This following came up in archaeo News, does anyone know more, or can
translate the japanese website. I am not sure that I would call this
steel without seeing the metallography, 0.1 - 0.2 C is not that unusual
in bloomery iron, especially in unworked metal
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Oldest 'steel' unearthed in Turkey
Two pieces of metal unearthed at colonial ruins in Turkey have been
deemed the world's oldest examples of a crude type of steel, dating
back to 1800 BCE. The discovery has been credited to Hideo Akanuma,
senior curator at Iwate Prefectural Museum, who tested the pieces,
which were excavated in 1994 at the Kaman-Kalehoyuk ruins, 100
kilometers southeast of Ankara. Both pieces measure between one and
two centimeters long and about one centimeter wide and were excavated
by archaeologists of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan, who
started digging at the ruins in 1986.
In his research, Akanuma magnified the metal pieces 1,000 times
and found that their texture was similar to steel. Also, he found
through fluoroscopic analysis that carbon accounted for 0.1 to 0.3
percent of the objects, which is a defining feature of steel.
Until now, crude steel fragments found in the same area dated
between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE and were believed to be the
oldest steel in the world. A clay tablet found in Bogaz Koy, the
capital of Hittite Empire in the same period, had an inscription that
read, "High-quality iron," which is believed to refer to steel.
Source: Daily Yomiuri Online (14 May 2005)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20050514wo61.htm
--
Chris Salter,
Oxford Materials Characterisation Service,
&
Electron Microscopy Research Support Group,
&
Material Science-based Archaeology Group,
Oxford University Begbroke Science Park,
Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Oxford, OX5 1PF
Tel 01865 283722, EPMA 283741, Mobile 07776031608
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