Abstract
Ferrous metallurgy and the mastery and use of metal in ancient times represented a transcendental phenomenon of human social history. Iron smelting was a great influence in economics and society for a long time. It has been worked as a requirement in both agriculture and war. Ferrous alloys have the ability to adapt to changing requirements all over the world. For a long time, their extensive use has been well documented, contributing to improving the quality of life of diverse and dynamic cultures. Ancient metallurgy was a social fabric of transformative environments in the past. Nowadays, archaeometallurgy, a subdiscipline of archaeology, studies the history of use and production of metals by individuals. Ferrous archaeometallurgy is the specific study of the ferrous compounds used in the past. The archaeometallurgy of iron covers all aspects of the metallurgical process, from mining to the manufacturing of finished items. The goal of this chapter is the demonstration of evolution of technologies in course of history.
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Reyes, L.A., Zapata-Hernández, O. (2021). Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy: Historical and Social Perspective. In: Carrizo, P.S. (eds) Reverse Engineering of Ancient Metals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72842-7_5
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