Abstract
IT would be difficult to find a subject of greater interest than the study of iron in antiquity. Man's first acquaintance with the metal undoubtedly dates back, in certain districts, to the Stone Age. At that time meteoric iron would be much more common than now, and primitive man would soon observe that the metal was more malleable than ordinary stone, and could be cold worked, by repeated hammering, into simple shapes for ornament or for personal use. Probably this was the origin of the metal beads, the oxidised remains of which have been found in pre-dynastic tombs in Egypt, dating back to about 4000 B.C. But it was not until man had progressed slowly upwards through ages of unremitting toil that he learned of the connexion between metallic iron and certain of the stones around him, and succeeded in reducing the metal from its ores.
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FRIEND, J. Iron in Antiquity1. Nature 117, 862–863 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/117862a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/117862a0