I think we now understand much of the legend of the original damascus steel to have come from trace amounts of vanadium in the ore.
This page has interesting info. https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9809/Verhoeven-9809.ht...
It seems likely 3 factors were important in creating "real" Damascus steel. The key one being the mixture of elements in the raw ore that specifically came from the mines in a specific region of southern India, and once that ore ran out the "secret was lost". There's also the knowledge of the forging process - namely the temperatures, heat treatment processes used, and what organics (aka carbon) got mixed in.