in a letter to the Caliph of Baghdad mentions that "swords may be made out of shaburqan by Rus, Slavs & Byzantines". Shaburqan meant ’hard iron.’ Al-Kindi also said the Byzantines and others also made narmahan (’soft iron’).
[4]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Cunliffe 2015, 378) Barry W Cunliffe. 2015. Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Bryer 1988, 41) Anthony Bryer. 1988. Peoples and settlement in Anatolia nad the Caucasus: 800-1900. Variorum Publishing. [4]: (Williams 2012, 27-29) Alan Williams. 2012. The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. Leiden. |
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Metals acquired through trade gradually displaced wooden and stone tools: "The tomahawk succeeded the war-club, as the rifle did the bow. With the invention of this terrible implement of warfare the red man had nothing to do, except in having it so fashioned as to be adapted to his taste and usage. The tomahawk is known as widely as the Indian, and the two names have become apparently inseparable. They are made of steel, brass, or iron."
[1]
There were considerable time-lags when it comes to the adoption of metal weapons among different indigenous groups of the North-East: "The Northeast was crisscrossed by an extensive series of trade routes that consisted of rivers and short portages. The Huron used these routes to travel to the Cree and Innu peoples, while the Iroquois used them to travel to the Iroquoians on the Atlantic coast. The French claimed the more northerly area and built a series of trade entrepôts at and near Huron communities, whose residents recognized the material advantages of French goods as well as the fortifications’ defensive capabilities. The Huron alliance quickly became the gatekeeper of trade with the Subarctic, profiting handsomely in this role. Its people rapidly adopted new kinds of material culture, particularly iron axes, as these were immensely more effective in shattering indigenous wooden armour than were traditional stone tomahawks."
[2]
"For a period of time the new weapons enabled the Huron confederacy to gain the upper hand against the Iroquois, who did not gain access to European goods as quickly as their foes. By about 1615 the long traditions of interethnic conflict between the two alliances had become inflamed, and each bloc formally joined with a member of another traditional rivalry-the French or the English. Initially the Huron-French alliance held the upper hand, in no small part because the French trading system was in place several years before those of the Dutch and English. The indigenous coalitions became more evenly matched after 1620, however, as the Dutch and English trading system expanded. These Europeans began to make guns available for trade, something the French had preferred not to do. The Huron found that the technological advantage provided by iron axes was emphatically surpassed by that of the new firearms."
[2]
We have adopted 1620 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Morgan & Lloyd 1901, 15 [2]: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American/Native-American-history#ref968222 |
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"Through trade with the Colonists, brass, steel, and iron war clubs replaced the wooden ones."
[1]
"The tomahawk succeeded the war-club, as the rifle did the bow. With the invention of this terrible implement of warfare the red man had nothing to do, except in having it so fashioned as to be adapted to his taste and usage. The tomahawk is known as widely as the Indian, and the two names have become apparently inseparable. They are made of steel, brass, or iron."
[2]
[1]: Lyford 1945, 45 [2]: Morgan & Lloyd 1901, 15 |
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Al-Kindi commented on the the high quality steel of the ancient Yemeni sword."
[1]
Likely iron/steel was imported from Sri Lanka and/or India. There is no evidence for an iron-smelting site in Yemen
[2]
The area, like East Africa, could have received iron imports from Sri Lanka toward the end of the first century BCE and was, in any case, conquered by iron-using Axum
[3]
by 200 CE. Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE.
[4]
[1]: (Syvanne 2015, 134) Ilkka Syvanne. 2015. Military History of Late Rome 284-361. Pen and Sword. Barnsley. [2]: (Killick 2015) Killick, David. Cairo to Cape: The Spread of Metallurgy through Eastern and Southern Africa. Roberts, Benjamin W. Thornton, Christopher P. 2015. eds. Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective: Methods and Syntheses. Springer. New York. [3]: (Carlson 2012, 119) Jon D Carlson. 2012. Myths, State Expansion, and the Birth of Globalization: A Comparative Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke. [4]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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Rifles were present: ’But al-jirafi goes on, more importantly, to relate that al-Ahmar wrote al-Mansur al-Husayn a brusque letter demanding a meeting. The Imam feared an attempt at assassination; so he’assassinated alAhmar first, stuck his head on a lance, and galloped off with it through a hail of bullets from the shaykh’s enraged tribesmen (aljirafi 1951: 182). In fact, al-Ahrnar, accompanied by Bin juzaylan of DhU Muhammad and by Ahmad Muhammad Hubaysh of Sufyan, seems to have come to ’Asir, just outside San’a’, to seek a settlement (Zabarah 1941: 539 and 1958: 486). The details are probably lost forever, and we are told only that al-Ahmar ’had wished to make independent his own rule of part of the country’ (ibid.), which he very well may have done; but al-Mansur alHusayn’s view of the matter, as recorded in the histories, has all the vigorous clarity of the Zaydi tradition. The taunt to the tribesmen at the time was, typically, that they were no better than polytheists: he brandished al-Ahmar’s head on his spear and cried ’this is the head of your idol’.’
[1]
[1]: Dresch, Paul 1989. "Tribes, Government and History in Yemen", 203p |
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|
Likely iron/steel was imported from Sri Lanka and/or India. There is no evidence for an iron-smelting site in Yemen
[1]
The area, like East Africa, could have received iron imports from Sri Lanka toward the end of the first century BCE and was, in any case, conquered by iron-using Axum
[2]
by 200 CE. Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Killick 2015) Killick, David. Cairo to Cape: The Spread of Metallurgy through Eastern and Southern Africa. Roberts, Benjamin W. Thornton, Christopher P. 2015. eds. Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective: Methods and Syntheses. Springer. New York. [2]: (Carlson 2012, 119) Jon D Carlson. 2012. Myths, State Expansion, and the Birth of Globalization: A Comparative Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke. [3]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
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No references in the literature. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
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No references in the literature. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
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Was the steel produced of a good quality? Recoded suspected unknown until further clarification.
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Steel weapons may have been introduced by Russian military, but more detail on this is needed.
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’From all this, we can bear in mind that Khmer breastplates, as we have described them, possibly used the materials cited by Bezacier: buffalo skins, tree bark, and bronze, even if this metal was replaced with iron at the period we are discussing, if indeed metal was used in making this armour. This was the case of the king, if we can believe Zhou Daguan, who in the thirteenth century AD indicates that the sovereign "had his body class in iron, so that even knives and arrows, striking his body, could not harm him".’
[1]
Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
[1]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 20-21) |
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Steel technology was not present at this time.
[1]
Which time was mentioned specifically? Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[2]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[3]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[4]
[1]: Avari, B. (2007) India: The Ancient Past: A history of the India sub-continent from c. 7,000 BC to AD 1200. Routledge: London and New York. [2]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [3]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [4]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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Probably not common but it is quite probable that the elite soldiers used wootz steel swords. Indian iron smiths invented the ’wootz’ method of steel creation between 550-450 BCE. The Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus commented on an Indian steel sword (or a sword of Indian steel?) in the possession of Artaxerxes II of Persia (c400 BCE).
[1]
At Naikund in Maharashtra: knowledge of steeling and hardening from 700 BCE.
[2]
Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123).
[3]
[1]: (Singh 1997, 102) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Deshpande and Dhokey 2008) P P Deshpande. N B Dhokey. April 2008. Metallographical investigations of iron objects in ancient Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals. Volume 61. Issue 2-3. Springer. pp. 135-137. [3]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of ironartefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. |
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Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[1]
- did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[1]
- did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[1]
- did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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|
Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE
[1]
- did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’.
[1]
[1]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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LeBar claims early evidence for the use of iron and steel tools acquired through trade with other islands: ’It appears that during this early period, and for some time thereafter, the Trukese were in contact with Guam and other islands in the Marianas due to the fact that atoll islanders to the west of Truk regularly voyaged to Guam and back, taking with them items for trade in return for which they brought back iron and steel implements. The Trukese were thus in possession of iron tools at a very early date.’
[1]
However, it isn’t clear if this metal was used in warfare.
[1]: LeBar, Frank M. {nd}-/. “Material Culture Of Truk", 19 |
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LeBar claims early evidence for the use of iron and steel tools acquired through trade with other islands: ’It appears that during this early period, and for some time thereafter, the Trukese were in contact with Guam and other islands in the Marianas due to the fact that atoll islanders to the west of Truk regularly voyaged to Guam and back, taking with them items for trade in return for which they brought back iron and steel implements. The Trukese were thus in possession of iron tools at a very early date.’
[1]
However, it isn’t clear if this metal was used in warfare.
[1]: LeBar, Frank M. {nd}-/. “Material Culture Of Truk", 19 |
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