Re: [tied] Meteoric iron, self-smelted

From: jpisc98357@...
Message: 21552
Date: 2003-05-05

In a message dated 5/5/2003 3:51:50 PM Central America Standard Time, kalyan97@... writes:
There is mention of cast iron in the Iliad:[Il. XXIII.826]; a disk is  the prize in a disk-throwing competition; the disk is of iron and is  "aujtocovwno".

What does this description mean? Self-smelted (meteoric) iron?

Dear Kalyan,

      If the passage is a survival from Mycenaean times and is meteoric iron it would be forged, not cast.  The earliest meteoric iron was occasionally available (An 18th C. BC iron dagger was owned by one of the Pharaohs). Temperatures in a charcoal forge could reach iron working temperatures but not full melt casting.

Best Regards,  John Piscopo
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