Etruscan jewelry
The combination of metals was a basic technique. Essentially, there is no such thing as 24 carat gold jewelry. Massive gold is the most malleable metal. It is almost like wax. In order to have jewelry that can pass the test of time and gravity, the Etruscans had to combine their gold with other metals.
Window shutter hardware
Iron - chemical symbol FE - the most commonly occurring (by weight) element on earth is, at the same time, the rarest in its elemental form. While the magma core of the earth is made mostly of iron and the red hills of the Rockies and brown and gold fieldstone all contain iron, the iron exists only in its various oxide forms. The only naturally occurring pure iron is found in fresh meteorites (and some very rare chemical situations - like bog iron in the New Jersey cedar swamps). Meteorites quickly (in geological terms) oxidize on exposure to air and turn to rust – iron oxides – just like the Rocky Mountains.