This German doctoral thesis challenges the orthodox view that the South-Caucasian culture of the Late Bronze Age played a decisive role in early iron production. The region is characterized, on the contrary, as a traditionally-bound aristocratic society with an impressive bronze industry. It was instead the underestimated nomad population of South-Eastern Turkey that first made use of the new metal and discovered the art of steel making. Climatic changes forced a southward migration, which not only brought the two cultures into contact, but also into conflict, with each other. However, a...