Quote:
Originally Posted by IxnaY AintsaY
Much of this I find interesting, including the early association of Durin's Folk with Erebor, and the origin of the Old Forest Road. Anyway, none of this states unequivocally there was ever a -settlement- in the Iron Hills before T.A. 2590, but it seems to me as likely as not, at least for a time...both in the history of Middle-earth, and in Tolkien's ever-changing conception of the same.
But that's based merely on the above: there may very well be evidence to the contrary of which I'm ignorant.
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Good catch, I'd forgotten about these remarks. Interestingly the first seems to contradict the widely-presented assumption that the Grey Mountains and the Iron Hills were Second and Third Age remnants of the Iron Mountains. This text implies they were separate features as early as the First Age.
Evidently I spoke too soon when I dismissed the Iron Hills, although I think we can agree that, unlike Belegost, Nogrod and Moria, they did not feature an "ancestral home" of the Dwarves. I might argue, especially in reference to another recent discussion about the repopulation of Erebor after the death of Smaug, that the Iron Hills for the majority of their history might have primarily existed as a mining facility. They may have only featured a major "settlement" and population during the period of Grór and Dįin's dominion there.