www.worksinprogress.news/p/why-really-caused-the-bronze-age
2 corrections found
The key was that the impurities in the iron ore would be drawn off, leaving pure iron.
Bloomery smelting did not leave 'pure iron.' It produced a porous bloom still mixed with slag and often variable in carbon content, which then had to be worked further.
Full reasoning
This sentence oversimplifies the bloomery process into something materially inaccurate. Bloomery smelting did not produce pure iron. It produced a bloom: a semi-congealed, porous or spongy mass of iron still mixed with slag, which then had to be consolidated by repeated hammering and reheating. Specialist and heritage sources also note that early blooms could have varying carbon content, so calling the product "pure iron" is misleading.
A more accurate description would be that bloomery smelting reduced iron ore into a spongy iron bloom from which much of the slag could later be worked out.
2 sources
- Bloomery - The Historical Metallurgy Society
"During reduction solid particles of iron are formed ... to form a semi-congealed, porous or spongy mass of iron, the 'bloom'. The bloom is still mixed with much slag ... In practice ... blooms with varying carbon content."
- Archaeometallurgy: Guidelines for Best Practice | Historic England
"The smelting took place below the melting temperature of the iron and so the iron formed in the solid state as a spongy mass, or bloom."
but it would take a millennium to reach the western Mediterranean at the same level of production.
That timeline is far too long. Scholarly overviews place the western Mediterranean transition to iron in the 10th-9th centuries BCE, with iron becoming the prevailing metal within a couple of centuries.
Full reasoning
The article earlier suggests ironworking may have originated around 1400 BCE or earlier. If it truly took a millennium to reach the western Mediterranean at a comparable production level, that would push the date toward roughly 400 BCE. But archaeological syntheses place the western Mediterranean transition to iron much earlier.
A University of Groningen chapter specifically describes the introduction of iron in the western Mediterranean during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, and says the repertoire of iron tools and weapons then rapidly expanded until iron became the prevailing metal within a couple of centuries. Another archaeological overview notes local ironworking in southern Italy by the second half of the 10th century BCE and early ironworking in Spain by the first half of the 9th century BCE. That is hundreds of years after eastern adoption—not a full millennium.
2 sources
- Across cultures: The introduction of iron in the western Mediterranean, 10th and 9th centuries BC - the University of Groningen research portal
"The transition from Bronze to Iron Age in the western Mediterranean during the 10th and 9th centuries BC ... the repertoire of iron tools and weapons rapidly enlarged till it became the prevailing metal for all tools and weapons in a couple of centuries."
- Iron and the Iron Age: The Introduction of Iron in Europe and Western Asia
Search result summary: "At Torre Galli in Calabria, local ironworking started in the second half of the 10th century BC ... Phoenicians were regularly visiting the southern Iberian Peninsula by the first half of the 9th century BC."