Ms. Karin Makovsky - M.Sc. Candidate
12/07/2026
David Wang Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Dalia Maydan Bldg.
13:30
The production of metal tools was one of the technologies that profoundly shaped human life. Compared with earlier materials, such as stone and clay, metal tools were more durable, and their production methods allowed for greater flexibility. Iron, in particular, became an important and widely used raw material in the Levant around 1000 BCE. Its growing prevalence in the following period is the reason this era is known as the Iron Age.
This study aims to expand our understanding of the technologies employed in the production of iron tools in the southern Levant and to trace how these technologies developed over time. Around 75 tools were collected from archaeological sites dating from the beginning of the Iron Age (~1200 BCE) through the end of the Byzantine period (~636 CE). However, only 14 of the artefacts contained sufficiently preserved iron suitable for analysis. Metallographic samples taken from cross-sections of these artifacts were analyzed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Variations were observed in material composition, phases, and microstructures, including ferrite, pearlite, bainite, and martensite, as well as elongated or twinned grain structures.
The results show that tools were often manufactured from multiple pieces of iron joined together by forge welding. Carburization was used to strengthen tools as early as the Iron Age II (~950 – 586 BCE). Quenching techniques first appear in the Persian period (~586 – 333 BCE), yielding bainitic structures, whereas martensitic structures were identified only in the Roman period (~63 BCE – 330 CE). This study is the first to illuminate the chronological development of iron-tool manufacturing technologies used in the southern Levant.