Another of the most impressive examples of ancient preservation is in the work of some unknown ancient Indian blacksmiths. Whilst their names may have bee lost to history, their genius lives on in the form of an iron pillar in Delhi that has stood for over 2000 years and it still hasnt rusted. Scientists have been scratching their heads over this one for years and have recently discovered that the pillars seemingly eternal youth is down to three things: the high levels of phosphorous in its composition which creates a sort of barrier of harmless "guardian" rust that stops more damaging amounts penetrating deeper in to the pillar. Also present in the pillar is an amount of second phase particles such as unreduced iron oxides and slag (no laughing at the back) that serve to sort of naturally galvanise the metal. The third element in this holy trinity of preservation is the weather - the constant wetting and drying as the seasons roll around. This wasnt a one-off either other artefacts have been found with similar properties with varying degrees of success as blacksmiths perfected their techniques which means that they were doing it on purpose. When you compare it to your rusted old bike that you accidentally left in the rain overnight, it just goes to show how advanced their techniques were.
