They live on the left hand of these places
The iron of the Khaliba kovachi. Fear them!
They are fierce and unfriendly to guests …
(Aeschylus. Prometheus chained. Translation by A. Piotrovsky)
Assyrian relief from Khorsabad, depicting people carrying a chariot on their shoulders. Attention is drawn to their short swords tucked into their belts. Judging by the shape, their blades must be made of iron, as bronze blades of this shape are not found. OK. 710 BC (Louvre, Paris)
Iron from all sorts of places
Now let's remember that there is a lot of evidence that iron has been known to people since the Stone Age. That is, it was the same meteorite iron, containing a lot of nickel, and … used to make all the same iron beads of the Herzean culture and the famous iron dagger found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, which were already discussed here. It is important to emphasize that this metal, like native copper, lends itself well to processing in a cold state.
Another Assyrian relief from the British Museum in London. Archers are clearly visible on it, with long and thin swords in a scabbard with curls-volutes at the end tucked into their belts. Again, such blades must be made of iron (steel), since a bronze blade of this thickness will bend at the first blow. That is, it is obvious that already in IX - VIII BC. The Assyrians knew iron and they produced it on a scale that allowed them to arm their entire army with iron swords.
Relief depicting the hunting of the Assyrian king Ashurnazirpal II (875-860 BC) (British Museum, London) Judging by it, the chariot warriors were also armed with swords of the same design as the archers, that is, their production was quite massive.
Archaeologists found iron objects made of meteorite iron in Iran (6th – 4th millennium BC), Iraq (5th millennium BC), and Egypt (4th millennium BC). In the Middle East, people got acquainted with native iron in about the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, and in Mesopotamia they knew it in the early Dynastic time (3rd millennium BC), which is confirmed by finds in ancient Ur. They are also found in burials of such Eurasian cultures as Yamnaya in the Southern Urals and Afanasyevskaya in Southern Siberia (III millennium BC). It was known to the Eskimos and Indians of the northwestern regions of North America, as well as in China of the Zhou dynasty (1045 - 221 BC). In Mycenaean Greece, iron was known, but only as a precious metal and was used to make jewelry and amulets.
Hittites on a war chariot. A short sword with a mushroom-shaped hilt is also visible behind the archer's belt. (Museum of Anatolian Civilization, Ankara)
Another bas-relief depicting a Hittite war chariot. A spear appeared in her arsenal. (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)
Judging by the texts of the Amarna archive, iron was sent to Pharaoh Amenhotep IV as a gift from the Hittites from the country of Mittani, which lay in the east of Asia Minor. Pieces of iron in layers of the 2nd millennium BC were found in Assyria and Babylon. Initially, iron was also valued here its weight in gold and was considered a precious war booty coming from Syria. In the texts of the XIX - XVIII centuries. BC found in the ruins of the Assyrian trading colony of Kultepe in Central Anatolia, there is a very expensive metal that is sold only in small quantities and is eight times more expensive than gold. In the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon, tablets were also found that speak of various gifts, including metals sent in honor of the completion of the construction of his palace. But, as a valuable metal, iron is no longer mentioned here, although in one of the rooms of this palace they found a whole warehouse of iron crumbs. In Cyprus and Crete, there are also artifacts made of iron and dating back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Although among the finds belonging to the Late Bronze Age in the Middle East, there are already much more iron items, although they are small in size - these are pins, needles, awls.
Bronze daggers that belonged to the inhabitants of Anatolia of the Bronze Age. (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)
Is iron a Hittite creation?
That is, all this allows us to conclude that the emergence of iron metallurgy took place in the northern regions of Anatolia. It is believed that the Hittites who lived here were able to master it, but for a long time they kept their discovery in secret. Indeed, a lot of iron products were found on the territory of Anatolia, but it is very difficult to find out whether they are of local origin, or whether they were brought here from somewhere, despite all modern research methods. Although we know that in the Hittite texts there was a special term for iron, and, apparently, they knew how to work with it already around 1800 BC, as evidenced, for example, by the text of the Hittite king Anitta, where there was it is written that an iron throne and an iron scepter were presented to him as a sign of obedience. In a letter from the Hittite king Hattussili III (1250 BC) to the Assyrian king Salmansar I it is also said that for the production of iron “now is not the right time and it is not in the royal storehouses at the moment, but it will, of course, be received . Further, the Hittite king informs that he is sending an iron dagger as a gift to his Assyrian colleague. That is, it is obvious that the Hittites not only knew iron, but also sold it to the Assyrians, but they only produced them in limited quantities.
Antenna daggers of the Hallstatt culture. Still bronze. (Museum of the City of Hallein in Salzburg, Austria)
Since the XIII century. BC. iron in the East begins to spread much faster. In the XII century. BC. it is already becoming known in Syria and Palestine, and by the IX century. almost completely replaces bronze as a material for the manufacture of weapons and tools. And soon about the XII-XII centuries. BC. in Cyprus or Palestine, people are also mastering the technology of carburizing and quenching iron. Ancient Armenia is also considered to be one of the regions where iron became widespread already in the 9th century. BC, although it is known that the first iron products appeared in Transcaucasia in the 15th - 14th centuries. BC, as they were found in burials of this time. In the state of Urartu, iron objects were also widely used. Traces of ferrous metallurgy were found in Taishebaini.
Ceremonial helmet of the Urartian king Sarduri II. Discovered during excavations of the city of Teishebaini on the Karmir-Blur hill. (Historical Museum of Armenia, Yerevan)
Urartian bronze belt discovered in the vicinity of the city of Van. (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)
* Until recently, it was believed that iron was brought to Greece by the Dorian tribes (which, by the way, usually explained their victories over the Achaeans, who had bronze weapons). Archeology has not yet provided substantiated confirmation of this hypothesis. So, rather, the following assumption will be more plausible: the Greeks adopted the secret of smelting and processing iron from someone from their eastern neighbors, for example, one of the peoples who lived in Asia Minor - say, the same Khalibs - allies of the Trojans who knew this secret already in the II millennium BC. NS.
