In her PhD dissertation ‘Crucible Steel in Central Asia: Production, Use, and Origin‘ presented at the University of London (available at Academia.edu), Anna Marie Feuerbach stated that “From a metallurgical point of view steel is an alloy of iron with around 0.1 – 2% carbon. Steel is harder than iron, can be heat-treated and sharpened, and is therefore excellent for the manufacture of knives, scissors, chisels, files, and similar tools. Historical accounts testify that for at least a thousand years crucible steel was considered to be the highest quality steel, most notably because it was used to produce the so-called “Damascus steel” swords, famous for their attractive surface pattern, being tough, flexible, and with the ability to retain a sharp edge. Crucible steel is generally attributed to production centres in India and Sri Lanka where it was produced using the so-called “wootz” process and it is assumed that its appearance in other locations was due to long-distance trade. Only recently has it become apparent that Central Asia was also a crucible steel-producing region. [thanks to the International Merv Project’s]…examination of materials and techniques used to produce crucible steel at Merv, Turkmenistan during the early Islamic period (c. 800-900 AD).
The implication is that crucible steel production in Central Asia was a developed technology, at least by the late 9th century AD if not earlier.
A prerequisite for manufacturing crucible steel is the production of iron on a regular basis, suggesting a date after the beginning of the 1st millennium BC and probably after around 500 BC, by which time iron is thought to have been produced on a somewhat regular basis in eastern Central Asia (Pigott, 1985,626). However, there is no reason why crucible steel could not have developed at the same time as iron smelting was developing out of Bronze Age copper refining and casting traditions. Copper-alloy refining involves placing the smelted metal into a crucible and heating it. The slag separates thus refining the metal by removing slag and other impurities trapped in the metal during the smelting process. In addition, the liquid metal may be stirred with green wood which produce gasses reducing copper oxides to metal that would otherwise make the metal brittle when cast (Hodges, 1989,70)
Removing slag from smelted iron requires the same materials, (i. e. a ceramic crucible, a furnace, and wood or other carbonaceous matter) but by a slightly different process. Iron has a higher melting temperature and oxidizes more readily than copper therefore higher furnace temperatures are needed and the crucible needs to be closed. However, by adding pieces of carbonaceous material to the iron and placing a lid on the crucible, the iron carbonizes and becomes steel, which requires a lower temperature to become liquid, then the slag rises to the surface thus refining the steel. Therefore, the only differences between refining copper in a crucible and refining iron is the use of a lid and placing carbonaceous material into the crucible rather than stirring with green wood. The similarity is even more pronounced if the smith is using a broken iron bloom and pieces of wood, such as that the proposed method used at Early Islamic Merv.
Further supporting the argument that crucible steel may have developed out of refining smelted metal is the idea that crucible steel is “pure” or “refined” metal, proposed by Pliny and later by al-Kindi. The concept of “purifying” the iron may be a significant clue to its origins not only because of the argument regarding the development from copper refining, but because a large part of Zoroastrianism, practiced in south-eastern Central Asia from the last half of the first millennium BC onwards, was concerned with purification and fire worship. One may speculate that the priests and the craftsmen/scholars would have studied the properties of materials and fire. If the term “pulad” did indeed originate from a Sanskrit-based language, then the proposed etymology could be used to support the hypothesis that crucible steel originated in a region where the Sanskrit language was spoken and Zoroastrianism or a related religion, was practiced. The similarities between the languages and religious beliefs found in the Vedas, written in Sanskrit and used in India, and the Zoroastrian Avesta written in Avestan and used in Eastern Iran/Persia (Asthana, 1976,121) further suggest that crucible steel might have developed somewhere between Northern India and Eastern Persia/Central Asia during the first half of the 1st millennium BC.
Regardless of where and when crucible steel may have originated, it was known since at least the 3rd century AD. Information regarding the spread of the technology, ingots and/or finished objects by trade is sparse. Al-Kindi and other writers provide some information on production and distribution centres, however the picture of the spread of the material and/or technology is incomplete. Apparently over the next thousand-plus years, crucible steel spread to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe as far as Spain with Islamic armies, into Austria with Ottoman Turks, and occasionally as far west as England through trade. Crucible steel objects also spread northeast to Siberia and possibly as far east as China, Korea, and perhaps Japan. However, it seems that the technological know-how remained restricted to Central Asia and India.”
Fireworshipping Kings of the Kushan Empire >
“Royal Scythia, Greece, Kyiv Rus” book has a number of little-known facts about the ties of ‘Ukrainian’ Scythia with the Persian Empire.
