A History of Metallurgy 2nd Edition PDF

Introduction

This book is an introduction to the history of metallurgy from the earliest times to the most recent. A study of this magnitude, embracing many of the countries in the world, cannot be treated adequately in one volume and it is intended in the course of time to cover this fertile field in a multi-volume work. However, it is felt that there is a demand for a single volume work from students of metallurgy and archaeology, not to mention the far greater numbers interested in the study of the history of technology in general.

The present author has previously discussed in detail the earlier periods of the subject up to AD 1600, with special reference to the British Isles. In the present volume we are concerned with such important subjects as the rise of metallurgy in the Near East and the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe.

The treatment of the subject has followed the pattern of the earlier work, with the maximum importance being attached to the material evidence and relatively little to the documentary evidence. This is not to decry the value of the latter, but merely to accept the fact that documtary evidence omits the details, such as the design of the furnaces and the composition of the metals produced, that seem so important to a practicing metallurgist. In the medieval and post-medieval periods, especially, we do get detailed descriptions of the techniques used, and these have been used to the full.

Today, metallurgy would be described as the science of metals, but up to the 18th century it was only concerned with the practice of metallurgy, which consists of the traditional methods of smelting, melting, and working of metals. The spread of this knowledge was not an even one throughout the world but depended on the ability of civilizations to invent new and exploit known techniques.

The fact that we find a well marked metallic sequence occurring over widely spaced areas of the globe may suggest that we are dealing with a diffusion process. For example, the sequence pure copper-arsenical copper-tin bronze-iron, occurs in different places and in some cases at times separated by over 2000 years. Not always, however, do we get the full sequence, for in parts of Africa we go from Neolithic technology with the making of flint tools and pottery to an Early Iron Age civilization. Of course there are good reasons for this; Neolithic civilizations did not always reach the technological standards upon which they could build a Copper Age nor, alternatively, did they have the trade contacts to benefit from the current diffusion trend.

However, geology suggests another possibl~eason for the metallic sequence. The main primary copper orebodies of the world have weathered into a succession of layers in which, going from top to bottom, there is an oxidized zone containing native (metallic) copper and oxidized minerals such as malachite, and lower down, an enriched sulphide zone in which such impurities as arsenic are present in strong concentrations. This may account for the ubiquity of the strongly arsenical coppers in the second phase of our metallic sequence. Laterprobably in the Late Bronze Age-the smelters had to be content with the lower grade sulphide ores at the base of the deposit, as indeed we have to be today.

For a long time the theory of the diffusion of ideas and techniques has been generally accepted by the archaeologists. Today, however, as our detailed knowledge increases, the general diffusional thesis is being questioned. But it would appear that as far as metallurgy is concerned there is still good reason to accept the general validity of diffusion, but at the same time remember that as native copper was available to anyone who could use it, many people could have made the first few steps in metallurgical development independently. It is probable that these groups were overtaken by the mainstream of technological advance before the local people had time to develop their own metallurgy.

The use of radio-carbon dating techniques has caused some revision of the previous dating of archaeological sites and, consequently, the beginning of industrial processes. Radio-carbon dates differ appreciably from some of the conventional historical dates in parts of the world, and the radio-carbon technique itself is in the process of continuous refinement. The 14C dates now tend to be earlier than was originally calculated on the basis of the earlier assumptions about the constancy of the cosmic ray activity and the halflife of the ¹⁴Cisotope.

The technique of copper smelting developed in Anatolia or Iran probably as early as the 6th millennium BC, and had reached the British Isles and China by the beginning of the 2nd millennium. It is possible that the appearance of smelted copper in South and Central America at the beginning of the first millennium AD is a case of independent development. In Anatolia the Iron Age started between about 1500 and 1000BC and reached China, Britain, and Nigeria by about 400 Be. North and South America and Australasia obtained their knowledge of ironworking with European colonization, beginning about the 15th century AD (see Appendix 4).

This book has been arranged on the basis of archaeological periods up to the coming of the Iron Age, and for this reason the reader should not be surprised to find a reference to the native copper-using American Indians of the 14th century AD included in the same early chapter as the beginning of the Near-Eastern copper using civilizations of the 6th millennium. For the same reason, the Early Iron Age cultures of Nigeria and Japan come into the same chapter on the Early Iron Age as European ironmaking, but after the Roman period, when we are dealing mainly with Europe, it is necessary to divide the subject into historical periods.

To try and make the special metallurgical terms understandable to the archaeologist and the historian I have included a technical glossary (see Appendix 1),but the more normal technical terms will be found in most technical dictionaries.

Edited by: R.F. Tylecote