When was iron invented?

Answer 1

Well you mean "when was iron found "not "when was iron invented" People dugged it up 5000 thousand years ago from now.Iron - or the discovery of how to make iron was - unlike other metals - was done by the Hittites who came from c. Turkey / northern Mesopotamia. As far as scientists / archaeologists can determine the discovery of iron happened only once in human history unlike copper or bronze. This may seem unlikely but given the fact that metal working as a whole was unknown (generally accepted to be the case) at all in the American continents, then only one origin for iron working itself is not unreasonable. Given that humans lived in the Americas for 15,000 years but did not work metal suggests that the discovery / ability to work metal (of what every sort) was something that happened rarely in human history and was not something that was 'bound' to happen. The surprise perhaps is that metal working was ever discovered ....

Answer 2

The original irons were hung on hooks above the fire in the fireplace. Such irons date back to the Middle Ages, before then other method were used to do the same thing.

BTW, this is where the phrase about "having many irons in the fire" comes from.