Metallurgical Aficionados, Grind Your Lies

A new study shows that tempered steel tools in Europe may have appeared earlier than we thought. 2,900 year old engraved pillars in Iberia have long been assumed to be made of quartzite. They are actually pillars of the far, far harder silicate quartz sandstone. So instead of tempered steel appearing well into the iron age, it seems it may have been used in the late Bronze Age.