A 3000-year-old copper smelting site could be key to understanding the origins of iron

From Phys.org

Research from Cranfield University sheds new light onto the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, showing how experimentation with iron-rich rocks by copper smelters may have sparked the invention of iron.

Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the work reanalyzed metallurgical remains from a site in southern Georgia: a 3000-year-old smelting workshop called Kvemo Bolnisi. During the original analysis in the 1950s, piles of hematite (an iron oxide mineral) and slag (a waste product of the metal production) were found in the workshop. Finding those iron oxides, the original excavators thought the workshop was an early iron smelting site.