Dr. Mikhail Mikhailovich Konshin, Doctor of Philosophy in History (Ph.D. in History)
Relevance
Iron is an amazing metal that was previously unknown to mankind. For many centuries, people used other metals, such as bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, or zinc.
But metallurgical iron, which is stronger than bronze, radically changed the civilisational processes in ancient societies and accelerated their development.
The advent of the Iron Age brought about a series of global changes in the world’s historical and cultural situation. Agriculture improved, as the use of iron tools made it possible to improve land cultivation, clear large forest areas for crops, and develop irrigation systems. Weapons manufacturing developed, wood and stone processing improved, and copper ore mining became easier. All this, in turn, led to the development of military technology, transport, and construction. Trade links expanded and coinage emerged. Serious social changes took place in pre-class societies, resulting in the emergence of new early class societies with clearly discernible statehood.
Bronze-smelting centres lose their monopoly on metal production, and many previously backward areas, poor in copper ore but rich in iron ore, which is much more widely available, catch up with the traditional centres of civilisation in terms of their technological and socio-economic level. Accordingly, the regionalisation of the oikoumene changes somewhat. Instead of the cultures that formed the Eneolithic-Bronze Age differentiation into metallurgical zones (provinces) with a centre and periphery, the division of the oikoumene into cultural and historical areas and communities, in the formation of which ethno-political and economic and cultural factors play a decisive role, becomes more important. Within these associations, peoples have similar features of economy, way of life, and material culture and are grouped around a certain dominant ethnic group (or several closely related ethnic groups).
The article touches upon some features of the production and use of iron objects by the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of India, as well as the migration processes associated with the use of iron weapons and tools in the early Iron Age.
Keywords: iron metallurgy in antiquity, early methods of ironworking, iron weapons, the influence of iron metallurgy on civilisational processes, migration of peoples, archaeology.
UDC 903, 903-03
One of the first peoples to unlock the secrets of iron metallurgy were the legendary Hittites, who lived in Eastern and Central Anatolia in the territory of Asia Minor. Their ethnogenesis is still a matter of debate among historians.
Before their appearance in the eastern part of Asia Minor and the eastern Black Sea coast, there lived an even more mysterious people, the Hatti. Some experts believe that the Hittites borrowed their name and the secrets of iron metallurgy from the Hatti. Historical science has no information about whether the Hattians, who lived at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, had a state structure. However, the Hittites, who already possessed the secret of iron metallurgy, founded one of the most powerful and formidable states in the Middle East. Iron weapons helped the first monopolists of iron weapon production, the Hittites, wage victorious wars throughout the Middle East. Iron objects also became a valuable commodity.
For example, in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the Hittite king Hattusili wrote to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II about sending iron to Egypt.
At that time, iron was used in small quantities in Egypt and was valued as highly as gold. Most often it was meteorite iron, and therefore for a long time it was referred to in written monuments as ‘heavenly metal.’ During excavations of tombs near Medum, dating to the Middle Dynastic period, a necklace was found in which iron beads alternated with gold ones. In Tutankhamun’s tomb (1360-1350 BC), miniature iron objects were found, including an iron dagger in a gold setting, possibly a diplomatic gift from the Hittites. However, the Hittites did not seek to spread iron and its technologies widely, as can be seen from the surviving correspondence between the Egyptian pharaoh and his father-in-law, the king of the Hittites. The pharaoh asks for more iron, and the Hittite king evasively replies that iron reserves have been depleted and blacksmiths are busy with agricultural work, so he cannot fulfil the request of his royal son-in-law. As can be seen, the Hittites tried to use their knowledge to gain military advantages and did not allow others to catch up with them. This is probably why iron trade items did not become widespread until after the Trojan War and the fall of the Hittite Empire, when Greek trade made iron technology known to many.
Even at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, it was an extremely expensive metal, and it was not until the 6th century BC that iron became the most commonly used metal in Egypt.
At the same time, the Hittites penetrated northern Syria, Palestine and Cilicia, reached Babylon in Mesopotamia, and occupied the northern regions of Egypt. Archaeologist V. Petrie, during excavations in Gerar in Palestine, discovered iron ploughshares, sickles and hoes, which he dated to the 11th century BC. However, iron did not come into widespread use in the Ancient East until the 9th-8th centuries BC. It was at this time that the Assyrian Empire, located north of Mesopotamia, flourished. As early as the 13th century BC, iron objects were placed as votive offerings when temples were built. Starting in the 9th century, Assyrian documents mention iron hoes and daggers, but even at that time, iron had not yet completely replaced bronze and stone in the manufacture of tools. During excavations of modern Khorsabad, in the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled in the 8th century BC, a warehouse of iron ingots and tools (shovels, ploughshares, hoes) was found. It was only in the 8th century BC that iron became widely used. It began to be used to make armour and weapons for Assyrian warriors (armour, shields, helmets, swords, spears).
It is important to note that after the process of iron production, which was strictly guarded by the Hittites, was discovered, the Hittite state quickly fell into decline and was eventually conquered by other peoples who had mastered the secret of iron weapon production.
Another people who mastered the secret of iron production, probably somewhat later than the Hittites, were the Philistines. Possessing advanced technologies for their time (iron smelting and processing, production of iron chariots and weapons), the Philistines invaded the depths of Canaan.
Evidence of the Philistines’ economic domination over Israel at the time when Saul became king can be found in verses 19-22 of chapter 13 of the First Book of Kings: “There was no blacksmith in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines feared that the Israelites might make swords or spears. And all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, their mattocks, their axes, and their pickaxes, and the price was a pim (2/3 shekel) for ploughshares and axes, and one-third of a shekel for sharpening a pickaxe and for sharpening a spearhead (or for repairing the handle when a notch appeared on the blade of a ploughshare, or on a mattock, or on a pickaxe, or when the spearhead needed to be repaired). Therefore, during the war of Michmash, there was no sword or spear among all the people who were with Saul and Jonathan…
The meaning of verse 21 remained unclear until recently, primarily because we did not know the meaning of the word ‘pim.’ During excavations, small weights were found with this word written on them, which made it possible to understand the entire verse properly, although the translation of the names of some agricultural tools should be considered rather arbitrary. We are told that the Philistines exercised such control over the Israelites that they did not allow them to have blacksmiths in their lands, fearing that they would begin to forge weapons. For this reason, farmers who needed to sharpen their tools were forced to turn to the Philistines, who charged them exorbitant fees.
This passage may lead to conclusions of a different kind. From 4000 BC, the usual metal used to make tools and weapons was copper or less malleable bronze (copper mixed with tin). Until 1200 BC, iron was used relatively rarely. It is likely that the Hittites tried in every way to keep the rather ingenious secret of its manufacture a closely guarded secret. The well-known backwardness of the Israelites in the fields of construction, agriculture and military affairs was largely due to their lack of this important metal. Archaeologists have found iron artefacts in Philistine burials, and the first iron tool found in the mountainous part of the country is a ploughshare from Saul’s fortress in Gibeon (around 1010 BC). We can safely assume that iron was brought to Palestine by the Philistines, who became ‘monopolists’ in the iron market and carefully guarded the professional secrets of its production. The power of the Philistines collapsed only with the appearance of the first kings of Israel, Saul and David, after which iron arrived here, causing a genuine economic revolution.
Nevertheless, the Philistines repeatedly conquered the Israelites living on both banks of the Jordan River. The famous Israeli warrior Samson died in captivity in the Philistine city of Gaza. It was to resist Philistine expansion that the Israeli tribes consolidated under the rule of a king. However, the Philistines not only inflicted a crushing defeat on the Israelites, but also took the sacred Ark of the Covenant as a trophy. Nevertheless, faced with numerous disasters that they associated with the ark (according to the biblical text, the Philistines were forced to return the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites.
The Philistines as a people disappeared after the campaigns of Alexander the Great (4th century BC), dissolving into the Hellenised population of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Another people who knew the secret of early iron production were the Halibs, a people who lived in Asia on the Black Sea coast between the Messene tribes in the east and the Tibareni (who lived in the Sinope region) in the west.
They were known among the surrounding peoples as master blacksmiths and were held in high esteem, so much so that some names were derived from their name: for example, the Bible mentions Caleb (Kalev) from the tribe of Judah, a participant in the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, who was an active supporter and spy of Moses (Book of Numbers 13:7).
In the 5th century BC, Herodotus lists the Halibs among the Hellenic tribes of Asia Minor under the rule of Croesus, who lived on the Black Sea coast near the mouth of the Kyzylyrmak River ‘Galis’ (modern Samsun in Turkey). The Halibs may have been descendants of the Hittite Empire, and in the Trojan War they fought on the side of the Trojans.
In the 5th century BC, Aeschylus wrote in his ‘Tragedy’: “First of all, turn away from here towards the rising sun and walk across the unploughed steppes; you will come to the nomadic Scythians, … Do not approach them, but leave this country, walking along the noisy and rocky sea coast. On your left live the iron-working Halibs, … Further on you will reach the Buina River, …; do not cross it, … until you come to the Caucasus itself, …. After crossing the heights that rise to the stars, you will enter a horse trail that will lead you to the hostile men of the Amazon army, who will eventually settle in Themiscyra near Thermodont, where the harsh Salmydessian Bay is located, …; the Amazons will gladly show you the way. Following them, you will reach the narrowest gate of the lake to the Cimmerian isthmus; boldly passing it, cross the Strait of Meotia … Leaving European soil, you will enter the Asian mainland …”.
In the 2nd century BC, Apollonius of Rhodes, referring to other ancient authors, pointed out: “… Polyphemus ended his life in battle with the Halibes. This is a Scythian people. … The Halibs are a Scythian people beyond Thermodon; they have discovered iron mines and are engaged in their development. They are named Halibs after Ares’ son Halib. Callimachus also mentions them: ‘May the race of the Halibs perish, who discovered this evil creation rising from the earth.’
Aristotle left a description of the Halib method of obtaining iron: ‘… the Halib washed the river sand of their country several times, added some kind of refractory substance to it, and smelted it in specially designed furnaces; the metal obtained in this way was silver in colour and stainless.’ One of the last mentions of the Halibs dates back to the 4th century AD, made by Rufus Festus Avienus in his work ‘Description of the Earth,’ where he wrote: “Further on are the Tibareni, and above them the Halibs, where fields rich in deadly iron resound with the sound of high anvils. Behind them lie the tithes of Assyrian land and Teriodont, which originates from the Armenian ridge and licks the fields of the Amazon tribe.”
Magnetite sands, found all along the Black Sea coast, were used as raw material for iron production. These magnetite sands consist of a mixture of fine grains of magnetite, titanomagnetite, ilmenite, and fragments of other rocks, so that the iron smelted by the Halibites was alloyed and apparently of high quality.
This unique method of obtaining iron from ore mined in mines suggests that the Halibs discovered iron as a technological material rather than a means of widespread industrial production. Apparently, their discovery served as an impetus for the further development of iron metallurgy, including from ore mined in mines.
Apparently, after learning about the Halibs’ method, the ancient Trojans developed their own method of obtaining steel from ore, which proved to be more productive.
Clement of Alexandria mentions in his encyclopaedic work that, according to Greek legend, iron (apparently its production from ore) was discovered on Mount Ida, the name given to a mountain range near Troy opposite the island of Lesbos (in the Iliad, it is mentioned as Mount Ida, from which Zeus watched the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans). This happened 73 years after the Deluge of Deucalion, and this flood, according to the Parian Chronicle, occurred in 1528 BC, meaning that the method of producing iron from ore was discovered around 1455 BC. However, it is not clear from Clement’s description whether he is referring to this mountain in Asia Minor (Ida Phrygica in Virgil) or to Mount Ida on the island of Crete, which was mentioned by the Roman poet Virgil.
It is more likely that Clement of Alexandria is referring to the Phrygian Ida near Troy, as ancient iron axes and iron production sites were found there.
In ancient times, iron was valued more than gold, and according to Strabo, African tribes gave 10 pounds of gold for 1 pound of iron.
According to Homer’s descriptions, although during the Trojan War (around 1250 BC) weapons were mainly made of copper and bronze, iron was already well known and in high demand, although more as a precious metal. For example, in the 23rd song of the Iliad, Homer recounts that Achilles awarded the winner of a discus throwing competition with an iron disc. The Achaeans obtained this iron from the Trojans and neighbouring peoples, including the Halibs, who fought on the side of the Trojans:
‘The other Achaean men bought wine in exchange,
Some for ringing bronze, some for grey iron,
Some for ox hides or sharp-horned oxen,
Some for their captives. And a merry feast was prepared…’
Iron may have been one of the reasons that prompted the Achaean Greeks to move to Asia Minor, where they learned the secrets of its production. Excavations in Athens have shown that by around 1100 BC and later, iron swords, spears, axes, and even iron nails were already widespread. The biblical book of Joshua 17:16 and the Book of Judges describe how the Philistines had many iron chariots, meaning that iron was already widely used in large quantities at that time.
Homer, in the Iliad, calls iron a ‘laborious metal’ and describes the hardening of tools:
‘The swift smith, having made an axe or a hatchet,
He dips the metal into water, having heated it, so that it may have double
Strength…’
Homer calls iron laborious because in ancient times the main method of obtaining it was a wet process: interlayers of iron ore and charcoal were calcined in special furnaces (horns — from the ancient word ‘Horn’ — horn, pipe, originally it was just a pipe dug into the ground, usually horizontally on the slope of a ravine). In the horn, iron oxides were reduced to metal by hot charcoal, which removed oxygen, oxidising to carbon monoxide, and as a result of this roasting, the ore with charcoal produced a dough-like, spongy iron. The bloom was purified of slag by forging, squeezing out impurities with strong hammer blows.
But the triumph of Homer’s heroes was doomed to be short-lived. A new wave of invaders from the north, consisting mainly of Dorians who already used iron weapons, swept over Greece. These new arrivals were less cultured than their Achaean relatives. Strongholds such as Mycenae and Tiryns were destroyed, and many of their destitute inhabitants joined the stream of emigrants from the Greek peninsula to the eastern coast. There, as on the many islands scattered across the sea, the ancient culture was able to remain intact, but on the Greek mainland, the wave of Dorian invasion gave rise to a period of turmoil, a time of significant changes in the way of life, when the survivors of the old culture eventually became part of the civilisation we now know as ancient Greece. These turbulent centuries, about which we know very little, are very similar to the dark ages of the Christian era, which erased almost all traces of the culture of ancient Rome. When the ancient Greeks entered the world stage (in the 8th century BC), they already possessed an advanced culture, an expressive language and a rich heritage of epic literature and mythology.
In areas that were less accessible or more convenient for defence, where the wave of invasion did not penetrate, ancient culture was able to exist longer. In others, which experienced the full destructive fury of the invaders, everything old was swept away by a new wave. But one thing remained unchanged since the tribal era: a strong clan instinct, which formed the basis for the emergence of a system of city-states that became an essential part of the ancient Greek way of life. These city-states were mostly quite small. Aristotle believed that for effective governance, a city should be small enough for all its inhabitants to know each other. It is highly doubtful that any ancient Greek city, with the exception of Athens, could field an army of more than 20,000 men between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Most often, a city-state consisted of a walled settlement surrounded by farms and villages located at such a distance from it that all their inhabitants could quickly take refuge behind its walls in case of danger. Many of these cities were located within a few hours’ walk of each other, so that often the inhabitants of one city, which was a mortal enemy of another, could see their rivals. It was precisely the small size of these tiny enclaves that contributed greatly to the development of military art in Ancient Greece and gave it its special character. Unlike the lone heroes of Homer’s time, the warriors of the city-states were citizen-soldiers, specially selected from among all the inhabitants, armed and commanded in the name of their salvation. The chariots of the Trojan War disappeared, and the ‘queen of the fields’ became the heavily armed, iron-clad spear-wielding infantry known as hoplites.
Another unique centre of early iron metallurgy is the territory of the Armenian Highlands. Artefacts found in modern Armenia and other regions testify to the early stages of metal extraction and processing. The products of the craftsmen of the Ararat Kingdom (Urartu) were famous far beyond the borders of historical Armenia. Research by German scientists Heinrich Quirring, Georg Agricola, and Karl Bax established that the development of metallurgy in Armenia began long before the Urartu period. According to scientists, in the 16th century BC, an epoch-making discovery was made in the Armenian Highlands. Air bellows were invented and iron was forged. It was this discovery that made Armenia a target for conquest by all neighbouring peoples seeking to gain the secret of manufacturing steel weapons, which were superior to bronze.
By the 12th century BC, iron had come into widespread use in Armenia alongside bronze, although the latter was cheaper and therefore more accessible. By 750 BC, iron was widely used for the manufacture of weapons and agricultural tools, as well as various other instruments. U.F. Albright once made an interesting suggestion that the name of the Babylonian god Ninurta could be interpreted as ‘lord of Armenia’ (i.e. Ararat, Urartu) or ‘lord of iron’.
The cuneiform records of the Kingdom of Urartu contain a number of specific references to iron. This may indicate that it had become a cheap and common material, as references to gold, silver and bronze were quite frequent. However, when the Urartian king Sarduri II conquered Colchis in the campaigns of 744–741 BC, he ordered that slabs of special iron be made in memory of this victory and erected in prominent places in the Colchian (Colchis) cities with these commemorative inscriptions.
By the second half of the first millennium BC, iron was already known to many countries and peoples. It was used to make ploughs and axes, daggers and swords. Armourers tried to make daggers and swords strong and flexible, hard and sharp. In ancient times, the craftsmen of India were the most successful in this.
According to Arrian in his ‘Anabasis Alexandri,’ at the end of the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great led a large army to conquer India. Through Mesopotamia and the territory of modern Afghanistan, he penetrated the northwestern part of the ‘Land of Wonders.’ There, on the Hydaspes River, a northern tributary of the Indus, the Indian king Porus awaited him with his army. A bloody battle ensued, in which the Indian troops were completely defeated.
King Por fought bravely, but he was wounded in his right shoulder, which was not covered by armour, and was taken prisoner. To the amazement of the Macedonians, the huge armour that protected the king’s body was completely undamaged by arrows and spears; there were no scratches or dents on it. It was made of iron of extraordinary strength and hardness. The same iron was used to make broad Indian swords, ‘no less than three cubits’ long, which the warriors raised with both hands to strike in battle. These swords easily cut Macedonian iron in half.
“Por, who had done great deeds in battle not only as a strategist but also as a brave warrior, when he saw the horsemen and elephants being beaten, some falling dead on the spot, others deprived of their leaders, pitiful and wandering, while most of his foot soldiers had perished, he did not retreat like Darius, the great king, but fought alongside his men until there were only a few Indians left in the battle, and only wounded in his right shoulder, which was the only part of his body exposed during the battle (for the rest of his body was protected from arrows by armour that was extraordinary in its strength and proportion, as those who saw him later learned), he turned his elephant. And Alexander, seeing that he was a great and noble man, wished to save him in battle.
According to historians, ancient European iron weapons were so soft that after two or three blows they would bend, and warriors were forced to retreat to straighten their blades. This is confirmed by our study of a fragment of an ancient sword made of wrought iron. Its chemical composition was as follows: C- 0.037%; Mn-0.020%; Si-0.020%; Ni-0.04%; P- 0.143%; S-0.070. The microstructure of the metal consisted of large grains of ferrite with numerous sulphide inclusions. Naturally, Indian swords seemed like a miracle to the Macedonians.
Ho, they were even more annoyed by the unknown, terrifying weapon that the Indians called ‘chakra’. The chakra struck the enemy in flight. It was a heavy flat steel ring, similar to a bagel with a flat outer edge. This edge was sharpened to the sharpness of a razor blade. Warriors wore chakras strung on a conical felt turban that fit tightly on their heads. Indian warriors spun the chakra on two fingers and threw it at the enemy. Spinning at a terrifying speed in a horizontal plane at neck level, the chakra cut off the heads of the Macedonians like a scythe cutting flower heads. This was the first time Europeans encountered the extraordinary Indian steel, which later became widely known in the Middle East and Europe.
Long before the event described above, a caste of blacksmiths descended from the Himalayan mountains to Punjab (the oldest principality in India), who were well versed in ironworking and skilled in making iron weapons with properties that were extraordinary for that time. From Punjab, Indian iron and methods of processing it spread to Siam and Japan.
Aristotle mentions Indian steel, calling it ‘ferrum candidum’ (‘white iron’). ‘White iron’ was highly valued and sold in the form of small round cakes cut in half. These halves later came to be called ‘wutts’.
Wutts were easy to forge, process and polish. One half of a wutts could be used to make a sword or dagger. Ancient craftsmen carefully guarded the secret of how to make this unusual metal, passing it on to their sons only on their deathbeds.
The ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana mention heavy iron swords, but nothing is said about their appearance or properties.
However, iron was first extracted from ore in the territories around the Black Sea. Neither Great Britain, which later became famous as the forge of the world, nor France, nor other European countries, let alone other continents, have such monuments on their territories as the Circum-Pontic region, which bear witness to the dawn of the Iron Age. Metallurgical iron appeared asynchronously or later in many other places. These events run like a red thread through the history of world civilisation. Iron, as a new, hitherto unknown metal capable of defeating any enemy and making any army invincible, came into the hands of man here, in the Black Sea region. One of the most ancient centres of early ironworking, and at the same time the region of the southern Black Sea coast closest to us, is Northern Anatolia, the territory of the ancient Hittite state. The routes by which iron spread to Northern Europe are poorly understood, but they are of interest to educated people, and this interest is easy to explain: iron gave man the power that enabled him to achieve the previously unattainable. Weapons, military equipment and tools had excellent properties, and the peoples who possessed them dominated their neighbours.
The ‘Iron Road’ ran south from the southern shores of Pontus to Mesopotamia, Mittani, and west to the territory of Canaan, known as Phoenicia. Herodotus, in his ‘History,’ says that when the Scythians settled in the Northern Black Sea region, they drove out the Cimmerians who had lived there before them.
According to him, the Cimmerians, oppressed by the Scythians, gathered on the Dniester and decided there what to do next. The Cimmerian kings insisted on continuing the fight against the Scythians, but the people decided to leave their country. Then, supposedly, the Cimmerian kings divided into two groups and, fighting among themselves, killed each other. The Cimmerians buried them by the river under such a high mound that the grave was still visible in Herodotus’ time, and they themselves withdrew to Asia Minor, but strangely chose not to take the western route closest to their destination, but the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
Not only was the second route much more difficult than the first, but it also led towards the enemies from whom the Cimmerians were fleeing. In addition, there are chronological contradictions. If we agree that the expulsion of the Cimmerians by the Scythians took place in the last third of the 2nd millennium BC, when the people of the log-house culture pushed the bearers of the catacomb culture to the western edge of their territory, this contradicts the Assyrian writings, which mention the appearance of the Cimmerians (Gimiri) in the Transcaucasus on the border of the Kingdom of Vang (Urartu) was noted in the 20s of the 8th century BC. On the other hand, independent of Herodotus, the much later Greek writer Strabo preserved vague memories of the Cimmerians’ attack on Asia Minor from the western side of the Bosporus from Thrace during the time of Homer or even earlier. The time of Homer can be understood in different ways — either as the time when the Homeric epics were created (believed to be the 8th century BC), or as the time of the events described in them — the Trojan War (the 13th century BC). When did the Cimmerians cross the Bosporus? And did they cross it at all?
The choice of the Cimmerians’ route to the east of Asia Minor can be explained by the presence of ancient iron ore provinces there, as well as centres for the production of swords and other iron products. It is obvious that by the time of their migration, the Cimmerians, who already possessed some iron weapons and knew of their superiority over bronze, had information about these ore provinces.
Ancient history and archaeology give reason to believe that there was also a northern route, which ran along the eastern coast of Pontus and the Caucasus to Northern Europe. It can be conventionally called the Northern Iron Route. The ancient tribes of the North Caucasus, with their ancient traditions of metalworking, were obviously involved in this route. Among the Proto-Moesian tribes of Zakubania, with their highly developed production and trade contacts with the metallurgical centres of the Central and Southern Caucasus, there was already a developed production of iron and bimetallic (bronze and iron) weapons in the first half of the 8th century BC. there was a developed production of iron and bimetallic (bronze and iron) weapons, which were then widely distributed through trade links and military campaigns of the Cimmerian, Scythian and Meotian cavalry. This route runs through the Northern Black Sea region.
The iron industry probably received a new impetus from the Scythians, who returned to the Northern Black Sea region in the 7th century BC after a 90-year stay in Cappadocia, where iron weapons had long been produced.
The Scythian peoples never lacked new ideas and new technologies. Agriculture, cattle breeding, and bronze and iron metallurgy were always at a high level here. The wealth of raw materials created opportunities for the improvement of material culture, while developed transport allowed these riches to be widely used, and sharp climate fluctuations and constant danger in open spaces stimulated the need for progress. At the same time, due to purely geographical factors, the Scythians were open to influences from all sides and were just as quick to share the fruits of their progress as they were to borrow the achievements of other civilisations.
Over more than 1,500 years, iron production technologies were perfected in the ancient world. However, even in that distant era, the technologies for forging iron and the specific composition of the iron ores from which pig iron was made allowed metallurgical provinces to develop in waves. Each state in the East had its own secrets for manufacturing metal weapons and tools, which allowed some of them to engage in military or trade expansion and determine the fate of peoples and entire civilisations. Modern technical research methods are helping archaeology and history to understand the composition of iron ores and the artefacts made from them. In the future, this will make it possible to correlate the migration patterns of ancient ethnic groups and the secrets of ironworking in antiquity. I am confident that new and surprising facts about the history of civilisations will be revealed.
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