World History Honors

In terms of the smelting process itself, the temperature threshold would be relatively easy to achieve and sustain. 

Tin may have represented the breakthrough metal.

The mining process at Göltepe began by heating the mine face. Fires would soften the ore so that it could be chiseled more easily.  Once the ore had been hauled to the surface it was smelted. Smelting involved heating in small ceramic crucibles.  Charcoal, which was layered between the tin ore, provided the heat source. Temperatures may have reached 2,000 degrees F, possibly achieved through the use of reed pipe "bellows."

miners of Göltepe found the tin market sustained by the demand for bronze

Some date its beginnings to 1500 B.C., about the time the Hittites may have started working with iron.  Others give it a range of between 1500 and 1000 B.C.. Still others have dated it to 1200 B.C., when the Hittite Empire came to an end. Others assign its beginnings to around 1000 B.C., some 200 years after the end of the Hittite Empire.  The basis for such a comparatively late date is that iron usage had become commonplace around the Mediterranean by that time. The start of the Iron Age also depended on location. 

While gold articles and the work of ancient goldsmiths are the most enduring and familiar treasures of the ancient world, the likelihood of an Age of Gold is extremely remote. The experience and skills of early craftsmen demonstrated a thorough knowledge of metalworking. Unfortunately, the scarcity of gold limited the market to ornamental items, since only kings or wealthy individuals could afford it.

That would be a remarkable achievement, given what one would expect from an ancient technology.  However, there may be two other factors which might impact any analysis.  The first is the fact that while the melting temperature of pure iron is something of an absolute, the addition of carbon, (a process known as carburization), can reduce the melting point to about 1170 degrees C (2138 degrees F).  A second factor is the possibility that iron could be produced and worked at a temperature below its melting point.

A Neanderthal dead-end or a continuing tradition

Oxygen is not the only impurity found in iron ore.  Some can be removed with limestone, which, like a reducing agent, will combine with such impurities, lowering their melting point.  The slag which forms separates from the iron and floats to the surface.

The Hittites appear to have produced an iron which could be reheated and worked, suggesting that their product was a form of wrought iron or some version similar to carbon steel.  Charcoal was used as the reducing agent, layered with the iron ore in shallow hearths

Hittite iron makers involved the amount of carbon to be added

malleability. 

19,000 gallons of oil.

Originally Evans believed the artifacts were ten thousand years old, but later experts dated these stone artifacts to be five thousand years old.

The layout of a courtyard in the palace hinted at a labyrinth type plan, the rooms, corridors and halls of various storage areas built in a confusing pattern.

How was the civilization destroyed? The destruction is apparent but its cause is not.

However, most experts have since decided that Crete was invaded and destroyed.

Greek mythology immortalized Crete and Knossos with its legends

Zeus fathered a son, Minos, who became the King of Knossos,

the remains of buildings spanning over an area of 8,480 square feet.

2000 BC.