A group of scientists from all around the world, lead by Dr. Ralph Araque Gonzalez (an archaeologist) have found out that steel tools were being used in Europe almost 3 thousand years ago! They used a special type of analysis to find out that stone stelae (monuments made out of rocks) found on the Iberian peninsula had engravings which weren’t possible to create with anything else except for tempered steel.
Experts used metallographic analysis to look at an iron chisel from around 900 BCE in Portugal. They found that it had enough carbon in it to be considered steel.
Experts did experiments with tools made from different materials to see if it could be used for engraving a stone. It turned out that only the tool made from tempered steel worked well. People thought this type of steel wasn’t available during Early Iron Age or Final Bronze Age, but it was common with the Romans.
Araque Gonzalez explains that the chisel found in Rocha do Vigio suggests that Iron metallurgy, which includes creating and making steel, may have been something people figured out to do on their own in Iberia before later colonization instead. This has implications for how we look at Iron metallurgy as well as quartzite sculptures from other places around the world.
A research study about early steel from Iberia was published in a journal called Journal of Archaeological Science. It talks about the use of stone-working and bronze age tools in this region.
Uncovering the Life of Late Bronze Age Iberians Through Stones
The evidence from the late Bronze Age in Iberia, which was between 1300 and 800 BCE, is not very clear. We don’t find many artifacts or burials and all we can see are things like metal hoarding or mining activities. That’s why it is so important to look at the carved stones with figures, animals, and items that were made during this time period. This helps us figure out what life was like back then.
Araque Gonzalez and his team studied rocks to learn more about the materials and tools that were used. They discovered that a lot of the stelae, which had been thought to be made of quartzite, were actually made of silicate quartz sandstone. This kind of stone is very hard and can’t be worked with regular bronze or stone tools; it needs steel tools instead.
Unveiling the Mystery of Iron Chisels from the Final Bronze Age
Research on an old iron chisel from Rocha do Vigio showed that people from the Final Bronze Age had created it with special tools. The chisel was made up of a mixture of amazing and very carbon-rich steel. To confirm their findings, scientists performed an experiment with a stonemason, blacksmith, and bronze caster to try and chip away at rocks like the ones used for making pillars using different kinds of materials.
The stonemason couldn’t make the stone into what he wanted with any of the usual chisels— not the stone ones, or even the bronze and iron ones. But according to Araque Gonzalez’s experiment, people from Iberia in the Final Bronze Age had learned how to heat up steel chisels so they could shape their stones.
This study was funded by the German Research Foundation and it was published in a special journal called Journal of Archaeological Science. The title of this research project is “Stone-working and the earliest steel in Iberia: Scientific analyses and experimental replications of final bronze age stelae and tools”, written by Ralph Araque Gonzalez, Bastian Asmus, Pedro Baptista, Rui Mataloto, Pablo Paniego Díaz, Vera Rammelkammer, Alexander Richter and Giuseppe Vintrici on 10 February 2023.
