An ancient chieftain gathered the community and gave them instructions: bury dozens and dozens of weapons as a sacrificial offering. The community complied. Over 1,500 years later, archaeologists in ...

By 500 BC iron had replaced bronze as the usual metal for making tools and weapons. Blacksmiths produced iron using charcoal-fired shaft furnaces. Iron ore was smelted to produce a 'bloom' (see ...

NARA--Researchers have unearthed a shield-shaped bronze mirror and massive iron sword in an ancient kofun burial ... instrument to ward off evil, not a weapon, due to its large size.

Scholars have for decades debated the source of the iron ore and sites of the foundries that made the implements that created ...