Bronze and Iron Production

Abstract

Abstract Available data from which we may reconstruct the economic dynamics of raw material supply systems provide strong reason to doubt that a supply-side crisis impacted decisions about bronze and iron production in the Aegean during the period spanning the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. They also offer good basis for a suspicion that iron ores in the Aegean were not as widely exploited as previously believed and that iron smelting was not as common as iron smithing during the same period. If proven correct, these doubts and suspicions should cause some remodeling of ideas concerning the contours of Early Iron Age Aegean economies. Before accepting that the evidence reviewed in the previous chapter merits such remodeling, it is, however, important to investigate further. This chapter seeks corroborating or complicating data in archaeological evidence for metal production, focusing on three queries that might implicate understanding of the role or impact of different materials in the early Aegean economy. The first concerns relationships between production and political structure. The second concerns the relative scarcity of evidence for bronze and iron production. A final vector of questioning considers whether iron implements were functionally superior to their bronze equivalents.

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