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I guess any steel from that long ago is bound to have vanished by now, they surmised that only a steel chisel could have made the carvings. Is there anything el

I guess any steel from that long ago is bound to have vanished by now, they surmised that only a steel chisel could have made the carvings. Is there anything else which could also be hard enough to carve the rock? A chisel made of rock?

OJFord 4y ago
Their geochemicalanalysis, metallographic analses, and experiments showed it wasn't possible with iron, required a carbon content high enough to call 'proper steel', and your suggestion is hey maybe they used a rock?
- pcrh 4y ago
  Both steel and quartz have a mohs hardness of about 7.... just sayin'
londons_explore 4y ago
Steel in the right conditions can last almost forever. Lacking water or lacking oxygen are the main preservers, and there are plenty of pockets underground with those conditions. If there were any substantial number of steel tools 2,900 years ago, we would have found one by now. However, if there were just a few very rare examples, it's unlikley we'd find evidence of them.
- bluGill 4y ago
  Steel is a byproduct of iron production in very small quantities. If you separate that steel out you can make a knife, but it is a once in a lifetime for iron production regions. So it could be that rare examples is all we get. Though who knows if a better process was found and then lost.
roywiggins 4y ago
They found a steel chisel and also tried to work the rock with softer chisels, and couldn't. "Analysis of an iron chisel found in Rocha do Vigio showed that Iberian stonemasons from the Final Bronze Age had the necessary tools. The researchers discovered that it consisted of heterogeneous yet astonishingly carbon-rich steel. To confirm their findings, the researchers also carried out an experiment involving a professional stonemason, a blacksmith and a bronze caster, and attempted to work the rock that the pillars were made of using chisels of different materials. The stonemason could not work the stone with either the stone or the bronze chisels, or even using an iron chisel with an untempered point."
mzs 4y ago
They found a steel chisel from the time period, "This was backed up by metallographic analyses of an iron chisel from the same period and region (Rocha do Vigio, Portugal, ca. 900 BCE) that showed the necessary carbon content to be proper steel."

OJFord 4y ago

Their geochemicalanalysis, metallographic analses, and experiments showed it wasn't possible with iron, required a carbon content high enough to call 'proper steel', and your suggestion is hey maybe they used a rock?

pcrh 4y ago
Both steel and quartz have a mohs hardness of about 7.... just sayin'

londons_explore 4y ago

Steel in the right conditions can last almost forever. Lacking water or lacking oxygen are the main preservers, and there are plenty of pockets underground with those conditions. If there were any substantial number of steel tools 2,900 years ago, we would have found one by now. However, if there were just a few very rare examples, it's unlikley we'd find evidence of them.

bluGill 4y ago
Steel is a byproduct of iron production in very small quantities. If you separate that steel out you can make a knife, but it is a once in a lifetime for iron production regions. So it could be that rare examples is all we get. Though who knows if a better process was found and then lost.

roywiggins 4y ago

They found a steel chisel and also tried to work the rock with softer chisels, and couldn't. "Analysis of an iron chisel found in Rocha do Vigio showed that Iberian stonemasons from the Final Bronze Age had the necessary tools. The researchers discovered that it consisted of heterogeneous yet astonishingly carbon-rich steel. To confirm their findings, the researchers also carried out an experiment involving a professional stonemason, a blacksmith and a bronze caster, and attempted to work the rock that the pillars were made of using chisels of different materials. The stonemason could not work the stone with either the stone or the bronze chisels, or even using an iron chisel with an untempered point."

mzs 4y ago

They found a steel chisel from the time period, "This was backed up by metallographic analyses of an iron chisel from the same period and region (Rocha do Vigio, Portugal, ca. 900 BCE) that showed the necessary carbon content to be proper steel."