The innovation of crucible steel, a high-carbon, homogeneous, slag-free steel, is regarded as a milestone in the history of the development of ferrous metallurgy. Associated in popular literature with the making of swords, particularly in the Early Islamic period, crucible steel, also known as wootz, possesses exceptional properties of hardness and strength. While much is now understood about its metallurgical composition and structure, little is known of its origins and spread. Few archaeological sites have been uncovered and to date pre-industrial production of this alloy is only known from Central Asia and South Asia. Previous studies have largely focused on individual sites in isolation from wider regional patterns of ferrous metallurgy. As a refining process of iron, it is argued here that crucible steel has a symbiotic relationship with the smelting technologies that produced the raw material for refining. This thesis explores the value of assessing crucible steel production within its wider landscape, cultural and technological context by presenting the evidence from Northern Telangana, India. Historical sources and recent archaeological field surveys have shown that Telangana has a rich metallurgical past, including the manufacture of crucible steel. Despite this, little archaeological work has been conducted in the region to elucidate the nature, scale and diversity of the metallurgical technologies that underpinned its production. Following a major reconnaissance survey in 2010 by the Pioneering Metallurgy Project, the present study tackled the assessment of the large body of field data and the recording of the technological waste assemblage collected. By combining detailed morphological analyses of the collected materials and contextual information recorded during field survey, a better understanding of the techno-cultural role of crucible steel was gained. Technological variations were identified across the survey area and the inter-relationship between iron smelting and crucible steel was assessed. The study reveals that crucible steel was embedded within a long-established local and regional tradition of iron smelting and concludes that it represented the intensification of a pre-existing iron processing industry. The evidence points to a widespread crucible steel production industry with varying degrees of site specialisation, indicating that it was perhaps more common than the few isolated sites commonly referred to in the literature suggests. The comparison of the material evidence with other production sites in Central and South Asia also revealed close parallels to the latter suggesting that they belonged to the same regional manufacturing tradition.

A Espada de Damasco era uma arma utilizada pelos exércitos muçulmanos medievais. Está de tal forma associada à civilização islâmica que se tornou um de seus símbolos. Esta espada se caracterizava tanto por suas ótimas propriedades mecânicas como por seus belos desenhos ondulados. Estes atributos, somados à sua mística, a fizeram objeto de imitação e cobiça no Ocidente. Entre os séc. VIII e XIII d.C. o mundo muçulmano viveu seu apogeu como civilização, compilando, traduzindo, analisando e desenvolvendo um enorme corpo de conhecimento, em diversas áreas, trazido das grandes civilizações com as quais interagiu. No campo militar, as invasões dos povos nômades da Ásia Central trouxeram inovações, sendo claramente responsáveis pela introdução do sabre. O Império muçulmano medieval reuniu, assim, as condições necessárias para o advento da Espada de Damasco, principalmente por ter absorvido de outros povos, tanto a oeste, como a leste, uma série de elementos e influências fundamentais para a concepção desta arma: seu formato, o sabre, foi trazido pelos povos turcomanos nômades, e a tecnologia do aço de cadinho, sua matéria prima principal, era proveniente do Oriente; da Índia e da Ásia Central. Este trabalho se propõe a discutir de que forma a lendária Espada de Damasco pode ser entendida como um produto único da civilização islâmica medieval. Para alcançar este propósito, duas das principais características desta arma serão discutidas, seu formato como sabre, e sua matéria prima, o aço de cadinho. Finalmente, a etapa experimental realizada nos permite avaliar sob nossa própria perspectiva as duas principais hipóteses para explicar a formação do padrão de damasco, propostas por Verhoeven e Sherby. Além disso, as tentativas de reprodução do aço de cadinho nos levam a propor a hipótese do ferro fundido, invenção sabidamente chinesa, ter sido descoberto de forma acidental ao tentar produzir aço de cadinho. / The Damascus sword was the weapon of choice of the Muslim medieval armies. It is so closely related to the Islamic civilization that it became one of its symbols. This saber was known by its great mechanical properties, as much as its pleas-ant wavy pattern. All these attributes, added to its mystical meaning, turned it into an object to be reproduced and desired by the West. Between the 9th and 13th centuries AD, the Muslim society experienced its height as civilization, compiling, translating, analyzing and developing a wide body of knowledge of many fields, imported from the main civilizations with whom it coexist-ed. On military matters, nomadic peoples from central Asia invaded the Islamic world, bringing innovations with them, such as the saber. The Muslim medieval Empire pro-vided suitable conditions to allow the Damascus sword to be created. Specially, be-cause this civilization assimilated several influences from East and West, essential to the development of this weapon: its shape as saber was taken from the nomadic Turkic peoples, the technology of the crucible steel came from the East; Central Asia and India. This thesis discusses how the legendary Damascus sword may be understood as a unique product of the medieval Islamic civilization. Two of the most important features of this weapon will be discussed in order to reach our purpose: its design as a saber, and its raw material, the crucible steel. Finally, the experimental part allow us to assay, through our own perspective, the two main hypothesis what explain the origin of the Damascus pattern, suggested by Verhoeven and Sherby. Moreover, the different attempts to reproduce the UHC crucible steel lead us to formulate a hypothesis on the origin of the cast iron, a known Chinese invention, which could have been discovered by accident while trying to produce crucible steel.

A Espada de Damasco era uma arma utilizada pelos exércitos muçulmanos medievais. Está de tal forma associada à civilização islâmica que se tornou um de seus símbolos. Esta espada se caracterizava tanto por suas ótimas propriedades mecânicas como por seus belos desenhos ondulados. Estes atributos, somados à sua mística, a fizeram objeto de imitação e cobiça no Ocidente. Entre os séc. VIII e XIII d.C. o mundo muçulmano viveu seu apogeu como civilização, compilando, traduzindo, analisando e desenvolvendo um enorme corpo de conhecimento, em diversas áreas, trazido das grandes civilizações com as quais interagiu. No campo militar, as invasões dos povos nômades da Ásia Central trouxeram inovações, sendo claramente responsáveis pela introdução do sabre. O Império muçulmano medieval reuniu, assim, as condições necessárias para o advento da Espada de Damasco, principalmente por ter absorvido de outros povos, tanto a oeste, como a leste, uma série de elementos e influências fundamentais para a concepção desta arma: seu formato, o sabre, foi trazido pelos povos turcomanos nômades, e a tecnologia do aço de cadinho, sua matéria prima principal, era proveniente do Oriente; da Índia e da Ásia Central. Este trabalho se propõe a discutir de que forma a lendária Espada de Damasco pode ser entendida como um produto único da civilização islâmica medieval. Para alcançar este propósito, duas das principais características desta arma serão discutidas, seu formato como sabre, e sua matéria prima, o aço de cadinho. Finalmente, a etapa experimental realizada nos permite avaliar sob nossa própria perspectiva as duas principais hipóteses para explicar a formação do padrão de damasco, propostas por Verhoeven e Sherby. Além disso, as tentativas de reprodução do aço de cadinho nos levam a propor a hipótese do ferro fundido, invenção sabidamente chinesa, ter sido descoberto de forma acidental ao tentar produzir aço de cadinho. / The Damascus sword was the weapon of choice of the Muslim medieval armies. It is so closely related to the Islamic civilization that it became one of its symbols. This saber was known by its great mechanical properties, as much as its pleas-ant wavy pattern. All these attributes, added to its mystical meaning, turned it into an object to be reproduced and desired by the West. Between the 9th and 13th centuries AD, the Muslim society experienced its height as civilization, compiling, translating, analyzing and developing a wide body of knowledge of many fields, imported from the main civilizations with whom it coexist-ed. On military matters, nomadic peoples from central Asia invaded the Islamic world, bringing innovations with them, such as the saber. The Muslim medieval Empire pro-vided suitable conditions to allow the Damascus sword to be created. Specially, be-cause this civilization assimilated several influences from East and West, essential to the development of this weapon: its shape as saber was taken from the nomadic Turkic peoples, the technology of the crucible steel came from the East; Central Asia and India. This thesis discusses how the legendary Damascus sword may be understood as a unique product of the medieval Islamic civilization. Two of the most important features of this weapon will be discussed in order to reach our purpose: its design as a saber, and its raw material, the crucible steel. Finally, the experimental part allow us to assay, through our own perspective, the two main hypothesis what explain the origin of the Damascus pattern, suggested by Verhoeven and Sherby. Moreover, the different attempts to reproduce the UHC crucible steel lead us to formulate a hypothesis on the origin of the cast iron, a known Chinese invention, which could have been discovered by accident while trying to produce crucible steel.