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And while you're not a fan of it, the Hebrew Bible claims the manipulation of iron millennia before the Iron Age proper. They didn't discuss how said iron was acquired; they just make the claim. The Philistines (likely descendants of the Phoenicians) are reputed to have had an iron industry going on on the west coast of what many would call the "Holy Land" in an around 1400 BC or 1300 BC depending on what date believes is correct for when the Hebrews migrated out of Egypt and moved into Canaan, the west coast of which was Philistine territory. You can choose to believe or not believe the veracity of the Hebrew texts, but they were talking about the use of iron tools and weapons way back when, even during their own Bronze Age period.
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