@Tephra has the truth of it.

Also, not all bronze was “work hardened”
That’s a place holder term, modern, like the term “gladius” which just means “sword”.
Different alloys of Bronze (arsenic vs tin being the most common mixers) flow and harden differently.

Smiths have long guarded their techniques.
A mediocre (non-hardened) Bronze sword was a touch inferior to the average Iron sword, in that it was softer. However it was also easier to straighten in the field.

The Empires of the Eastern Mediterranean thru to the Hindu Kush and South to Punt were all big traders and often imported the materials to alloy with copper.
Copper (and it’s alloys) low melting point allowed it to be recycled very easily. Good at the time, makes it a pain to do good archaeology. We end up having to rely on reproduction and secondhand sources, and propaganda is as old as politics. So some writings are questionable.
Trade ledgers and tax records are usually the most reliable source.

Arsenic, being more common than tin, was a good alloy, arguably superior as a metal, but arsenic is very toxic.
It kills the soldier eating of their shield or out of their helm.
Even more worrisome (sometimes war was used for population control, to head off a famine, so fewer coming back alive was not necessarily that bad, more common in the Polis in what is now Greece/Hellas, but happened in Elam as well as Second Assyrian Empire) it killed the crafts people. When a group jealously guards their crafting secrets, losing one of those high ranked mystery practitioners is noticable.

Tin was the next best option, very good, and easier to harden, but it is significantly more rare.

Nordic traders brought Tin all the way from Northern Europe to markets in Egypt.
When the Bronze Age Collapse/Catastrophe hit, trade ended.
And with it, access to the materials to make good bronze
Iron had to be adopted, and the Mountain Clans near the Hittite capital had the most experience doing so.

Hence the barbarians outside the wall held the riddle of steel

It also changes the face of the Hittite empire as well as the region for many generations.

Edit:
This one wouldn’t mind Starmetal being a weird magkycool tier material adjacent to Hardened Steel (especially as Hardened Steel is most unnatural, requiring Black Ice to forge).
Dragonbone, Starmetal, Obsidian, Khari Steel, Black Ice ect… could all easily be the same, or close to Hardened Steel but with a different rider/feature/debuff.

That said, it would be a huge rework considering how the dlc gear works and is based on the Star Metal as epic standard.

Bringing the post back on topic, are there any other trade goods/currency substitutes that would be a good addition to the treasure list?
Black Silk was a good addition made, and even if this one agrees pearls are undervalued in context, at least they made the cut.

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