Melek takes place in the late Bronze age. The shift from Bronze to Iron Age wasn't solely due to iron being a superior metal (it wasn't initially). The transition took time for various reasons, including the destabilization of ancient palace economies.
Drafting my lecture on Near Eastern iron for the IAMS #archaeometallurgy school @UCLarchaeology, and it's been a great chance for me to collate my thoughts on new work on this topic since I wrote this review paper in 2017-2018. Excited to talk this out. ht
Uh oh. Was Leo Oppenheim sub-tweeting me from the past? https://t.co/92EvLVOYWH Three thoughts: 🧵
@BretDevereaux A point of clarification as someone who focuses on metallurgy and the LBA-EIA transition: I don't know any scholar these days who sees iron weapons as a *cause* of the 12th century crisis. So your skepticism is very warranted. https://t.co/9