In two earlier articles, we looked at the journey through space and time that metal elements traversed in order to arrive at planet Earth, revealing multiple phases of fine-tuning to make these essential elements available for our benefit. The history of life on Earth, from microbial life to humans, has leveraged the critical chemical properties of metals in conjunction with bio-molecules to allow life to continue to exist.

The story of human usage of metals, from the discovery of smelting metals from their ores, to envisioning and shaping metals into a myriad of practical and aesthetic forms, reveals that Earth’s resources, in the hands of man, carry a power for harm as well as good. Balancing the potential inherent within our metal resources can expose the moral character of human nature.

How and When?

How and when did humans first discover and utilize metal resources? What prerequisites of ability were necessary to make use of native metals and ores?

Adequate oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere to allow fire, and accessible supplies of fuel to burn, are two prerequisites for metal usage, both reliant upon various forms of life. Sufficient human intelligence and curiosity were also necessary to discover the properties of metals that could be exploited by proper smelting techniques of accessible ores.

The discovery by Neolithic man of how to smelt metals from their ores, where they are linked by strong chemical bonds to elements such as oxygen, sulphur and carbon, must stand as one of the great achievements in human history. It called for a stretch of the imagination, allied perhaps with intuition, that even now, with the clarity of scientific hindsight, we find difficult to explain.¹

Taking it all together, one could legitimately draw the conclusion that the ability and conditions, both within ourselves and within our environment, to take advantage of the myriads of uses of metals is consistent with foresight, planning, and preparation.

So It Begins

The earliest evidence of metal working involves copper ornaments made from native copper (not requiring smelting), dating from 9000 BC. Extensive deposits of relatively pure copper around the Great Lakes allowed Native Americans to develop a “copper culture” as early as anything discovered in the region of the Middle East.

About 8500 years ago, hunter-gatherers living beside Eagle Lake in Wisconsin hammered out a conical, 10-centimeter-long projectile point made of pure copper. The finely crafted point, used to hunt big game, highlights a New World technological triumph — and a puzzle….The dates show that early Native Americans were among the first people in the world to mine metal and fashion it into tools.²

Why should the melting points of common metals be attainable in furnaces heated by burning carbon-based organic matter? With regard to the availability, accessibility, and usage of metals in human civilization, several factors consistent with intelligent design may be considered. Besides the processes leading to the origin of the metal and metal ores, metallurgical developments would never have happened apart from multiple just-right conditions on Earth that facilitate the production of heat by fire. 

Denton and Fire-Making

Michael Denton’s book Fire-Maker gives an in-depth examination of the fine-tuning required for humans to use fire for any purpose. With regard to smelting metals, the match between the heat produced by burning organic matter and the temperatures needed to attain the melting points of metals, reliant upon the atomic properties of materials and the strength of the electromagnetic force, surely stands as a prime example of fine-tuning and design. 

In an earlier article at Evolution News, Denton described some additional details of the conditions necessary for the successful smelting of metals from their ores.

…it is only because charcoal reacts more vigorously with oxygen than uncooked wood, making possible the high temperatures in kilns and furnaces, that the extraction of metals from their ores and the development of metallurgy was possible at all. And adding fortuity to fortuity, burning charcoal not only provides the necessary heat but also the reducing conditions in the kiln that strips the oxygen from metal ores, an essential element in the smelting and metallurgy of iron.

Around 3000 BC, the Bronze Age began when metal workers learned that alloying copper with a few percent of other metals, such as arsenic, resulted in a harder finished product. The ideal metal to combine with copper, however, was tin. Adding about 10 percent tin lowered the melting point of copper by more than 100 degrees Celsius, caused it to flow more easily into molds, prevented oxidation bubbles, and yielded a cast metal that was much harder than pure copper.³

Lest this progress in the knowledge of metallurgy seem obvious or unremarkable, it’s notable to refer to what has been called, “the greatest mystery of the Bronze Age: where did the tin come from, and how were its ideal properties for alloying with copper discovered?”⁴ True bronze contains 10-12 percent tin, but historical locations of copper ore and tin do not overlap. 

Another significant step in the progress of humanity’s utilization of metals came through the smelting of iron ore. Iron ore requires a significantly higher temperature than copper to smelt, yet, even civilizations as ancient as the Hittites succeeded in mastering iron working by 2000 BC.

The earliest history of smelted iron is obscure, with the first scanty evidence of man-made iron dating from about 2500 BCE in the Middle East. A thousand years later the abundance of ores led to the displacement of copper and bronze by iron in the Hittite empire….Iron was smelted in the Middle East before 2500 BCE, but the Iron Age proper was 1,000 or more years in maturing. Its full development came with the discovery of hardening by carburization (addition of carbon) and heat treating, which led to superior edged tools of great toughness.

Down to the Present

Space limitations preclude a more in-depth exploration of the fascinating history of the discovery of metals and human usage of them. Suffice it to say that the importance of metals for our civilization continues to the present day. Our advanced technological achievements would not be remotely possible were it not for the availability of a wide range of metals, including many exotic metal elements unknown to our ancestors.

Looking back into the last century, it may be said that developments in metallurgy and materials science have played a significant role in several areas and impacted the economy and well-being of people. Every other branch of science and engineering has depended on advances in metallurgy to be applied in its domain.⁵

Electronics technology, for example, while utilizing only small amounts of metals in a given device, relies upon a wide range of metals that “just happen” to be available for human extraction from the Earth’s crust.

Over the last decade or so, the development of technologies associated with consumer electronics, renewable energy, and specialty steel have sparked demand for a range of “specialty” mineral commodities. These commodities are quite diverse and include, among others, rare earth elements, (REEs: lanthanides, Y, and Sc), Ga, In, W, platinum group elements (PGEs: Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt), Co, Nb, Mg, Mo, Sb, Li, V, Ni, Ta, Te, Cr, Mn, Se, Ti, Sr, graphite, Sn, Ge, Be, Zr, Bi, F, and Cd.

Although developments in metallurgy have contributed positively to human civilization, the flip side of humanity’s moral nature has seen metal usage brought to a sharp edge in weaponry and warfare.

Minerals have defined key periods in technological development for much of warfare’s history. The Stone Age featured mineral-tipped spears and arrows; the Bronze Age included swords and shields of bronze, a metal alloy of copper and tin; and in the Iron Age, iron replaced bronze in many weapons, making them both lighter and cheaper. Since then, minerals have remained formative in changing human history — and warfighting.⁶

From a theistic viewpoint, metals may be regarded as evidence of the riches of God’s preparation of Earth as humanity’s home. But the biblical narrative also reveals the very real consequences of our freedom to choose. Our significance as human beings is tied to this freedom, and so is much of the suffering humans have inflicted upon others.

Out of all the metal elements available for human use on Earth, one of the most precious is also one of the safest — gold. Its noble properties prevent it from tarnishing or posing a toxicity threat. Its malleability allows it to be cold-worked into decorative and artistic forms. Gold’s high electrical and thermal conductivity make it valuable in advanced technology. Notably, its softness has prevented gold from being used for evil in human history as a basis of weaponry. One could say that gold is “the good metal.” Fittingly, the biblical narrative concludes with heaven portrayed as a place where even the streets are paved with gold.⁷

Notes

1. Robert Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace: The Impact of Metals on the History of Mankind, (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986), p. 10.
2. David Malakoff, “Ancient Native Americans were among the world’s first coppersmiths,” Science News (19 Mar. 2021). https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-native-americans-were-among-world-s-first-coppersmiths .
3. Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace, (1986).
4. Raymond, Out of the Fiery Furnace, (1986), p.31.
5. R. Krishnan, in High-Entropy Alloys (Second Edition), (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2019), from the forward.
6. Macdonald Amoah, Gregory Wischer, Juliet Akamboe and Morgan Bazilian (11/10/2023), https://mwi.westpoint.edu/what-if-americas-mineral-intensive-military-runs-out-of-minerals/ .
7. Revelation 21:21.