KIEL, GERMANY—According to the Greek Reporter, Matthias Christian Hüls of Kiel University and his colleagues compared two Iron Age axes—one unearthed in a burial mound in Kazakhstan and the other discovered among a collection of tools in northern Germany. Radiocarbon dating determined that the tool from Kazakhstan was made between 357 and 164 B.C., making it several hundred years younger than the burial in which it was found. It may have been left at the site during the construction of a neighboring burial mound, Hüls explained. The ax was crafted from two types of iron. Softer metal was used near the handle, while the cutting edges were made of harder, carbon-rich iron. Heat treating was used to make the blades of the ax stronger, he added. Chemical analysis of the slag at the site showed that the iron had been efficiently refined. Meanwhile, Germany’s Högersdorf Ax was dated to between 340 and 53 B.C. This ax was made of softer, phosphorus-rich iron that may have been taken from bog iron ore available near local rivers and wetlands. The smelting process to make this tool appears to have been less efficient than that used to fashion the ax from Kazakhstan. Hüls suggests that the two axes reflect different levels of metalworking skill likely shaped by available resources. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Radiocarbon. To read about other ancient burials in Kazakhstan, go to "Iron Age Teenagers."
