- RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
One-tonne cache of iron is the largest ever found — and enough to make roughly 500 swords.
These iron bars were initially found by workers excavating gravel in northern Austria. Credit: Peter Trebsche, Universität Innsbruck
Iron was central to life in Europe in the second and third century bc, but the scale of its production and trade has been unclear. The discovery of a “rusty treasure” from Austria now suggests that more than a tonne of the metal was being shipped along the River Danube during the Iron Age, around 2,200 years ago1.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02986-4
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