The beginning of metallurgy in the Old World is characterized by hammering native metals such as gold, copper and meteoric iron. Owing to the need of annealing the metal, for softening it after cold working, pyrometallurgy, the use of fire for producing metals from ores, could have been found by trial and error. Parallel to the rise of metallurgy is the use of a campfire (low temperature: max. 800°C) for baking clay-objects, which also seems to be an additional origin of metallurgy. The very first piece of molten copper-ore, dating back to the 7th millennium BC, was found in Catal Hoyiik, Turkey, together with hammered native copper and beads made of galena (PbS), initially mistakenly thought to be metallic lead.
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