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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It depends on what they were doing with it. Jewelry, yeah I'd be pissed. Mixing with tin or arsenic, oh you better believe I'd be pissed unless the steel didn't melt. Beating it into tools, nah we're good, and I want more of this weird silver copper.
Actually I think the biggest issue here is that it's wildly unlikely a Sumerian metalsmith is able to actually do anything with steel. Their forges aren't likely getting hot enough to really do much with iron, and steel is way harder and less malleable than bronze. Maybe they can sharpen it, and depending on the shape they might be able to cold work it. It looks like iron forging was a few centuries away in Ea Nasir's time, and it required better tools, techniques, and forges.
Yeah, but you can cast bronze fairly easily, while casting iron is more of an AD technology. Early modern, if you're European. Traditionally you don't even let it melt while smelting.
Blacksmithing with wrought iron is way harder than working with something like bronze. There's slag in it either just from oxidising or from the solid smelting (bloomery) process, and so it has a kind of "grain" that builds up over time. If you don't account for that your sword or plough will be trash.
It also rusts, is softer than bronze (even as most steels) and not necessarily stronger. The only real advantage is that it's common and doesn't require a trade network for rare elements, which is why it didn't fully catch on in the Near Eastern world until after the bronze age collapse.
Yeah, that last point is huge. Bronze weapons and armor were way better than iron weapons and armor, but 500 warriors equipped in iron are better than 50 equipped in bronze.