An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s16.8

v1.c9.s16.8

*Technology and origin.* The first iron-users in Malwa, and middle and lower Ganga valleys and s. India could easily use the locally available ore, and those in the doab could conveniently depend on the ore plentifully available in the neighbouring Rajasthan. The ore could be smelted in primitive clay furnaces of which there are many ethnographic parallels. It may be noted that at the Megalithic site of MAHURJHARI an iron axe contains 6% carbon, and this has to be called steel. There is no substance in the general assumption that the use of steel was unknown in India before the late centuries B.C.