The hypothesis is put forward that effective steel metallurgy originated in Greece, and that steel technology was a major factor in shaping Greek economy and society from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. on. It is argued that the leading region of Greek iron and steel metallurgy of the opening period was central Euboea. Here Xeropolis-near-Levkandi and Chalcis became prosperous towns. It is held that iron metallurgists of central Euboea constituted the nuclei of the early Chalcidian colonization enterprises to the Bay of Naples. When a concerted attempt at the analysis of iron objects, blooms, slag and ores has been made, the hypotheses can be tested.