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Late Bronze Age Collapse: Difference between revisions
→Metallurgy technologies
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=== Climate change & drought === | === Climate change & drought === | ||
=== Metallurgy technologies === | === Metallurgy technologies (cast bronze & iron-making) === | ||
[[File:Metal production in Ancient Middle East.svg|thumb|Mining areas of the ancient Middle East. Boxes colors: arsenic is in brown, copper in red, tin in grey, iron in reddish brown, gold in yellow, silver in white and lead in black. Yellow area stands for arsenic bronze, while grey area stands for tin bronze]] | |||
* metallurgy = working with metals to make tools, weapons, etc. | * metallurgy = working with metals to make tools, weapons, etc. | ||
** metallurgy requires access to ores, wood for high-heat to melt them, and techniques to mix metals in order to re-form them into useful weapons and tools | ** metallurgy requires access to ores, wood for high-heat to melt them, and techniques to mix metals in order to re-form them into useful weapons and tools | ||
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** "cast" metal is pouring molten metal into a mold or die | ** "cast" metal is pouring molten metal into a mold or die | ||
*** cast metal, whether iron or bronze is easier and cheaper to make and replicate | *** cast metal, whether iron or bronze is easier and cheaper to make and replicate | ||
* '''iron-making''' | * '''iron-making''' | ||
** iron-making started in central Europe and spread into the Middle East | ** iron-making started in central Europe and spread into the Middle East | ||
*** the Hittites adopted iron-making | *** the Hittites adopted iron-making around 1500 BC | ||
** iron ore is plentiful and widespread | **** see [https://periclespress.net/Hittites_iron.html Iron- The secret weapon (periclespress.net)] | ||
*** iron ore is plentiful and widespread | |||
*** unlike bronze, iron can be made with locally-found ingredients | *** unlike bronze, iron can be made with locally-found ingredients | ||
*** therefore iron-making does not require access to trade networks | **** therefore iron-making does not require access to trade networks | ||
** iron is | *** iron is easier to work than bronze and thereby more easily replicated | ||
*** therefore, iron weapons were more plentiful | **** therefore, iron weapons were more plentiful | ||
*** and lower-classes had access to them | **** and lower-classes had access to them | ||
** early iron-making used "wrought" iron | |||
*** "wrought" = "worked" or hammered and shaped | |||
*** tin and bronze melt at lower temperatures than iron ore (tin has relatively low melting point) | |||
*** however, iron becomes "workable" below its melting point | |||
*** casting iron was developed much later (possibly 400s in India and China) | |||
** into the late Bronze Age, Hittite and other iron workers discovered how to add carbon to iron without making it too brittle | |||
*** the advantage that it required lower heat to be workable | |||
* into the BOC, iron-working became important since copper and tin trade routes were disrupted | |||
=== Military techniques === | === Military techniques === | ||