Hacker News Reader

> Lets call that steel from Damascus.

That's confusing to me, what exactly was from Damascus, the steel or the forging technique? Reading the article OP cited says: "This suggests the possibility that the low levels of vanadium found in the genuine wootz blades of Table III may have resulted from ore deposits in India where the wootz steels were produced. "

View on HN

It’s called Damascus because that was the entrepôt from which it entered Europe. It’s actually from South Asia. A similar thing happened with fabric... muslin and damasque are from India, not Mosul and Damascus

Wikipedia says both muslin and damasque originated in or around Mosul and Damascus, though. Their production moved to India later on, due to comparative advantage, I imagine.

the citation here is just from the 1911 britanica, which is not a terribly reliable source! For what its worth, transparent muslin is depicted on the walls of ajunta (in the Vessantara Jataka painting in cave 17) from the sixth century, and are mentioned in the Harsacarita, from the seventh, both from before Mosul was a major center.

He’s partially right. Damascus was made from Wootz steel which was imported from India. The technique of adding carbon to the steel to harden it causing the characteristic bands was discovered in India.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com