With reference to the technological transitions across the Vedic era, how did the precise semantic definition of the term 'Ayas' shift between the Early Vedic and Later Vedic text layers?

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In the early Rigvedic phase, iron was unknown, and 'Ayas' generically meant copper or bronze alloy. As iron tech expanded around 1000 BCE in the Gangetic plains, later texts (like Atharva Veda) introduced precise qualifiers to separate the metals: 'Lohita Ayas' (red metal/copper) and 'Shyama/Krishna Ayas' (black metal/iron).

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