Tongs are so ordinary that it's easy to assume they've always been around. In a way, they have. People were gripping hot things with tongs thousands of years before anyone flipped a burger.
Here's what historians actually know about who invented tongs, when they showed up and how a blacksmith's tool ended up in every kitchen drawer.
The short answer
No single inventor is on record. Tongs most likely grew out of early metalworking, and the oldest widely cited evidence points to ancient Egypt. Egyptian art from around 1450 BCE is often cited as one of the earliest pictures of tongs in use, and some historians think simple tongs go back as far as 3000 BCE.
Nobody knows, and nobody likely ever will. Tongs were invented long before anyone recorded the names of inventors, and the idea is simple enough that it probably occurred to different people in different places. Anyone who needed to move something too hot to touch, like a glowing coal, a lump of metal or a pot of molten bronze, had every reason to invent them.
What historians can say is where the trail starts. The earliest tongs show up alongside early metalworking, and ancient Egypt is usually credited as the first place we can see them in action.
Most estimates put the first tongs somewhere between 3000 and 1500 BCE. Here's how the tool evolved from there:
| When | What was happening |
|---|---|
| Around 3000 BCE | Metalworking spreads across Egypt and the Near East. Some historians believe the first simple tongs, likely made of wood, appeared around this time to handle hot materials. |
| Around 1450 BCE | Egyptian art shows workers holding objects over a fire with tong-like tools. It's often cited as one of the earliest pictures of tongs in use. |
| Ancient Greece and Rome | Tongs are a standard blacksmith's tool. Hephaestus and Vulcan, the gods of the forge, are often shown holding a hammer and tongs. |
| 1700s England | Tongs reach the dining table. Sugar tongs for lumps of sugar and asparagus tongs for serving become part of polite dining. |
| Today | Spring-loaded, locking and silicone-tipped tongs are standard in home and restaurant kitchens around the world. |
If you had to pick one, Egypt. That's where the oldest widely cited evidence comes from. But tongs show up across the ancient world wherever people worked with fire and metal, so it's fair to say many cultures arrived at the same idea on their own.
For most of history, tongs belonged to blacksmiths, metalworkers and anyone tending a fire. The design barely changed: two arms joined at a pivot, or bent from a single piece, long enough to keep hands away from the heat.
Over time the tool got more specialized. Fireplace tongs moved logs. Laboratory tongs held crucibles and beakers. And at the dinner table, well-off households in 18th-century England used dainty sugar tongs to drop sugar into tea and asparagus tongs to serve spears without touching them.
The job hasn't changed in thousands of years: grab it, lift it, keep your fingers out of the fire.
Modern kitchen tongs added spring hinges, locking rings, scalloped edges and heat-resistant silicone tips. The materials changed too, from wood and bronze to stainless steel, plastic and bamboo.
Want the full rundown? Our guide to the different types of tongs covers which pair to use for what.
Who invented tongs?
No one person is credited. The oldest widely cited evidence points to ancient Egypt, where tongs were used in metalworking.
When were tongs invented?
Most likely between about 3000 and 1500 BCE, alongside early metalworking.
Where were tongs invented?
Ancient Egypt is the most commonly cited origin, though many ancient cultures used tongs.
What were the first tongs made of?
Probably wood, and later bronze and iron as metalworking advanced.
A few thousand years of good design
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