this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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Really Shitty Copper
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A community dedicated to making fun of Ea-Nasir, a Sumerian merchant circa 1750 BC, who sold exceptionally poor quality copper.
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Seeing as they didn't have steel tools at the time, I doubt they'd be able to work it. I guess they could resell it as just a really hard sheet to someone, but it probably couldn't easily be made into anything else.
You can work steel with bronze or copper tools just fine. Wood and stone tools will do, even.
Getting it hot enough to work might be harder, although it's surmountable and many stone age peoples managed (and manage!) it. Making tools that are as good as bronze ones isn't as easy for a number of reasons, including that bronze is actually just a good material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun's_meteoric_iron_dagger
Notably not steel
But if it was a steel ingot coated in copper, slap a handle on that and you got yourself a hammer goin baby
I mean, a rock works alright for that too.
Fair. It'd make a great hammer or anvil (well, part of one, because anvils have very precise shapes for different uses). It's great for hitting things with.