Either there is some nuance going on or this person disagrees with Wikipedia on when cultures and civilizations around the old world developed steel.
If they are sloppy about the history, I have to wonder what else they are sloppy about.
If they are sloppy about the history, I have to wonder what else they are sloppy about.
> 2. Forthcoming article, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine.
The veracity of their claim is still in question, but based on that I'm going to assume good faith that they have facts to back up their claim. I haven't checked the rest of their citations yet, but based on their quantity I'm going to assume the rest of the article isn't sloppy either.
For the claim about African metallurgists I suppose I'll have to wait to see what kind of evidence they provide before deciding if they are being "sloppy".
In Antiquity, this division would be unnatural. Asia Minor was an integral constituent part of the Mediterranean civilization, unlike, say, contemporary Germany. The ancients would be fairly confused if we told them that we now put dividing lines between North Africa, Asia Minor+Levant and so-called Europe. For them, it was a bigger civilizational unit, a maritime continent so to say. And the idea that Asia Minor somehow belongs to the same unit as India or China would feel positively weird.
The general note about blast furnaces using more energy in the form of coal and gas is probably still relevant.