Were there any pre-columbian civilizations in the America that knew how to forge iron?

by SkolWolves97

I'm aware that civilizations like the Inca and Aztec knew how to work precious metals like gold and silver, and from what I understand many civilizations knew how to forge copper going back to 5000BCE. But do we have any evidence showing that pre-columbian civilizations used iron in any fashion, be it even just for jewelry or tools? And I would ask (though I'm sure I know the answer is yes) is it likely that, were foreign arrival delayed for a significant period of time, would Native American civilizations have learned to forge iron weapons and armor?

wotan_weevil

Iron was forged in pre-Columbian America, across the northern part of North America. Early forged iron objects were made in Greenland, across northern Canada, in Alaska, and along the northern Pacific coast.

Smelting iron (i.e., converting iron ore to metallic iron) was not developed, and was only introduced in the post-Columbian period. This meant that iron was rare, and forging iron was even more rare. There were three sources of iron:

  1. Iron meteorites. Meteorites are easier to find in terrain with little vegetation, such as deserts and icy regions. Greenland has some very large iron meteorites (weighing many tons), which have been exploited for centuries.

  2. Telluric iron. Both meteoric and telluric iron are "native iron", iron found naturally in its metallic form rather than as ore (which is usually iron oxide, and sometimes iron sulphide). Telluric iron is native iron of terrestrial origin and is quite rare compared to meteoric iron. There is some available in Greenland. This is usually in fairly small pieces, which are forged into arrowheads and small blades.

  3. Smelted iron from Europe and Asia. Some is known to have come from shipwrecks, often as nails in driftwood. Such driftwood iron is known both from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Old Pacific shipwreck iron is often of Chinese origin. Some was probably obtained through trade, with Siberian iron crossing the Bering. Some cast iron objects of Chinese origin have been found in Alaska, which may also have come via trade (cast iron is not suitable for forging, but it does demonstrate probable iron trade). Some iron might have come from trade via the Viking settlement of Greenland.

The early forged iron objects generally appear to have been cold-forged, i.e., hammered at room temperature. Cold-forging is only suitable for fairly small objects, since (a) it's much harder to deform cold iron compared to hot iron, and (b) work-hardening (which would be relieved by heating in a forge) limits how much the iron can be forged before it cracks. Objects would then be finished by grinding.

Native copper was work using similar methods in northern North America: cold-forging and grinding.

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