Was iron used as a decorative metal?

Thomas R. Valletta

“When iron was scarce, it was used as a precious decorative metal. … [Often] beds or jeweled boxes were not of solid iron, but they were plated, veneered, or studded with the metal. … With such a point in mind, we can reread the account of King Noah, who built many elegant buildings and ‘ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron’ (Mosiah 11:8; emphasis added). Although a person today would not normally think of using iron as a precious decoration, we can now see that this was actually done in antiquity” (Welch, “Decorative Iron in Early Israel,” 133).

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