Need help with research

[Pertinax]

Originally Posted by Ian

Yuri, a couple of possibilities come to mind. First, the Africans may have found a way to use the relatively carbon-poor voyage iron from Europe for weaponry by adding some carbon to the iron. Alternatively, they could have used voyage iron for non-weapons objects, such as "ceremonial" or "currency" iron objects. There are many "bladed objects," some of unusual shapes, that have been described in this way.

Yes, Ian, you're right; this study explores these possibilities.

I'd like to point out that this is a very "honest" article; the authors admit, "At this point, conclusions based on documentary evidence must give way to speculation. However, some degree of hypothesizing is permissible."

They put forward three hypotheses.

The first is that the iron obtained from maritime voyages was not used as an industrial raw material; its purpose was wealth preservation.

The second is that maritime iron was recognized as an inferior material and accepted as such. It could have been used to make unsatisfactory tools that wore out quickly, but the availability of sufficient iron at least allowed African smiths to craft tools morphologically consistent with local traditions.

And the third is that maritime iron was combined with the durable, high-carbon iron produced by African smelters. And they immediately note that direct evidence for this is scarce, and that metallographic studies of pre-colonial iron artifacts have yet to reveal a single example of composite tool making.

Another interesting aspect is that marine iron (European iron) was always in demand on the West Coast in Guinea-Bissau, the Bights of Biafra, the Bight of Benin, and the Gold Coast, but found surprisingly few buyers in West Central Africa.

In short, there are still more questions than answers. :смущенный: