Dicle Haber Ajansı , DIHA (English: Dicle News Agency ), is a "pro-Kurdish" news agency of Turkey . In March 2012 Reporters without Borders reported that 27 of its journalists were in prison. DIHA produces news reports on Turkish , Kurdish , and English
66-620: DIHA had several times difficulties with the Turkish authorities and several of its journalists were arrested. In March 2009, following the coverage of the Newroz festivals in Siirt , Abdurrahman Gök was arrested and charged with making propaganda on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Between December 2015 and May 2016, 12 of its journalists were arrested. Turkish authorities have blocked access to
132-520: A chisel . Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, coke , or oil. Some modern blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Induction heating methods are gaining popularity among modern blacksmiths. Color is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, and finally white. The ideal heat for most forging
198-417: A chisel, since it is lengthened by drawing it would also tend to spread in width. A smith would therefore frequently turn the chisel-to-be on its side and hammer it back down—upsetting it—to check the spread and keep the metal at the correct width. Or, if a smith needed to put a 90-degree bend in a bar and wanted a sharp corner on the outside of the bend, they would begin by hammering an unsupported end to make
264-420: A point results. Drawing can be accomplished with a variety of tools and methods. Two typical methods using only hammer and anvil would be hammering on the anvil horn, and hammering on the anvil face using the cross peen of a hammer. Another method for drawing is to use a tool called a fuller , or the peen of the hammer, to hasten the drawing out of a thick piece of metal. (The technique is called fullering from
330-422: A process in which the blacksmith permanently joins two pieces of iron, or a piece of iron and a piece of steel, by heating them nearly to a white heat and hammering them together. Forge welding is more difficult with modern mild steel, because it welds in a narrower temperature band. The fibrous nature of wrought iron required knowledge and skill to properly form any tool which would be subject to stress. Modern steel
396-498: A smith makes sure the fire is a reducing fire: a fire where, at the heart, there is a great deal of heat and very little oxygen. The smith also carefully shapes mating faces so that as they come together foreign material squeezes out as the metal is joined. To clean the faces, protect them from oxidation, and provide a medium to carry foreign material out of the weld, the smith sometimes uses flux—typically powdered borax, silica sand, or both. The smith first cleans parts to be joined with
462-418: A wire brush, then puts them in the fire to heat. With a mix of drawing and upsetting the smith shapes the faces so that when finally brought together, the center of the weld connects first and the connection spreads outward under the hammer blows, pushing out the flux (if used) and foreign material. The dressed metal goes back in the fire, is brought near to welding heat, removed from the fire, and brushed. Flux
528-454: Is a heroic blacksmith in Germanic mythology. The Poetic Edda states that he forged beautiful gold rings set with wonderful gems. He was captured by king Níðuðr , who cruelly hamstrung him and imprisoned him on an island. Völundr eventually had his revenge by killing Níðuðr's sons and fashioning goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes and a brooch from their teeth. He then raped
594-484: Is a time for entertainment such as games, dancing, family gathering, preparation of special foods and the reading of poetry. The celebration of Newroz has its local peculiarities in different regions of Kurdistan. On the eve of Newroz, in southern and eastern Kurdistan, bonfires are lit. These fires symbolize the passing of the dark season, winter, and the arrival of spring, the season of light. The 17th century Kurdish poet Ahmad Khani mentions in one of his poems how
660-416: Is an assistant (frequently an apprentice ) whose job is to swing a large sledgehammer in heavy forging operations, as directed by the blacksmith. In practice, the blacksmith holds the hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one hand, and indicates where to strike the iron by tapping it with a small hammer in the other hand. The striker then delivers a heavy blow to the indicated spot with a sledgehammer. During
726-516: Is for us and dark is the night) This fire massing and washing the Heart, My heart claim after it. And here come Newroz and the New Year, When a such light is rising. The famous Kurdish writer and poet Piramerd (1867–1950) writes in his 1948 poem Newroz : The New Year's day is today. Newroz is back. An ancient Kurdish festival, with joy and verdure. For many years, the flower of our hopes
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#1732891785181792-468: Is not smelted and cannot come from this process) " or "mild steel." The terms are never interchangeable. In preindustrial times, the material of choice for blacksmiths was wrought iron. This iron had a very low carbon content, and also included up to 5% of glassy iron silicate slag in the form of numerous very fine stringers. This slag content made the iron very tough, gave it considerable resistance to rusting, and allowed it to be more easily "forge welded,"
858-563: Is now used by the Kurds to remind themselves that they are a different, strong people, and the lighting of the fires has since become a symbol of freedom. It is a tradition to jump across a fire at Newroz. According to Evliya Çelebi , the district ( sancak ) of Merkawe in Shahrazur in the southeastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan is named after Kaveh. The 12th century geographer Yaqoot Hamawi mentions Zor (Zur ), son of Zahhak (Aji Dahak), as founder of
924-422: Is over 2%, the metal is called cast iron , because it has a relatively low melting point and is easily cast. It is quite brittle, however, and cannot be forged so therefore not used for blacksmithing. If the carbon content is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting metal is tool steel , which can be heat treated as discussed above. When the carbon content is below 0.25%, the metal is either " wrought iron (wrought iron
990-505: Is produced using either the blast furnace or arc furnaces. Wrought iron was produced by a labor-intensive process called puddling , so this material is now a difficult-to-find specialty product. Modern blacksmiths generally substitute mild steel for making objects traditionally of wrought iron. Sometimes they use electrolytic-process pure iron. Many blacksmiths also incorporate materials such as bronze , copper , or brass in artistic products. Aluminum and titanium may also be forged by
1056-437: Is sometimes applied, which prevents oxygen from reaching and burning the metal during forging, and it is returned to the fire. The smith now watches carefully to avoid overheating the metal. There is some challenge to this because, to see the color of the metal, the smith must remove it from the fire—exposing it to air, which can rapidly oxidize it. So the smith might probe into the fire with a bit of steel wire, prodding lightly at
1122-400: Is sufficiently corrosion-resistant that artifacts of bronze may last thousands of years relatively unscathed. Accordingly, museums frequently preserve more examples of Bronze Age metal-work than examples of artifacts from the much younger Iron Age . Buried iron artifacts may completely rust away in less than 100 years. Examples of ancient iron work still extant are very much the exception to
1188-516: Is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz ; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture . The lighting of the fires at the beginning of the evening of March 20 is the main symbol of Newroz among the Kurds. In Zoroastrianism , fire is a symbol of light, goodness and purification. Angra Mainyu , the demonic anti-thesis of Ahura Mazda , was defied by Zoroastrians with a big fire every year, which symbolized their defiance of and hatred for evil and
1254-500: Is the blacksmith of the devas . The earliest references of Tvastar can be found in the Rigveda . Hephaestus (Latin: Vulcan ) was the blacksmith of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology . A supremely skilled artisan whose forge was a volcano, he constructed most of the weapons of the gods, as well as beautiful assistants for his smithy and a metal fishing-net of astonishing intricacy. He
1320-591: Is the bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat . Because they must be able to see the glowing color of the metal, some blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions, but most work in well-lit conditions. The key is to have consistent lighting, but not too bright. Direct sunlight obscures the colors. The techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat-treating, and finishing. Forging —the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering—differs from machining in that forging does not remove material. Instead,
1386-714: The Shahnameh , a poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, and the Sharafnameh by the medieval Kurdish historian Sherefxan Bidlisi . Zahak , who is named Zuhak by the Kurds, was an evil Assyrian king who conquered Iran and had serpents growing from his shoulders. Zahak's rule lasted for one thousand years; his evil reign caused spring to no longer come to Kurdistan . During this time, two young men were sacrificed daily and their brains were offered to Zahak's serpents in order to alleviate his pain. However,
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#17328917851811452-636: The PKK , the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, had chosen the date of the Newroz festival to stage attacks to obtain publicity for their cause; this led to Turkish forces detaining thousands of people who were seen as supporters of the Kurdish rebel movements. During the Newroz celebrations of 1992, more than 90 Kurdish participants were killed by the Turkish government. In 2008, two participants were killed. In Syria,
1518-443: The metal , using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith ). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There was a historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operations of a whitesmith , who usually worked in gold , silver , pewter , or
1584-412: The 20th century and into the 21st century, this role has become increasingly unnecessary and automated through the use of trip hammers or reciprocating power hammers. When iron ore is smelted into usable metal, a certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed with the iron. (Charcoal is almost pure carbon.) The amount of carbon significantly affects the properties of the metal. If the carbon content
1650-401: The Kurds dress up in their national dress and celebrate the new year. According to Human Rights Watch , Syrian Kurds have had to struggle to celebrate Newroz, and in the past the celebration has led to violent oppression, leading to several deaths and mass arrests. The government has stated that the Newroz celebrations will be tolerated as long as they do not become political demonstrations of
1716-456: The appropriately shaped part of the anvil. Some metals are "hot short", meaning they lose their tensile strength when heated. They become like Plasticine : although they may still be manipulated by squeezing, an attempt to stretch them, even by bending or twisting, is likely to have them crack and break apart. This is a problem for some blade-making steels, which must be worked carefully to avoid developing hidden cracks that would cause failure in
1782-525: The arch-demon. In Kurdish legend, the holiday celebrates the deliverance of the Kurds from a tyrant, and it is seen as another way of demonstrating support for the Kurdish cause. The celebration coincides with the March equinox which usually falls on 21 March and is usually held between 18 and 24 March. The festival has an important place in terms of Kurdish identity for the majority of Kurds. Though celebrations vary, people generally gather together to welcome
1848-508: The association on Jan. 23 retracted its decision, saying it was a mistake, and apologized to organizers of the Newroz festival. Newroz has been mentioned in works of many Kurdish poets and writers as well as musicians. One of the earliest records of Newroz in Kurdish literature is from Melayê Cizîrî (1570–1640): Without the light and the fire of Love, Without the Designer and the power of Creator, We are not able to reach Union. (Light
1914-518: The black firescale , a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of smith is the Old English word smið meaning "blacksmith", originating from the Proto-Germanic *smiþaz meaning "skilled worker". Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, an anvil and
1980-550: The blacksmith's process. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin , while brass is an alloy of copper and zinc . Each material responds differently under the hammer and must be separately studied by the blacksmith. Steel with less than 0.6% carbon content cannot be hardened enough by simple heat-treatment to make useful hardened-steel tools. Hence, in what follows, wrought-iron, low-carbon-steel, and other soft unhardenable iron varieties are referred to indiscriminately as just iron . In Hindu mythology, Tvastar also known as Vishvakarma
2046-747: The celebration of Nevruz, spelling it "Nevruz" and claiming its origins were to be found in Central Asia . The Government was attempting to counter the rising Kurdish nationalism. Using the Kurdish spelling "Newroz" has been officially forbidden, though it is still widely used by Kurds. Several Turkish newspapers were prosecuted for the spelling of Newroz. In the Kurdish regions of Turkey, specifically in Eastern Anatolia but also in Istanbul and Ankara where there are large Kurdish populations, people gather and jump over bonfires. Previous to it being legalized,
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2112-652: The coming of spring; they wear traditional coloured Kurdish clothes, dance together, light fires to dance around and jump over the bonfire, play Kurdish games. The word Newroz is a combination of the Kurdish words نوێ ( naw , meaning 'new') and ڕۆژ ( roz , 'day'). The arrival of spring has been celebrated in Asia Minor since neolithic times . The root of this story goes back to ancient Iranian legends, retold in General History by scientist Dinawari , The Meadows of Gold by Muslim historian Masudi ,
2178-582: The copper used by the Mediterranean World came from the island of Cyprus . Most of the tin came from the Cornwall region of the island of Great Britain , transported by sea-borne Phoenician and Greek traders. Copper and bronze cannot be hardened by heat-treatment, they can only be hardened by cold working . To accomplish this, a piece of bronze is lightly hammered for a long period of time. The localized stress-cycling causes work hardening by changing
2244-465: The curve had been properly shaped. In the primary operation was the bend, but the drawing and upsetting are done to refine the shape. Welding is the joining of the same or similar kind of metal. A modern blacksmith has a range of options and tools to accomplish this. The basic types of welding commonly employed in a modern workshop include traditional forge welding as well as modern methods, including oxyacetylene and arc welding . In forge welding,
2310-427: The curved bend. Then, to "fatten up" the outside radius of the bend, one or both arms of the bend would need to be pushed back to fill the outer radius of the curve. So they would hammer the ends of the stock down into the bend, 'upsetting' it at the point of the bend. They would then dress the bend by drawing the sides of the bend to keep the correct thickness. The hammering would continue—upsetting and then drawing—until
2376-586: The dead […] and aiming at the increase of the rain and the harvests.”1 The great center of Armenian Navasard, Ananikian points out, was Bagavan, the center of fire worship. The Kurdish association with Newroz has become increasingly pronounced since the 1950s when the Kurds in the Middle East and those in the diaspora in Europe started adopting it as a tradition. Following the persecution of any Kurdish expression in Turkey,
2442-425: The famous city of Sharazor . In the 1930s, the Kurdish poet Taufik Abdullah, wanting to instill a new Kurdish cultural revival, used a previously known, modified version of the story of Kawa. He connected the myths where people felt oppressed with Newroz, thus reviving a dying holiday and making it a symbol of the Kurdish national struggle. Newroz is considered the most important festival in Kurdish culture, and
2508-438: The fate of being sacrificed (who according to the legend were ancestors of the Kurds ) were trained by Kaveh into an army that marched to Zahak's castle where Kaveh killed the king with a hammer. Kaveh is said to have then set fire to the hillsides to celebrate the victory and summon his supporters; spring returned to Kurdistan the next day. March 20 is traditionally marked as the day that Kaveh defeated Zahak . This legend
2574-473: The finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is variously called a smithy , a forge , or a blacksmith's shop . While there are many professions who work with metal, such as farriers , wheelwrights , and armorers , in former times the blacksmith had a general knowledge of how to make and repair many things, from the most complex of weapons and armor to simple things like nails or lengths of chain. The "black" in "blacksmith" refers to
2640-481: The flat face of the hammer. Heating iron to a "forging heat" allows bending as if it were a soft, ductile metal, like copper or silver. Bending can be done with the hammer over the horn or edge of the anvil or by inserting a bending fork into the hardy hole (the square hole in the top of the anvil), placing the work piece between the tines of the fork, and bending the material to the desired angle. Bends can be dressed and tightened, or widened, by hammering them over
2706-427: The future. Though rarely hand-worked, titanium is notably hot short. Even such common smithing processes as decoratively twisting a bar are impossible with it. Upsetting is the process of making metal thicker in one dimension through shortening in the other. One form is to heat the end of a rod and then hammer on it as one would drive a nail: the rod gets shorter, and the hot part widens. An alternative to hammering on
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2772-480: The god of blacksmiths, warriors, hunters and others who work with iron is one of the pantheon of Orisha traditionally worshipped by the Yoruba people of Nigeria . Gold , silver , and copper all occur in nature in their native states , as reasonably pure metals – humans probably worked these metals first. These metals are all quite malleable , and humans' initial development of hammering techniques
2838-563: The hero known to the Ossetians as Kurdalægon and the Circassians as Tlepsh is a blacksmith and skilled craftsman whose exploits exhibit shamanic features, sometimes bearing comparison to those of the Scandinavian deity Odin . One of his greatest feats is acting as a type of male midwife to the hero Xamyc , who has been made the carrier of the embryo of his son Batraz by his dying wife
2904-426: The horizon reflects It has never happened in the history of any nation To have the breasts of girls as shields against bullets Nay. It is not worth crying and mourning for the martyrs of homeland They die not. They live on in the heart of the nation. Blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel , but sometimes from other metals , by forging
2970-474: The hot end is to place the hot end on the anvil and hammer on the cold end. Punching may be done to create a decorative pattern, or to make a hole. For example, in preparation for making a hammerhead, a smith would punch a hole in a heavy bar or rod for the hammer handle. Punching is not limited to depressions and holes. It also includes cutting, slitting, and drifting—all done with a chisel. The five basic forging processes are often combined to produce and refine
3036-554: The king's daughter, after drugging her with strong beer, and escaped, laughing, on wings of his own making, boasting that he had fathered a child upon her. Seppo Ilmarinen , the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala , is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. Tubal-Cain is mentioned in the book of Genesis of the Torah as the original smith. Ogun ,
3102-496: The man who was in charge of sacrificing the two young men every day would instead kill only one man a day and mix his brains with those of a sheep in order to save the other man. As discontent grew against Zahak's rule, the nobleman Fereydun planned a revolt. The revolt was led by Kaveh (also known as Kawa) (in the Ossetian language , Kurdalægon ), a blacksmith who had lost six sons to Zahak . The young men who had been saved from
3168-454: The mating faces. When the end of the wire sticks on to the metal, it is at the right temperature (a small weld forms where the wire touches the mating face, so it sticks). The smith commonly places the metal in the fire so he can see it without letting surrounding air contact the surface. (Note that smiths don't always use flux, especially in the UK.) Now the smith moves with rapid purpose, quickly taking
3234-455: The metal by reducing one or both of the other two dimensions. As the depth is reduced, or the width narrowed, the piece is lengthened or "drawn out." As an example of drawing, a smith making a chisel might flatten a square bar of steel, lengthening the metal, reducing its depth but keeping its width consistent. Drawing does not have to be uniform. A taper can result as in making a wedge or a woodworking chisel blade. If tapered in two dimensions,
3300-433: The metal from the fire to the anvil and bringing the mating faces together. A few light hammer taps bring the mating faces into complete contact and squeeze out the flux—and finally, the smith returns the work to the fire. The weld begins with the taps, but often the joint is weak and incomplete, so the smith reheats the joint to welding temperature and works the weld with light blows to "set" the weld and finally to dress it to
3366-617: The norm. Concurrent with the advent of alphabetic characters in the Iron Age , humans became aware of the metal iron . However, in earlier ages, iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not generally understood. Iron artifacts , composed of meteoric iron , have the chemical composition containing up to 40% nickel . As this source of this iron is extremely rare and fortuitous, little development of smithing skills peculiar to iron can be assumed to have occurred. That we still possess any such artifacts of meteoric iron may be ascribed to
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#17328917851813432-409: The north of Tokyo, were denied Kurdish refugees permittion to hold Newroz celebrations in that city. They told The Asahi Shimbun that they were pressured by unknown people by phone and email to reject the request of the Kurds; for this reason, the association director withheld permission for the festival citing the possibility that protesters might show up and cause trouble at the park. But a little later
3498-511: The people, youth and elderly, leave their houses and gather in countryside to celebrate Newroz. Armenian scholar Mardiros Ananikian emphasizes the identical nature of Newroz and the Armenian traditional New Year, Navasard , noting that it was only in the 11th century that Navasard came to be celebrated in late summer rather than in early spring. He states that the Newroz – Navasard “was an agricultural celebration connected with commemoration of
3564-436: The pieces to join are heated to what is generally referred to as welding heat . For mild steel most smiths judge this temperature by color: the metal glows an intense yellow or white. At this temperature the steel is near molten. Any foreign material in the weld, such as the oxides or "scale" that typically form in the fire, can weaken it and cause it to fail. Thus the mating surfaces to be joined must be kept clean. To this end
3630-500: The revival of the Newroz celebration has become more intense and politicized and has also become a symbol of the Kurdish resurrection. By the end of the 1980s, Newroz was mainly associated "with the attempts to express and resurrect" the Kurdish identity. In 1991, the Turkish minister of Culture Namık Kemal Zeybek gave out the directive to hold the Nevruz holiday. During the leadership of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel Turkey legalized
3696-420: The shape. Depending on the intended use of the piece, a blacksmith may finish it in a number of ways: A range of treatments and finishes can inhibit oxidation and enhance or change the appearance of the piece. An experienced smith selects the finish based on the metal and on the intended use of the item. Finishes include (among others): paint, varnish, bluing , browning , oil, and wax. A blacksmith's striker
3762-418: The shapes necessary for finished products. For example, to fashion a cross-peen hammer head, a smith would start with a bar roughly the diameter of the hammer face: the handle hole would be punched and drifted (widened by inserting or passing a larger tool through it), the head would be cut (punched, but with a wedge), the peen would be drawn to a wedge, and the face would be dressed by upsetting. As with making
3828-454: The size and shape of the metal's crystals . The hardened bronze can then be ground to sharpen it to make edged tools. Clocksmiths as recently as the 19th century used work hardening techniques to harden the teeth of brass gears and ratchets . Tapping on just the teeth produced harder teeth, with superior wear-resistance. By contrast, the rest of the gear was left in a softer and tougher state, more capable of resisting cracking. Bronze
3894-429: The smith hammers the iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations (except when trimming waste) by smiths usually re-arrange metal around the hole, rather than drilling it out as swarf . Forging uses seven basic operations or techniques: These operations generally require at least a hammer and anvil , but smiths also use other tools and techniques to accommodate odd-sized or repetitive jobs. Drawing lengthens
3960-478: The tool.) Fullering consists of hammering a series of indentations with corresponding ridges, perpendicular to the long section of the piece being drawn. The resulting effect looks somewhat like waves along the top of the piece. Then the smith turns the hammer over to use the flat face to hammer the tops of the ridges down level with the bottoms of the indentations. This forces the metal to grow in length (and width if left unchecked) much faster than just hammering with
4026-696: The treatment of the Kurds. During the Newroz celebrations in 2008, three Kurds were shot dead by Syrian security forces. Kurds in the diaspora also celebrate the new year: Kurds in Australia celebrate Newroz not only as the beginning of the new year but also as Kurdish National Day; the Kurds in Finland celebrate the new year as a way of demonstrating their support for the Kurdish cause. In London, organizers estimated that 25,000 people celebrated Newroz in March 2006. The Saitama prefectural parks and greenery association in
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#17328917851814092-487: The water-sprite Lady Isp, who spits it between his shoulder blades, where it forms a womb-like cyst. Kurdalaegon prepares a type of tower or scaffold above a quenching bath for Xamyc, and, when the time is right, lances the cyst to liberate the infant hero Batraz as a newborn babe of white-hot steel , whom Kurdalægon then quenches like a newly forged sword. The Anglo-Saxon Wayland Smith , known in Old Norse as Völundr ,
4158-526: The website 40 times; the website changes its address every time it is blocked. Following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt , it was one of more than 150 news outlets shut down by the authorities. This article about mass media in Turkey is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This journalism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Newroz as celebrated by Kurds Ancient Medieval Modern Newroz or Nawruz ( Kurdish : نەورۆز, Newroz )
4224-410: Was downtrodden The poppy of spring was the blood of the youth It was that red colour on the high horizon of Kurd Which was carrying the happy tidings of dawn to remote and near nations It was Newroz which imbued the hearts with such a fire That made the youth receive death with devoted love Hooray! The sun is shining from the high mountains of homeland It is the blood of our martyrs which
4290-612: Was the god of metalworking, fire, and craftsmen. In Celtic mythology , the role of Smith is held by eponymous (their names do mean 'smith') characters : Goibhniu (Irish myths of the Tuatha Dé Danann cycle) or Gofannon (Welsh myths/ the Mabinogion ). Brigid or Brigit, an Irish goddess , is sometimes described as the patroness of blacksmiths. In the Nart mythology of the Caucasus
4356-620: Was undoubtedly applied to these metals. During the Chalcolithic era and the Bronze Age , humans in the Mideast learned how to smelt , melt , cast , rivet , and (to a limited extent) forge copper and bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and approximately 10% to 20% Tin . Bronze is superior to just copper, by being harder, being more resistant to corrosion, and by having a lower melting point (thereby requiring less fuel to melt and cast). Much of
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