One hears about the iron age and the bronze age—eras in which people discovered metallurgy. But how did that happen? Was it like:
1. Look at rock
2. See shiny
3. Try to melt the shiny out of the rock
4. Profit?
Explain it to me!
In: 1643
Two related things that haven’t been mentioned here yet:
“Heat treating” stones for tool making was already something that folks were doing way before making metal tools. Sometimes the rocks in your area aren’t ideal for making tools out of, but if they’re still the right type of rock (often a type of chert) and you bury them under your fire pit, the heat makes them easier to flake into a spear point or knife or whatnot.
And there are areas where very pure copper deposits have been found right at the surface (though many of these have been used up over the last few thousand years). These didn’t have to be smelted, but could be shaped and hardened with cold hammering techniques.
So it wasn’t entirely out of nowhere that people came up with this. They already had the idea of using intense heat to treat raw materials and change their physical qualities to make tools, and already had experience with metals
Latest Answers