Question Hallo Maria.
In the 50 key fundamental dates of human history chosen by the historian Richard Overy (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2...) c.670 BC is given as the date of invention of ironworking. I cannot find any evidence for this date. Who is supposed to have invented it? I would appreciate any help very much. Thank you, Rosa
Answer Hello,
Actually I’ve tried to find a primary source whence such a date can come, but I have to point out that I found no evidence for 670 BC as the exact /approximate date of invention of ironworking, unless Richard Overy mean to refer generically to the 7th. century BC as the period when ironworking began in Europe.
Anyway, even in this case, the year 670 BC is a questionable date as in Greece and in Italy which are part of Europe, of course, ironworking began to be used from the late 9th.century BC, while the Iron Age is taken to begin in the 12th century BC in the ancient Near East, ancient Iran, ancient India.
Moreover we know that some iron articles date back to 14th-13th. century in ancient Egypt, while ironworking seems to have been used even in the 17th.century BC, at the time of the Kassites, ancient people, probably of Indo-European origin, first mentioned in historical texts as occupying the West Iranian plateau.
In short, I really don’t understand why Richard Overy gives the year 670 BC as the date of the invention of ironworking, i.e. the invention of metallurgy which was the key to further technical, economic and military developments.
