about 4500 b.c.e., was full of molds, crucibles, and a tuyere
(a pipe or nozzle to force air into a forge or furnace) as well
as many chunks of copper ore. In the ancient Near East the
primary method of shaping all metals, including gold and
silver, was through annealing (in the case of copper, gold,
bronze, and silver) or forging (in the case of iron). Gold,
silver, and bronze were also hammered into sheets, which
could then be decorated with incised or raised relief. Cast
iron was not made, though objects of gold, silver, copper, and
bronze were occasionally made by the “lost wax” method
from about 3000 b.c.e.
Th e earliest copper objects appeared in the Near East
about 4000 b.c.e., and bronze was being worked about 500
years aft er that, but it was not until more than 2,000 years
later that iron mining and ironworking spread throughout
the Near East. Th ere were a number of reasons for the slow
development of iron metallurgy, but the most important was
the diffi culty of working the ore and of building furnaces (as
opposed to forges) capable of the high temperatures needed
to melt iron. Because ancient smiths were working with ore
or iron that contained appreciable amounts of impurities,
the furnaces did not need to reach 2800 degrees Fahrenheit
(the melting point of pure iron), but they had to be signifi -
cantly hotter than those used to work the metals in use in
the Bronze Age. Such furnaces needed to allow air to cir-
culate, to have the quantity and types of fuel necessary to
create high temperatures, and to be tall so that the melted
iron could drop.
When copper is smelted, the metal and the impurities
become liquid and drop to the bottom of the furnace, where
the impurities fl oat on top of the pure copper. Iron ore, on
the other hand, would remain more or less unmelted at the
highest temperatures an ancient furnace could reach. Some
of the other elements (impurities) would melt but would be
caught in the spongy-textured iron. Smiths could reheat the
spongy blob and hammer it until the impurities squirted
out, but this process had to be repeated many times before
a relatively pure metal was achieved—and that metal was
actually more diffi cult to work. However, if small amounts
of carbon were deliberately added to the iron, the result was
a harder metal, something discovered by ancient Near East-
ern smiths.
Another reason for the slow spread of iron metallurgy
was that certain cultures or groups of people seem to have
kept the techniques of ironworking a craft secret. For exam-
ple, in the book of Samuel, it is mentioned that the Israelites
had to take their iron tools and weapons to the Philistines
for repair. Th e reasons for such reluctance to share knowl-
edge are obvious. Not only did those who possessed the skills
have a monopoly on the market for them, but there also were
distinct military and economic advantages in having iron,
rather than bronze, weapons and tools. However, smiths of
all kinds were respected as skilled artisans, and their services
were keenly sought aft er, no matter whether they worked in
common metal, such as iron, or luxury metal, such as gold.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY JIANJUN MEI
Metallurgy is absent from the Pacifi c islands in ancient times,
owing to a lack of mineral deposits in the region. Th e fi rst
sign of the emergence of metallurgy in southern Asia is the
fi nding of copper beads from graves dated to the fi ft h millen-
nium b.c.e. at Mehrgarh, in southern Baluchistan. Evidence
from the site of Nal in Baluchistan shows the use of lead and
silver as early as the fourth millennium b.c.e. Gold came
into use in Punjab (modern-day India and Pakistan) slightly
later. Arsenical copper was known in the Indus civilization
of the third millennium b.c.e. and became prevalent among
the “copper hoards” of the Ganges valley, some of which date
from the second millennium b.c.e. Th e examination of early
metals from Mohenjo Daro (Pakistan) demonstrates that tin
bronze was in use from the late third millennium b.c.e. Iron
fi rst appeared in southern Asia in the second half of the sec-
ond millennium b.c.e. and became more common from the
beginning of the fi rst millennium b.c.e.
Metallurgy emerged in eastern Asia and Southeast Asia
later than in Mesopotamia and the Near East. Th e earliest
metal object found in eastern Asia is a piece of copper from
Banpo in Xi’an (Shaanxi Province) China, which is dated to
the fourth millennium b.c.e. Th is piece of copper has a high
zinc content and could be described as being made of brass.
Such a compositional feature is distinctly diff erent from the
earliest metals known in Mesopotamia and the Near East,
which were without exception made of pure copper. Curi-
ously, two other brass objects dating to the fourth to the third
millennium b.c.e. were found separately in Shaaxi and Shan-
dong provinces.
Th e early third millennium b.c.e. witnessed the begin-
nings of the use of tin bronze in China. A bronze knife from
Linjia, Dongxiang (Gansu Province) dating to about 2800
b.c.e. is the earliest bronze object known so far, not just in
China but also in eastern Asia. Th e knife was made of bronze
with 6 to 10 percent tin and cast in an open mold. Increasing
metallurgical activities came into sight across northwestern
and northern China from the middle of the third millennium
b.c.e., as demonstrated by archaeological fi nds such as met-
a ls, f rag ments of cr ucible (a vessel used to heat a nd melt), slag,
and casting molds from various sites. Th ese fi nds are mostly
ascribed to the Neolithic cultures of Machang, Longshan,
Shijiahe, and Hongshan and date to about 2500–2000 b.c.e.
During the fi rst half of the second millennium b.c.e.
northwestern China and the central plains of China were
the two major areas where remarkable innovations in metal-
lurgy took place. In northwestern China (mainly the Gansu,
Qinghai, and Xinjiang regions), new metals such as gold,
silver, and arsenical copper appeared and a new range of
objects such as socketed axes, spearheads, mirrors, and ear-
rings came into use. In the central plains of China, piece-
mold casting emerged and developed into a unique Chinese
metallurgical technology. Th ousands of magnifi cent bronzemetallurgy: Asia and the Pacific 681