Editing Steel (section)

===Wootz and Damascus===
{{Main|Wootz steel|Damascus steel}}

Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in [[South Asia]] is found in [[Kodumanal]] in [[Tamil Nadu]], the [[Golconda]] area in [[Andhra Pradesh]] and [[Karnataka]], regions of [[India]], as well as in [[Samanalawewa]] and Dehigaha Alakanda, regions of [[Sri Lanka]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |title=Ancient Smelter Used Wind To Make High-Grade Steel |work=The New York Times |date=6 February 1996 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/06/science/ancient-smelter-used-wind-to-make-high-grade-steel.html?n=Top%2FNews%2FScience%2FTopics%2FArchaeology%20and%20Anthropology}}</ref> This came to be known as [[wootz steel]], produced in South India by about the sixth century&nbsp;BC and exported globally.<ref name="SR_IISc">{{cite book |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Sharada |last2=Ranganathan |first2=Srinivasa |title=India's Legendary Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World |date=2004 |publisher=National Institute of Advanced Studies |oclc=82439861 |url= http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/WOOTZ.htm |access-date=5 December 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190211082829/http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/WOOTZ.htm |archive-date=11 February 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="ann">{{cite journal |last=Feuerbach |first=Ann |title=An investigation of the varied technology found in swords, sabres and blades from the Russian Northern Caucasus |url= https://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/iams/jour_25/iams25_Feuerbach.pdf |journal=IAMS |volume=25 |date=2005 |pages=27–43 (p. 29) |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110430044256/https://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/iams/jour_25/iams25_Feuerbach.pdf |archive-date=30 April 2011}}</ref> The steel technology existed prior to 326&nbsp;BC in the region as they are mentioned in literature of [[Sangam literature|Sangam Tamil]], [[Arabic]], and [[Latin]] as the finest steel in the world exported to the Roman, Egyptian, Chinese and Arab worlds at that time – what they called ''Seric Iron''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Srinivasan |first=Sharada |date=1994 |title=Wootz crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in South India |journal=Papers from the Institute of Archaeology |volume=5 |pages=49–59 |doi=10.5334/pia.60 |doi-access=free}}</ref> A [[Tissamaharama Tamil Brahmi inscription|200 BC Tamil trade guild in Tissamaharama]], in the South East of Sri Lanka, brought with them some of the oldest iron and steel artifacts and production processes to the island from the [[classical antiquity|classical period]].<ref>Hobbies – Volume 68, Issue 5 – p. 45. Lightner Publishing Company (1963)</ref><ref name="Mahathevan">{{cite news |url= http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/24/stories/2010062451701100.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100701211040/http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/24/stories/2010062451701100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 July 2010 |title=An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil |last=Mahathevan |first=Iravatham |date=24 June 2010 |work=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=31 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="Ragupathy">{{cite news |url= http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=32303 |title=Tissamaharama potsherd evidences ordinary early Tamils among population |last=Ragupathy |first=P. |date=28 June 2010 |work=Tamilnet |access-date=31 October 2010}}</ref> The Chinese and locals in [[Anuradhapura]], Sri Lanka had also adopted the production methods of creating wootz steel from the [[Chera Dynasty]] Tamils of South India by the 5th century&nbsp;AD.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 1 282">{{cite book |last=Needham |first=Joseph |date=1986 |title=Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 1, Civil Engineering and Nautics |location=Taipei |publisher=Caves Books |page=282 |isbn=0-521-05802-3 |url= https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf |access-date=4 August 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170703010030/https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf |archive-date=3 July 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Ancient and Mediaeval India. Vol.2 by Charlotte Speir Manning p.365">{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nmESJR3a0RYC&pg=PA365 |title=Ancient and Mediæval India. Volume 2 |isbn=978-0-543-92943-3 |last1=Manning |first1=Charlotte Speir}}</ref> In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed a unique wind furnace, driven by the monsoon winds, capable of producing high-carbon steel.<ref name="Juleff1">{{cite journal |last=Juleff |first=G. |title=An ancient wind powered iron smelting technology in Sri Lanka |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=379 |issue=3 |pages=60–63 |date=1996 |doi=10.1038/379060a0 |bibcode=1996Natur.379...60J |s2cid=205026185}}</ref><ref name="Herbert Henery Coghlan 1977 pp 99-100">Coghlan, Herbert Henery. (1977). ''Notes on prehistoric and early iron in the Old World''. Oxprint. pp. 99–100</ref> Since the technology was acquired from the [[Tamilians]] from South India,<ref name="Ancient and Medieval India. Vol.2 by Charlotte Speir Manning p.365">{{Cite book |last1=Manning |first1=Charlotte Speir |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nmESJR3a0RYC&pg=PA365 |title=Ancient and Medieval India. Volume 2 |isbn=978-0-543-92943-3}}</ref> the origin of steel technology in India can be conservatively estimated at 400&ndash;500&nbsp;BC.<ref name="SR_IISc" /><ref name="Herbert Henery Coghlan 1977 pp 99-100" />

The manufacture of [[wootz steel]] and [[Damascus steel]], famous for its durability and ability to hold an edge, may have been taken by the Arabs from Persia, who took it from India. {{cns|It was originally created from several different materials including various [[trace element]]s, apparently ultimately from the writings of [[Zosimos of Panopolis]].|date=December 2023}} In 327&nbsp;BC, [[Alexander the Great]] was rewarded by the defeated King [[Porus the Elder|Porus]], not with gold or silver but with 30&nbsp;pounds of steel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Durant |first=Will |title=The Story of Civilization, Our Oriental Heritage |date=1942 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-671-54800-X |page=529 |url= https://archive.org/details/storyofcivilizat035369mbp/page/529}}</ref> A recent study has speculated that [[carbon nanotubes]] were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary qualities, though, given the technology of that time, such qualities were produced by chance rather than by design.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Sharpest cut from nanotube sword |first=Katharine |last=Sanderson |date=15 November 2006 |doi=10.1038/news061113-11 |journal=Nature News |s2cid=136774602 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron was heated by the use of wood. The [[ancient Sinhalese]] managed to extract a ton of steel for every 2&nbsp;tons of soil,<ref name="Juleff1" /> a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did.<ref name="Juleff1" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wayman |first1=M. L. |last2=Juleff |first2=G. |title=Crucible Steelmaking in Sri Lanka |journal=Historical Metallurgy |volume=33 |issue=1 |date=1999 |page=26}}</ref>

[[Crucible steel]], formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in [[Merv]] by the 9th to 10th century&nbsp;AD.<ref name="ann" /> In the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in [[Song dynasty|Song China]] using two techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel, and a precursor to the modern [[Bessemer process]] that used partial [[decarburization]] via repeated forging under a [[cold blast]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hartwell |first=Robert |title=Markets, Technology and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry |journal=[[Journal of Economic History]] |volume=26 |date=1966 |pages=53–54 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700061842 |s2cid=154556274}}</ref>