Because nobody knew how! We take it for granted now, but during that period (about 1500 BC to 1000 BC), the technology simply did not exist to smelt iron from ore.
People knew how to smelt bronze, because bronze melts at a much lower temperature than iron. People also knew how to work with silver and gold, because these precious metals don't corrode or bond easily, so they are found more or less in their pure form; they also have lower melting points than iron.
Simply building a furnace hot enough to melt and cast iron is quite difficult (the key is producing sufficient airflow over the coals and keeping the container from bursting or melting), and iron was not widely used in India until about 800 BC, when the Aryans invaded and spread the technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment