Impact of Metals on Society
Feature
Historical Insight
The Impact of Metals on Society Part I: Antiquity
Raymond L. Smith
Over 5,000 years, our quest for metals has led us to strange lands, on bold adventures, through terrible hardships, and to great riches and devastating failures. Immeasurably, the fates of entire nations and peoples have been shaped by this quest. tion for many centuries. A product or process might have been developed in one area and, through trade, passed to another in a short period; or, because of isolation, the same product or proMETALS IN ANTIQUITY cess could have taken centuries to be transAll civilizations were born of agriculferred or reinvented by ture. Although the use of copper, silver, another culture. and gold overlapped the Stone Age era, Bronze provides an their early practical application was negexcellent example of ligible. Still, even in very early history, how a new technology is metals had a significant societal impact. developed. It persists in Because of their scarcity, durability, and defying neat chronologibeauty, the ownership of metals implied cal dating. The notion of material wealth and power for the living Iron implements of China’s Han Dynasty (119 B.C .–220 A .D.). Left to right: sledge hammer, chisel, rake, and adz (with maker’s a simple Bronze Age preand, through votive offerings, repremark [“Ho-3”] from the number three iron and steel works of the ceding the Iron Age was sented a mystic insurance policy for the Honan Prefecture). Excavated at Tienshengou, Gongxian, discarded many years dead. This constituted a powerful emoHonan.4 ago as archeometaltional symbolism that carried into the lurgists unraveled some following centuries to accompany the secrets of this ancient craft. It was most inevitable technological changes that aware of great cultures elsewhere, likely produced first in Thailand, but it metals brought about in society. thereby slowing the spread of knowldid not spread from there.1 About three Technology transfer
Historical Insight
The Impact of Metals on Society Part I: Antiquity
Raymond L. Smith
Over 5,000 years, our quest for metals has led us to strange lands, on bold adventures, through terrible hardships, and to great riches and devastating failures. Immeasurably, the fates of entire nations and peoples have been shaped by this quest. tion for many centuries. A product or process might have been developed in one area and, through trade, passed to another in a short period; or, because of isolation, the same product or proMETALS IN ANTIQUITY cess could have taken centuries to be transAll civilizations were born of agriculferred or reinvented by ture. Although the use of copper, silver, another culture. and gold overlapped the Stone Age era, Bronze provides an their early practical application was negexcellent example of ligible. Still, even in very early history, how a new technology is metals had a significant societal impact. developed. It persists in Because of their scarcity, durability, and defying neat chronologibeauty, the ownership of metals implied cal dating. The notion of material wealth and power for the living Iron implements of China’s Han Dynasty (119 B.C .–220 A .D.). Left to right: sledge hammer, chisel, rake, and adz (with maker’s a simple Bronze Age preand, through votive offerings, repremark [“Ho-3”] from the number three iron and steel works of the ceding the Iron Age was sented a mystic insurance policy for the Honan Prefecture). Excavated at Tienshengou, Gongxian, discarded many years dead. This constituted a powerful emoHonan.4 ago as archeometaltional symbolism that carried into the lurgists unraveled some following centuries to accompany the secrets of this ancient craft. It was most inevitable technological changes that aware of great cultures elsewhere, likely produced first in Thailand, but it metals brought about in society. thereby slowing the spread of knowldid not spread from there.1 About three Technology transfer