metallurgy

If New Zealand had been colonized before 1000 BCE, could the civilization that developed there have independently developed metallurgy? NZ has plenty of mineral resources (including lots of copper and some tin) and active volcanoes; does anyone know how societies make this leap?

Hypothetical: If native americans (and lets say mesoamericans and south americans as well) had developed iron and steel metallurgy on their own, what would their weapons and armor look like? (This is a question mainly for the After the End mod for Crusader Kings 2)

I recently posted a thread asking why Native Americans never developed ironworking independently. Now I'd like to ask: what if they did?

As far as I know, Native Americans never independently developed ironworking. Why is that?

For those more knowledgeable of the history of metallurgy, at what points in time could the Siemens-Martin process and the Open Hearth Furnace design have been invented before the time it was in OTL?

There have been plenty of discussions and even timelines on AH.com (and elsewhere in the online AH community) about Native Americans developing a more active use of bronze metalworking, for tool and weapon use alike. In OTL, only the Incas in South America eventually developed more of a...

It is often said that African prehistory and antiquity, with the exception of Egypt, "went straight from the Neolithic to the Iron Age". I'm not an expert in this field (something I regret), and newer finds and research might invalidate this long-held claim, but I nevertheless have interest in...