Two iron technology diffusion routes in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Archaeometallographic data suggest that there were two technological models in Eastern Europe as early as the Bronze Age–Early Iron Age transition period (9th–7th centuries BC). We link their development to two routes via which knowledge of use of ferrous metals diffused from Anatolia. The first route reached the North Caucasus, the second route passed through Greece and the Balkans to Central and Eastern Europe.