"The early Mediterranean iron smelting started around 12th or 11th century BC. It is assumed the pioneering metallurgists sourced their coal off eBay."

But that came to a grinding halt when the seller's PayPal account was closed for suspicious activity. This is also believed to be the reason the Roman formula for concrete was lost.

The breakdown of ancient metalworking supply chains was caused by what later became known as Sea Peoples, but was actually a misheard reference to the CEO of Paypal.

Yes. This is also how gods gave humans fire, don't you know?

There are many trade-offs between purity of original work, processed state of original inputs, effort, availability, and cost.

Perhaps folks in small towns with just an Ace Hardware or Homeless Despot lack access to suppliers in say Richmond, Virginia.

Right, Prometheus got caught shipping dangerous goods and was blacklisted by eagle de-livery.