Technology and evolution: a root and branch view of Asian iron from first-millennium BC Sri Lanka to Japanese steel G. Juleff Abstract Evidence for a previously unrecognized pan-Asian metallurgical tradition of linear configuration iron-smelting furnaces is reviewed. The foundation of this technological lineage lies in an evolutionary series of excavated furnaces in Sri Lanka dating from the fourth century BC to the eleventh century AD. Further archaeological, ethnographic and documentary evidence from Burma, Cambodia, Sarawak and Japan demonstrates the spread of linear furnace technology and its association with the production of high-carbon steels, often associated with weapons manufacture. An evolutionary approach is used to argue that a process of memetic inheritance explains a major divergence in Eastern and Western metallurgical development and furnace design. Keywords Sri Lanka; monsoon steel; iron smelting furnaces; Asian metallurgy; Tatara; cultural evolution; memetic inheritance. Introduction The aim of this paper is to open a debate on the nature of technological development and the viability of applying an evolutionary approach to the early development of iron production. While the concept of cultural evolution is finding growing advocacy and application in many fields of archaeology (Shennan 2002), archaeometallurgy and the complex technical prerequisites of primary metal production remain firmly rooted in the realms of functional determinism. Here, evidence from Asia is reassessed, along with new evidence from Sri Lanka, to explore the possibility that processes of memetic cultural inheritance can explain a major divergence in Eastern and Western metallurgical World Archaeology Vol. 41(4): 557–577 Debates in World Archaeology ª 2009 Taylor & Francis ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online DOI: 10.1080/00438240903345688