Wootz crucible steel
Acero al crisol wootz
- Date
- c. 300 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Kodumanal and Tamil Nadu, southern India; Sri Lanka
- Credited to
- Tamil and Sinhalese smiths
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
High-carbon steel obtained by melting iron with charcoal and organic matter in sealed crucibles, with carbides forming bands. The world's first homogeneous steel, exported to Rome and Persia.
The name 'wootz' is an English corruption of the Tamil/Kannada ukku; the starting date ranges between the 6th and 3rd centuries BCE.
What it led to
- Legendary Damascus steel blades in the medieval Islamic world
- Trade in steel ingots between India, Persia and the Mediterranean
- The monsoon-wind furnaces of Sri Lanka
- European metallurgical research of the 18th-19th centuries (Faraday, Anosov) that led to alloy steels
Built on
- Bellowsc. 3000 BCE
- Early iron smelting in the Ganges plainc. 1800 BCE
- Widespread iron smeltingc. 1200 BCE
- Refractory ceramic crucible
- Charcoal