5,000 years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron

Technology and Culture in the Invention of Lost-wax Casting in South America: an Archaeometric and Ethnoarchaeological Perspective

“…The origins of metallurgy, for example, have been explained as resulting from a concern with aesthetics that exploited the colours and textures of the new materials (Smith 1982), rather than as the product of the quest for tools and weapons. Similar arguments have been raised to explain the origins of glass (Nicholson 2007) or iron smithing (Rehren et al 2013). The earliest firedclay objects were non-functional and broken during their manufacture (Vandiver et al 1989), and the individually crafted, highly ornate earliest pottery in the Near East has also been explained as a form of 'aesthetic labour' (Wengrow 2001).…”

NIPS–NORMA station—A combined facility for neutron-based nondestructive element analysis and imaging at the Budapest Neutron Centre

“…The very first 2D radiographs of the NIPS-NORMA facility were taken on three of the nine tubular iron beads made 5000 years ago in Egypt, which are considered as mankind's earliest iron artefacts [31]. Radiographs revealed that the beads have a central hole along their long axis which was not visible during visual and X-ray inspection due to the corrosion.…”

Everything Old is New Again?

“…In western Asia and the Mediterranean region, the smelting of iron ore started about the middle of the second millennium BCE. See Rehren et al 2013;Waldbaum 1999. 4. In my understanding, Wagner's view is that the resource shortage was primarily caused by the mass production of bronze vessels and agricultural implements, but that does not mean the Yangtze River Valley lacked copper and tin.…”