Editing Smelting (section)

===Tin and lead===
The earliest known [[Casting|cast]] lead beads were thought to be in the [[Çatalhöyük]] site in [[Anatolia]] ([[Turkey]]), and dated from about 6500&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gale |first1=N.H. |last2=Stos-Gale |first2=Z.A. |date=1981 |title=Ancient Egyptian Silver |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/030751338106700110 |journal=The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=103–115 |doi=10.1177/030751338106700110 |s2cid=192397529 |via=Sage Journals}}</ref> However, recent research has discovered that this was not lead, but rather cerussite and galena, minerals rich in, but distinct from, lead.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Radivojević |first1=Miljana |last2=Rehren |first2=Thilo |last3=Farid |first3=Shahina |last4=Pernicka |first4=Ernst |last5=Camurcuoğlu |first5=Duygu |date=2017-10-01 |title=Repealing the Çatalhöyük extractive metallurgy: The green, the fire and the 'slag' |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440317301024 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=86 |pages=101–122 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2017.07.001 |bibcode=2017JArSc..86..101R |issn=0305-4403}}</ref>

Since the discovery happened several millennia before the invention of writing, there is no written record of how it was made. However, tin and lead can be smelted by placing the ores in a wood fire, leaving the possibility that the discovery may have occurred by accident.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} Recent scholarship however has called this find into question.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Radivojević |first1=Miljana |last2=Rehren |first2=Thilo |last3=Farid |first3=Shahina |last4=Pernicka |first4=Ernst |last5=Camurcuoğlu |first5=Duygu |date=2017 |title=Repealing the Çatalhöyük extractive metallurgy: The green, the fire and the 'slag' |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=86 |pages=101–122 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2017.07.001|bibcode=2017JArSc..86..101R |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1571679/ }}</ref>

Lead is a common metal, but its discovery had relatively little impact in the ancient world. It is too soft to use for structural elements or weapons, though its high density relative to other metals makes it ideal for [[sling (weapon)|sling]] projectiles. However, since it was easy to cast and shape, workers in the classical world of [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]] used it extensively to pipe and store water. They also used it as a [[Mortar (masonry)|mortar]] in stone buildings.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Browne|first=Malcolm W.|date=1997-12-09|title=Ice Cap Shows Ancient Mines Polluted the Globe (Published 1997)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/09/science/ice-cap-shows-ancient-mines-polluted-the-globe.html|access-date=2021-02-23|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Loveluck|first1=Christopher P.|last2=McCormick|first2=Michael|last3=Spaulding|first3=Nicole E.|last4=Clifford|first4=Heather|last5=Handley|first5=Michael J.|last6=Hartman|first6=Laura|last7=Hoffmann|first7=Helene|last8=Korotkikh|first8=Elena V.|last9=Kurbatov|first9=Andrei V.|last10=More|first10=Alexander F.|last11=Sneed|first11=Sharon B.|date=December 2018|title=Alpine ice-core evidence for the transformation of the European monetary system, AD 640–670|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=92|issue=366|pages=1571–1585|doi=10.15184/aqy.2018.110|issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Tin was much less common than lead, is only marginally harder, and had even less impact by itself.