Invention of cast iron smelting in early China: Archaeological survey and numerical simulation

Abstract

The earliest cast iron in China dates to the 8th century BC and pre-dates the earliest European evidence by about two millennia. The invention of cast iron smelting is closely related to the pre-existing and contemporary technologies of casting bronze and firing ceramics as well as the social and political context of early 1st millennium BC China. A series of early iron smelting furnaces were surveyed, excavated, and scientifically analysed. However, in order to understand how cast iron was initially produced, the evidence from one of the earliest production sites was digitally simulated. This modelling allowed different potential methods for the underlying production technology to be evaluated. The explanation for the invention of cast iron lies both in borrowing and developing of techniques found in other contemporary pyrotechnologies as well as a contemporary systemic philosophical approach.