I'm not going to claim to be an expert on European cast iron, but I think there
is now fairly compelling evidence that "blast furnaces" date from at least
around 1200. There are some pretty early ones, 100-1200, showing up in
Scandinavia, Germany, and Austria. Unfortunately, most of the literature I have
seen is not available in English. I do not know of any evidence for cast iron
cannon that early. They had to be making something with all that cast iron.
Jamie Brothers
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