Noric steel
Noric steel was a steel from Noricum, a Celtic kingdom located in modern Austria and Slovenia.
The proverbial hardness of Noric steel is expressed by Ovid: "...durior [...] ferro quod noricus excoquit ignis..."[1] and it was widely used for the weapons of the Roman military after Noricum joined the empire in 16BC.[2]
The iron ore was quarried at two mountains in modern Austria still called Erzberg "ore mountain" today, one at Hüttenberg, Carinthia[3] and the other at Eisenerz, Styria,[4] separated by ca. 70 km.
Buchwald[5] identifies a sword of ca. 300 BC found in Krenovica, Moravia as an early example of Noric steel due to a chemical composition consistent with Erzberg ore. A more recent sword, dating to ca. 100 BC, found in Zemplin, eastern Slovakia, is of extraordinary length for the period (95 cm) and carries a stamped Latin inscription (?V?TILICI?O), identified as a "fine sword of Noric steel" by Buchwald.[6] A center of manufacture was at Magdalensberg.[7]
References
- ↑ "...harder than iron tempered by Noric fire [was Anaxarete towards the advances of Iphis']...", Metamorphoses, 14.712
- ↑ "Noricus ensis," Horace, Odes, i. 16.9
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2005:118
- ↑ 2005:120
- ↑ Buchwald 2005:124
Bibliography
- Vagn Fabritius Buchwald, Iron and steel in ancient times, ch. 5: "Celtic Europe and Noric Steel" (2005), ISBN 87-7304-308-7.
