The Impact of Charcoal on Ancient Civilizations Where would modern society be without charcoal? The impact of charcoal on changing the way society functions is immeasurable. Charcoal helped society and people in every way- from warfare to cooking. Charcoal has played a massive role in the advancement of ancient society and technology. Without charcoal to smelt metals, humans would not have come out of the copper age and into the bronze and iron ages. Charcoal fueled the forges that made the weapons and tools that made societies more successful. Making charcoal wasn’t easy, so it took skilled workers to make it. This made it a profession of its own, and it was traded throughout the ancient world. Charcoal’s impact on ancient civilizations and technology spans across millennia affecting many aspect of ancient cultures, and without it, ancient technology and life would not …show more content…
It allowed wars to be fought- and won. If one side of a conflict had better armor and weapons than the other side, they have a great advantage. If one side has not discovered the uses for charcoal and another side has, the first side would be fighting with stone and copper, while the second side would fight with iron and bronze, much better materials for conflicts. Farming equipment that was made out of metal was forged using charcoal. Charcoal paved the way for ancient technology, for advancements in tool making and for pottery making. It also gave common people jobs- people had to make the charcoal. Charcoal was difficult and dirty to make, meaning that making charcoal was a lower class job, but still a very important job. If charcoal had not been discovered, then metals like iron and bronze would be much more difficult, if not impossible, to melt and forge into weapons and objects that changed how societal life was lived in the ancient