Editing Steel (section)

===Ancient===
[[File:Bas fourneau.png|thumb|upright|[[Bloomery]] smelting during the [[Middle Ages]] in the 5th to 15th centuries]]
Steel was known in antiquity and was produced in [[Bloomery|bloomeries]] and [[crucible]]s.{{sfnp|Davidson|1994|p=20}}<ref name="materials.iisc.ernet.in">{{Cite news |author1=Srinivasan, S. |author2=Ranganathan, S. |url= https://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/WOOTZ.htm |title=The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England: Its Archaeology and Literature |date=1994 |publisher=Department of Metallurgy, Indian Institute of Science |location=Bangalore |isbn=0-85115-355-0 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181119033451/http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/WOOTZ.htm |archive-date=19 November 2018}}</ref>

The earliest known production of steel is seen in pieces of [[Iron ware|ironware]] excavated from an [[archaeological site]] in [[Anatolia]] ([[Kaman-Kalehöyük]]) which are nearly 4,000 years old, dating from 1800&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Akanuma |first=H. |title=The significance of the composition of excavated iron fragments taken from Stratum III at the site of Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey |journal=Anatolian Archaeological Studies |volume=14 |pages=147–158 |date=2005 |publisher=Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology |place=Tokyo}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Ironware piece unearthed from Turkey found to be oldest steel |url= http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200903261611.htm |access-date=13 August 2022 |location=Chennai |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=26 March 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090329111924/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200903261611.htm |archive-date=29 March 2009}}</ref> 

[[Wootz steel]] was developed in [[Southern India]] and [[Sri Lanka]] in the 1st millennium BCE.<ref name="materials.iisc.ernet.in" /> Metal production sites in [[Sri Lanka]] employed wind furnaces driven by the monsoon winds, capable of producing high-carbon steel. Large-scale wootz steel production in [[Ancient India|India]] using crucibles occurred by the sixth century&nbsp;BC, the pioneering precursor to modern steel production and metallurgy.{{sfnp|Davidson|1994|p=20}}<ref name="materials.iisc.ernet.in" />

High-carbon steel was produced in [[British Iron Age|Britain]] at [[Broxmouth|Broxmouth Hillfort]] from 490–375 BC,<ref>{{Cite news |title=East Lothian's Broxmouth fort reveals edge of steel |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-25734877 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=15 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://www.socantscot.org/product/an-inherited-place/ |title=An Inherited Place: Broxmouth Hillfort and the South-East Scottish Iron Age |date=2013 |publisher=Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |isbn=978-1-908332-05-9}}</ref> and ultrahigh-carbon steel was produced in the [[Netherlands]] from the 2nd-4th centuries AD.<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440304000202 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=31 |issue=8 |date=2004 |title=A Germanic ultrahigh carbon steel punch of the Late Roman-Iron Age |last1=Godfrey |first1=Evelyne |display-authors=etal |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.02.002 |pages=1117–1125 |bibcode=2004JArSc..31.1117G}}</ref> The Roman author [[Horace]] identifies steel weapons such as the ''[[falcata]]'' in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], while [[Noric steel]] was used by the [[Military of ancient Rome|Roman military]].<ref>"Noricus ensis", [[Horace]], Odes, i. 16.9</ref>

The [[History of China#Ancient China|Chinese]] of the [[Warring States period]] (403&ndash;221&nbsp;BC) had [[quench|quench-hardened]] steel,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Donald B. |date=1993 |title=Iron and Steel in Ancient China |edition=2nd |location=Leiden |publisher=E. J. Brill |isbn=90-04-09632-9 |page=243}}</ref> while Chinese of the [[Han dynasty]] (202&nbsp;BC&mdash;AD&nbsp;220) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, thus producing a carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century&nbsp;AD.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 563g">{{cite book |last=Needham |first=Joseph |date=1986 |title=Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics |location=Taipei |publisher=Caves Books |page=563}}</ref><ref name="gernet 69">Gernet, Jacques (1982). ''A History of Chinese Civilization''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 69. {{ISBN|0-521-49781-7}}.</ref>

There is evidence that [[carbon steel]] was made in Western [[Tanzania]] by the ancestors of the [[Haya people]] as early as 2,000 years ago by a complex process of "pre-heating" allowing temperatures inside a furnace to reach 1300 to 1400&nbsp;°C.<ref name="SchmidtCS">{{Cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Peter |last2=Avery |first2=Donald |date=1978 |title=Complex Iron Smelting and Prehistoric Culture in Tanzania |journal=Science |volume=201 |issue=4361 |pages=1085–1089 |jstor=1746308 |doi=10.1126/science.201.4361.1085 |pmid=17830304 |bibcode=1978Sci...201.1085S |s2cid=37926350}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Peter |last2=Avery |first2=Donald |date=1983 |title=More Evidence for an Advanced Prehistoric Iron Technology in Africa |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=421–434 |doi=10.1179/009346983791504228}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Historical Archaeology: A Structural Approach in an African Culture |last=Schmidt |first=Peter |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=1978 |location=Westport, Connecticut}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Culture and Technology of African Iron Production |last1=Avery |first1=Donald |last2=Schmidt |first2=Peter |publisher=University of Florida Press |date=1996 |location=Gainesville, Florida |pages=267–276 |chapter=Preheating: Practice or illusion}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=A Companion to African History |last=Schmidt |first=Peter |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |date=2019 |editor-last=Worger |editor-first=W. |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |pages=267–288 |chapter=Science in Africa: A history of ingenuity and invention in African iron technology |editor-last2=Ambler |editor-first2=C. |editor-last3=Achebe |editor-first3=N.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Childs |first=S. Terry |chapter=Technological history and culture in western Tanzania |title=The Culture and Technology of African Iron Production |publisher=University of Florida Press |date=1996 |editor-last=Schmidt |editor-first=P. |location=Gainesville, Florida}}</ref>