where did iron-smithing originate and in what century?
Iron-smithing (or blacksmithing) means making useful items from iron. The earliest iron implements, tools and weapons that have been discovered were produced from meteorites, which consist of lumps of iron with a high nickel content. The earth never was littered with an abundance of meteorites laying about ready to be heated and forged into iron instruments, so these very early iron implements are few and far between. In order for men to begin working iron on a regular basis and large scale, they first had to produce iron from the Earth itself. Over 35% of our planet consists of iron, but it is usually present as an ore, not as a pure element. To make iron that was usable as a material, the iron ore had to be heated in a very hot furnace (charcoal was needed as the material to produce the high temperatures). Earth-sourced iron artefacts began to appear from about the middle of the Bronze Age in significant numbers in different parts of the world. But this did not occur everywhere at the same time. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Ganges Valley (India) and Anatolia (Turkey) were the first regions in which Earth-iron artefacts began to be made in substantial numbers. The dating on these developments is between 2000 BC and 1800 BC.
I like questions like these. However I don't know so I'm going to plagiarize right out of . The earliest cast lead beads known today were found in the ?atal H?yük site in Anatolia (Turkey), and were dated of 6500BC.
