Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s1.14

v1.c20.s1.14

Maddin further reported (1982) that quenching of carburized iron was practised by people in Cyprus and perhaps in Palestine by the eleventh century BC. A knife excavated from Idalion in Cyprus and belonging to a twelfth-eleventh century BC context showed surviving martensite and a form of bainite. An excavated pick from Mt. Adir in Northern Gallilee, Palestine, of the same age exhibited high hardness (545 DPH) corresponding to martensite, obtained by quenching from an austenitic condition, further tempered at a lower temperature. Homer described in his Odyssey (8th to 7th century BC) how a “black-smith plunges a screaming great axe into cold water treating it for temper and to make the steel strong”.