Editing Smelting (section)

===Early iron smelting{{anchor|early_iron_smelting_anchor}}===
{{Main|Ferrous metallurgy}}

The earliest evidence for iron-making is a small number of iron fragments with the appropriate amounts of carbon admixture found in the Proto-Hittite layers at [[Kaman-Kalehöyük]] and dated to 2200–2000&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Akanuma |first=Hideo |title=The significance of Early Bronze Age iron objects from Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey |journal=Anatolian Archaeological Studies |volume=17 |pages=313–320 |year=2008 |url=http://www.jiaa-kaman.org/pdfs/aas_17/AAS_17_Akanuma_H_pp_313_320.pdf |publisher=Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology |place=Tokyo |archive-date=26 March 2023 |access-date=19 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326030515/http://www.jiaa-kaman.org/pdfs/aas_17/AAS_17_Akanuma_H_pp_313_320.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Souckova-Siegolová (2001) shows that iron implements were made in Central Anatolia in very limited quantities around 1800 BC and were in general use by elites, though not by commoners, during the [[Hittites#New Kingdom|New Hittite Empire]] (~1400–1200 BC).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Souckova-Siegolová |first=J. |title=Treatment and usage of iron in the Hittite empire in the 2nd millennium BC |journal=Mediterranean Archaeology |volume=14 |pages=189–93 |year=2001}}.</ref>

Archaeologists have found indications of iron working in [[Ancient Egypt]], somewhere between the [[Third Intermediate Period]] and [[Twenty-third dynasty of Egypt|23rd Dynasty]] (ca. 1100–750&nbsp;BC). Significantly though, they have found no evidence of iron ore smelting in any (pre-modern) period. In addition, very early instances of [[carbon steel]] were in production around 2000 years ago (around [[1st century|the first-century]].) in northwest [[Tanzania]], based on complex preheating principles. These discoveries are significant for the history of metallurgy.<ref>Peter Schmidt, Donald H. Avery. [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/201/4361/1085 Complex Iron Smelting and Prehistoric Culture in Tanzania] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409173608/http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/201/4361/1085 |date=9 April 2010 }}, Science 22 September 1978: Vol. 201. no. 4361, pp. 1085–1089</ref>

Most early processes in Europe and Africa involved smelting iron ore in a [[bloomery]], where the temperature is kept low enough so that the iron does not melt. This produces a spongy mass of iron called a bloom, which then must be consolidated with a hammer to produce [[wrought iron]]. Some of the earliest evidence to date for the bloomery smelting of iron is found at [[Tell Hammeh]], Jordan, [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon-dated]] to {{Circa|930 BC}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Veldhuijzen |first1=Xander |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/174131337 |title=Metals and Mines: Studies in Archaeometallurgy |last2=Rehren |first2=Thilo |publisher=Archetype, British Museum |year=2007 |isbn=978-1904982197 |editor-last=La Niece |editor-first=Susan |pages=189–201 |language=en |chapter=Slags and the city: early iron production at Tell Hammeh |oclc=174131337 |editor-last2=Hook |editor-first2=Duncan |editor-last3=Craddock |editor-first3=Paul |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269100440}}</ref>