THE DISCOVERERS OF THE ART OF IRON MANUFACTURE. 
By W. BeEtcx. 
About three years ago I again brought before our society the 
question as to the age and origin of the art of ironworking.2? I can 
now state with satisfaction that the discussion and study of this prob- 
lem has not, as in similar cases, after a sudden burst of enthusiasm, 
well nigh exhausted itself, but it continues, here and elsewhere, to 
engage the earnest attention of scholars. 
If it be said that by this time we should have reached some con- 
clusions, I may say that in a measure we really have arrived at some- 
what definite results, due chiefly to the present manner of stating the 
problem, and to a restriction and limitation of the question, which I 
claim as my modest contribution in the treatment of the subject. 
In the course of my studies, untrammeled by methods and aims of 
other investigators, and constantly guided by entirely different view- 
points, I was soon convinced that there was a very long interval 
between what may be called the accidental and the intentional pro- 
duction of iron implements, an interval that probably covered many 
milleniums. The question as to when prehistoric man first held in 
his hand an iron object made by himself is very interesting to us all, 
the more so because of the apparent impossibility of finding a satis- 
factory answer. But this question as to incidental ironworking is 
unimportant beside the query as to whom we are indebted for the 
intentional production of iron, its manufacture, and for the industry 
thus made possible. In a word, who gave this industrial art to an- 
cient and modern civilization, when and where was it first practiced ? 
And since the superiority of iron over all other metals known to the 
ancients is not at all based upon the qualities of wrought iron, which 
because of its softness and pliability is for many uses considerably 
inferior to the hard bronze of antiquity, but is due mainly to the 
excellent qualities of hardened steel, the question as to who were the 
originators, the time and place, of the first manufactures of steel, 
becomes of preponderating interest to the historians of civilization. 
1 Translated by permission from the German of W. Belck, Die Erfinder der Eisentechnik in Zeitschrift 
fiir Ethnologie, vol. 42, 1910, part 1, pp. 15-30. Berlin: Behrend & Co., 1910. 
2 Zeitschr. Ethnol., 1907, pp. 334-381. Compare also Zeitschr. Ethnol., 1908, pp. 45-69 and 241-253. 
507 
