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The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, which had an independent Iron Age culture of its own.^[1] The parallel phase of Irish archaeology is termed the Irish Iron Age.^[2] The Iron Age is not an archaeological horizon of common artefacts, but is rather a locally diverse cultural phase.

The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools and weapons in Britain to the Romanisation of the southern half of the island. The Romanised culture is termed Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The Irish Iron Age was ended by the rise of Christianity.

The tribes populating the island belonged to a broadly Celtic culture, termed Insular (as opposed to the non-insular Celtic cultures of continental Gaul and Iberia). The Brythonic and Goidelic languages are recognised as forming the Insular Celtic subgroup of the Celtic languages, "Celtic" being a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age.^[3]

Periodisation[link]

At present over 100 large-scale excavations of Iron Age sites have taken place,^[4] dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD, and overlapping into the Bronze Age in the 8th century BC.^[5] Hundreds of radiocarbon dates have been acquired and have been calibrated on four different curves, the most precise being based on tree ring sequences.

The precision of the dates in this first millennium BC does not allow a periodisation based on the radiocarbon dates. The range of any one radiocarbon date varies by one Standard deviation; that is, there is a 68% probability of the historical date occurring within the range of a few hundred years. Many schemes have been proposed based on sequences of pottery and other artefacts. The following scheme summarises a comparative chart presented in a recent book by Barry Cunliffe,^[6] but it should be noted that British artefacts were much later in adopting Continental styles such as the La Tène style of Celtic art:

The end of the Iron Age extends into the early Roman Empire under the theory that Romanisation required some time to effect. In parts of Britain that were not Romanised, such as Scotland, the period is extended a little longer, say to the 5th century. The geographer closest to AD 100 is perhaps Ptolemy. Pliny and Strabo are a bit older (and therefore a bit more contemporary), but Ptolemy gives the most detail (and the least theory).

Archaeological evidence[link]

Maiden Castle, Dorset is one of the largest hill forts in Europe.^[7][8] Photograph taken in 1935 by Major George Allen (1891–1940).

Attempts to understand the human behaviour of the period have traditionally focused on the geographic position of the islands and their landscape, along with the channels of influence coming from continental Europe.

During the later Bronze Age there are indications of new ideas influencing land use and settlement. Extensive field systems, now called Celtic fields, were being set out and settlements were becoming more permanent and focused on better exploitation of the land. The central organisation to undertake this had been present since the Neolithic period but it was now targeted at economic and social goals, such as taming the landscape rather than the building of large ceremonial structures like Stonehenge. Long ditches, some many miles in length, were dug with enclosures placed at their ends. These are thought to indicate territorial borders and a desire to increase control over wide areas.

By the 8th century BC, there is increasing evidence of Great Britain becoming closely tied to continental Europe, especially in Britain's South and East. New weapon types appeared with clear parallels to those on the continent such as the Carp's tongue sword, complex examples of which are found all over Atlantic Europe. Phoenician traders probably began visiting Great Britain in search of minerals around this time, bringing with them goods from the Mediterranean. At the same time, Northern European artefact types reached Eastern Great Britain in large quantities from across the North Sea. Within this context, the climate became considerably wetter, forcing Bronze Age farmsteads that had grown on lowland areas to relocate to upland sites.

Defensive structures dating from this time are often impressive, for example the brochs of Northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the rest of the islands. Some of the most well-known hill forts include Maiden Castle, Dorset, Cadbury Castle, Somerset and Danebury, Hampshire. Hill forts first appeared in Wessex in the Late Bronze Age, but only become common in the period between 550 and 400 BC. The earliest were of a simple univallate form, and often connected with earlier enclosures attached to the long ditch systems. Few hill forts have been substantially excavated in the modern era, Danebury being a notable exception, with 49% of its total surface area studied. However, it appears that these "forts" were also used for domestic purposes, with examples of food storage, industry and occupation being found within their earthworks. On the other hand, they may have been only occupied intermittently as it is difficult to reconcile permanently occupied hill forts with the lowland farmsteads and their roundhouses found during the 20th century, such as at Little Woodbury and Rispain Camp. Many hill forts are not in fact "forts" at all, and demonstrate little or no evidence of occupation.

The development of hill forts may have occurred due to greater tensions that arose between the better structured and more populous social groups. Alternatively, there are suggestions that, in the latter phases of the Iron Age, these structures simply indicate a greater accumulation of wealth and a higher standard of living, although any such shift is invisible in the archaeological record for the Middle Iron Age, when hill forts come into their own. In this regard, they may have served as wider centres used for markets and social contact. Either way, during the Roman occupation the evidence suggests that, as defensive structures, they proved to be of little use against concerted Roman attack. Suetonius comments that Vespasian captured more than twenty "towns" during a campaign in the West Country in 43 AD, and there is some evidence of violence from the hill forts of Hod Hill and Maiden Castle in Dorset from this period. Some hill forts continued as settlements for the newly conquered Britons. Some were also reused by later cultures, such as the Saxons, in the early Medieval period.

The people of Iron Age Britain[link]

Demography[link]

The Roman historian Tacitus described the Britons as being descended from people who had arrived from the continent, comparing the Caledonians (in modern-day Scotland) to their Germanic neighbours; the Silures of Southern Wales to Iberian settlers; and the inhabitants of Southeast Britannia to Gaulish tribes. This migrationist view long informed later views of the origins of the British Iron Age and, indeed, the making of the modern nations. Linguistic evidence inferred from the surviving Celtic languages in Northern and Western Great Britain at first appeared to support this idea, and the changes in material culture which archaeologists observed during later prehistory were routinely ascribed to a new wave of invaders.

By the 1960s, however, this view had fallen from favour as it was argued that changes in language and artefact types could not necessarily be attributed to large, long distance population movements. Ideas can be transported more easily than people and can account for many changes in the archaeological record not otherwise explained, as well as for the presence of the Celtic languages in Britain.^[9] The numerous finds of swords and other weaponry were originally attributed to a warlike society but are now often also, or instead, interpreted as items of social status, perhaps given as diplomatic gifts between tribes.^{[citation needed]}

There was certainly a large migration of people from Central Europe westwards during the early Iron Age but that people from this movement actually reached Britain in significant enough numbers to constitute an invasion is now a minority view among archaeologists. The arrival in Southern Britain of the Belgae from the end of the 2nd century BC however is still widely considered an invasion, as it is attested in Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, although depending on the interpretation of Aylesford-Swarling pottery it may be invisible in the archaeological record.^[10]

Although this invasionist approach has been widely discarded, it is important not to overlook the fact that exchanges with the continent were a defining aspect of the British Iron Age, and limited movement of people from Gaul into Britain and vice versa throughout the Iron Age is a very reasonable possibility.^[11]

Population estimates vary but the number of people in Iron Age Great Britain could have been three or four million by the first century BC, with most concentrated densely in the agricultural lands of the South. Settlement density and a land shortage may have contributed to rising tensions during the period. The population pyramid for Iron Age Britain would have been a classic pyramid in shape, with no significant number of people older than fifty years. The average life expectancy at birth would have been around 25, but at the age of five it would have been around 30. These figures would be slightly lower for women, and slightly higher for men throughout the Middle Iron Age in most areas, on account of the high mortality rate of young women during childbirth; however, the average age for the two sexes would be roughly equal for the Late Iron Age. This interpretation depends on the view that warfare and social strife increased in the Late Iron Age, which seems to be fairly well attested in the archaeological record, for Southern Britain at least.

Early in the Iron Age, the widespread Wessex pottery of Southern Britain, such as the type style from All Cannings Cross, may suggest a consolidated socio-economic group in the region. However, by 600 BC this appears to have broken down into differing sub-groups with their own pottery styles.^[12] Between c. 400 and 100 BC there is evidence of emerging regional identities and a significant population increase.^[13]

Ptolemy's Albion[link]

Claudius Ptolemy described Britain at the beginning of Roman rule but incorporated material from earlier sources.^[14] Although the name "Pretanic Isles" had been known since the voyage of Pytheas and "Britannia" was in use by Strabo and Pliny, Ptolemy used the earlier "Albion," known to have been used as early as the Massaliote Periplus.

Iron Age beliefs in Britain[link]

Series on Celtic mythology

Celtic polytheism Celtic deities (list)

Gaelic mythology

Irish mythology Scottish mythology Hebridean mythology Tuatha Dé Danann Mythological Cycle Ulster Cycle Fenian Cycle

Brythonic mythology

British Iron Age religion British mythology Welsh mythology Breton mythology Mabinogion Book of Taliesin Trioedd Ynys Prydein

Religious vocations

Druids · Bards · Vates

Festivals

Samhain, Calan Gaeaf Imbolc, Gŵyl Fair Beltane, Calan Mai Lughnasadh, Calan Awst Index of related articles This box: view talk edit

The Romans described a variety of deities worshipped by the people of Northwestern Europe. Barry Cunliffe perceives a division between one group of gods relating to masculinity, the sky and individual tribes and a second, female group of goddesses relating to associations with fertility, the earth and a universality that transcended tribal differences. Wells and springs had female, divine links exemplified by the goddess Sulis worshipped at Bath. In Tacitus' Agricola (2.21), he notes the similarity between both religious and ritual practices of the pre-Roman British and the Gauls.^[15]

Religious practices revolved around offerings and sacrifices, sometimes human but more often involving the ritual slaughter of animals or the deposition of metalwork, especially war booty. Weapons and horse trappings have been found in the bog at Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey and are interpreted as votive offerings cast into a lake. Numerous weapons have also been recovered from rivers, especially the Thames, but also the Trent and Tyne. Some buried hoards of jewellery are interpreted as gifts to the earth gods.

Disused grain storage pits and the ends of ditches have also produced what appear to be deliberately placed deposits, including a preference for burials of horses, dogs and ravens. The bodies were often mutilated and some human finds at the bottom of pits, such as those found at Danebury, may have had a ritual aspect.

Caesar's texts tell us that the priests of Britain were Druids, a religious elite with considerable holy and secular powers. Great Britain appears to have been the seat of the Druidic religion and Tacitus' account of the later raid on Anglesey led by Suetonius Paulinus gives some indication of its nature. No archaeological evidence survives of Druidry, although a number of burials made with ritual trappings and found in Kent may suggest a religious character to the subjects.

Overall, the traditional view is that religion was practised in natural settings in the open air. However, several sites interpreted as Iron Age shrines seem to contradict this view which may derive from Victorian and later Celtic romanticism.^{[citation needed]} Sites such as at Hayling Island in Hampshire and that found during construction work at Heathrow airport are interpreted as purpose-built shrines. The Hayling Island example was a circular wooden building set within a rectangular precinct and was rebuilt in stone as a Romano-British temple in the 1st century AD to the same plan. The Heathrow temple was a small cella surrounded by a ring of postholes thought to have formed an ambulatory which is very similar to Romano-Celtic temples found elsewhere in Europe. A rectangular structure at Danebury and a sequence of six-poster structures overlooking calf burials and culminating in a trench-founded rectangular structure at Cadbury Castle, Somerset, have been similarly interpreted. An example at Sigwells, overlooking Cadbury Castle, was associated with metalwork and whole and partial animal burials to its east.^[16] However, evidence of an open air shrine was found at Hallaton, Leicestershire. Here, a collection of objects known as the Hallaton Treasure were buried in a ditch in the early 1st century AD. The only structural evidence was a wooden palisade built in the ditch.^[17]

Death in Iron Age Great Britain seems to have produced different behaviours in different regions. Cremation was a common method of disposing of the dead, although the chariot burials and other inhumations of the Arras culture of East Yorkshire, and the cist burials of Cornwall, demonstrate that it was not ubiquitous. In fact, the general dearth of excavated Iron Age burials makes drawing conclusions difficult. Excarnation has been suggested as a reason for the lack of burial evidence with the remains of the dead being dispersed either naturally or through human agency.

The Economy of Iron Age Britain[link]

Trade links developed in the Bronze Age and beforehand provided Great Britain with numerous examples of continental craftsmanship. Swords especially were imported, copied and often improved upon by the natives. Early in the period, Hallstatt slashing swords and daggers were a significant import although, by the mid 6th century, the volume of goods arriving seems to have declined, possibly due to more profitable trade centres appearing in the Mediterranean. La Tène culture items (usually associated with the Celts) appeared in later centuries and, again, these were adopted and adapted with alacrity by the locals.

There also appears to have been a collapse in the bronze trade during the early Iron Age, which can be viewed in three ways:

1. Steady Transition; the development of iron parallel to a diminishing bronze system.

2. Rapid Abandonment; iron undermines bronze and takes over its social function.

3. Bronze Crisis; severe reduction in the supply of bronze allows the iron to replace it.

With regard to animal husbandry, cattle represented a significant investment in pre-Roman Britain as they could be used as a source of portable wealth, as well as providing useful domestic by-products such as milk, cheese and leather. In the Later Iron Age, an apparent shift is visible, revealing a change in dominance from cattle rearing to that of sheep. Economically, sheep are significantly less labour intensive, requiring fewer people per animal.

Whilst cattle and sheep dominate the osteo-archaeological record, evidence for pig, ox, dog and, rarely, chicken is widely represented. Interestingly, there is generally an absence from environmental remains of hunted game and wild species as well as fresh and sea water species, even in coastal communities.

A key commodity of the Iron Age was salt, used for preservation and the supplementation of diet. Whilst difficult to find archaeologically, some evidence does exist. Salterns, in which sea water was boiled to produce salt, are prevalent in the East Anglia fenlands. Additionally, Morris notes that some salt trading networks spanned over 75 km.

Representing an important political and economic medium, the vast number of Iron Age coins found in Great Britain are of great archaeological value.^[18][19] Some, such as gold staters, were imported from mainland Europe. Others, such as the cast bronze (potin) coins of Southeast England, are clearly influenced by Roman originals. The British tribal kings also adopted the continental habit of putting their names on the coins they had minted, with such examples as Tasciovanus from Verulamium and Cunobelinos from Camelodunum identifying regional differentiation. Hoards of Iron Age coins include the Silsden Hoard in West Yorkshire found in 1998. A large collection of coins, known as the Hallaton Treasure, was found at a Late Iron Age shrine near Hallaton, Leicestershire in 2000 and consisted of 5294 coins, mostly attributed to the Corieltavi tribe. These were buried in 14 separate hoards over several decades in the early 1st century AD.^[20]

The expansion of the economy throughout the period, but especially in the later Iron Age, is in large part a reflection of key changes in the expression of social and economic status.

Trade[link]

Trade in the Early and Middle Iron Age[link]

The Early Iron Age saw a substantial number of goods belonging to the Hallstatt culture imported from the continent, and these came to have a major effect on Middle Iron Age native art. However, throughout most of the Middle Iron Age, trade with the continent basically dried up; there is no evidence for large-scale commerce whatsoever, which must have been as a result of the social circumstances in Southern Britain at the time: trade brought wealth to a small group, and wealth brought power. Thus it was avoided among the egalitarian tribes of the Middle Iron Age of the hillfort zone.

Trade in the Late Iron Age[link]

From the late 2nd century BC onwards South-central Britain was indirectly linked into Roman trading networks via Brittany and the Atlantic seaways to southwest France.^[21] Hengistbury Head in Dorset was the most important trading site and large quantities of Italian wine amphorae have been found there.^[21] These Atlantic trade networks were heavily disrupted following Julius Caesar’s conquest of Brittany in the 50s BC.^[22] This fact may support a supposition that the Celts of Britain had an economic interest in supporting their Gallic brethren in their resistance to Roman occupation.

In Southeast Britain, meanwhile, extensive contact with the ‘Belgic’ tribes of Northern France is evidenced by large numbers of imported Gallo-Belgic gold coins between the mid-2nd century BC and Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the 50s BC.^[23] These coins probably did not principally move through trade. In the past, the emigration of Belgic peoples to Southeast Britain has been cited as an explanation for their appearance in that region. However, recent work suggests that their presence in Southeast Britain may have occurred due to a kind of political and social patronage that was paid by the North French groups in exchange for obtaining aid from their British counterparts in their warfare with the Romans on the Continent.^[24]

After Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, a thriving trade developed between Southeast Britain and the near Continent. This is archaeologically evidenced through imports of wine and olive oil amphorae and mass-produced Gallo-Belgic pottery.^[25] Strabo, writing in the early 1st century AD, lists ivory chains and necklaces, amber gems, glass vessels, and other petty wares, as articles imported to Britain, whilst he recorded the island's exports as grain, cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves and hunting dogs.^[26] This trade probably thrived as a result of political links and client kingship relationships that developed between groups in Southeast Britain and the Roman world.^[27]

The end of Iron Age Britain[link]

Historically speaking, the Iron Age in Southern Great Britain ended with the Roman invasion. Clearly the native societies were not instantaneously changed into toga-wearing, Latin-speaking provincials, though some relatively quick change is evident archaeologically. For example, the Romano-Celtic shrine in Hayling Island, Hampshire was constructed in the AD 60's–70's,^[28] whilst Agricola was still campaigning in Northern Britain (mostly in what is now Scotland), and on top of an Iron Age ritual site. Rectilinear stone structures, indicative of a change in housing to the Roman style are visible from the mid to late 1st century AD at Brixworth and Quinton.^[29]

In areas where Roman rule was not strong or was non-existent, Iron Age beliefs and practices remained, but not without at least marginal levels of Roman, or Romano-British influence. The survival of place names, such as Camulodunum (Colchester), and which derive from the native language, is evidence of this.

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Cunliffe, Barry W. (2005). Iron Age Communities in Britain, Fourth Edition: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC Until the Roman Conquest. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-34779-3. 
• Fitzpatrick, Andrew P (1996). "'Celtic' Iron Age Europe: the theoretical basis". In Graves-Brown, Paul; Jones, Siân; Gamble, Clive. Cultural Identity and Archaeology: The Construction of European Communities. Routledge. pp. 238–255. ISBN 0-415-10676-1, ISBN 978-0-415-10676-4. 
• Rhys, J. (1904). Celtic Britain: Third Edition Revised. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.  Downloadable Google Books.

Further reading[link]

• Collis, J.R., 2003, The Celts, origins, myths, inventions Stroud: Tempus
• Haselgrove, C., 2001, Iron Age Britain in its European Setting, in Collis, J.R. (ed) Settlement and Society in Iron Age Europe, Sheffield: Sheffield Archaeological Monograph 11, pp37–73
• Haselgrove, C. and Moore, T., 2007, The later Iron Age in Britain and beyond, Oxford: Oxbow
• Pryor, F., 2003, Britain, BC; life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans, London: Harper Collins, chapters 11-12
• Hill, J.D., 1995, Ritual and Rubbish in the Iron Age of Wessex BAR British Series 242

See also[link]

• Iron Age tribes in Britain
• Celtic coinage
• Massaliote Periplus
• Pytheas
• Ulaid
• Eston Nab Evidence of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements.
• Living in the Past, a 1978 BBC TV project whch attempted to re-create life in an English Iron Age village.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Romans

• Lindsay, Euan (2008). "Place names on Ptolemy's Map of Scotland". Roman Britain. http://www.romanscotland.org.uk/pages/infrastructure/Ptolemymap.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-22. 
• Ross, David (1996). "Celtic Britain (The Iron Age) c. 600 BC - 50 AD". Celtic Britain. http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-13. 

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles. The Iron Age as an archaeological term indicates the condition as to civilization and culture of a people using iron as the material for their cutting tools and weapons.^[1] The Iron Age is the third principal period of the three-age system created by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen for classifying ancient societies and prehistoric stages of progress.^[2]

In historical archaeology, the ancient literature of the Iron Age includes the earliest texts preserved in manuscript tradition. Sanskrit literature and Chinese literature flourished in the Age. Other text includes the Avestan Gathas, the Indian Vedas and the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible. The principal feature that distinguishes the Iron Age from the preceding ages is the introduction of alphabetic characters, and the consequent development of written language which enabled literature and historic record.^[1]

The beginning of the Iron Age in Europe and adjacent areas is characterized by certain forms of implements, weapons, personal ornaments, and pottery, and also by systems of decorative design, which are altogether different from those of the preceding age of bronze.^[1] The work of blacksmiths^[3]—developing implements and weapons—is hammered into shape, and, as a consequence, gradually departed from the stereotyped forms of their predecessors in bronze, which were cast, and the system of decoration, which in the Bronze Age consisted chiefly of a repetition of rectilinear patterns, gave way to a system of curvilinear and flowing designs.^{[clarification needed][1]} The term "Iron Age" has low chronological value, because it didn't begin simultaneously across the entire world.^[4] The dates and context vary depending on the region, and the sequence of ages is not necessarily true for every part of the earth's surface. There are areas, such as the islands of the South Pacific, the interior of Africa, and parts of North and South America, where peoples have passed directly from the use of stone to the use of iron without the intervention of an age of bronze.^[1]

Chronology[link]

Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production as taking place in Anatolia around 1200 BC, though some contemporary archaeological evidence points to earlier dates. Around 3000 BC, iron was a scarce and precious metal in the Near East.^{[clarification needed]} Iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not understood. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and utilization of iron objects was fast and far-flung. In the history of ferrous metallurgy, iron smelting — the extraction of usable metal from oxidized iron ores — is more difficult than tin and copper smelting. These other metals and their alloys can be cold-worked, or melted in simple pottery kilns and cast in molds; but smelted iron requires hot-working and can be melted only in specially designed furnaces. It is therefore not surprising that humans only mastered iron smelting after several millennia of bronze metallurgy.

Lack of archaeological evidence of iron production made it seem unlikely that it had begun earlier elsewhere, and the Iron Age was seen as a case of simple diffusion of a new and superior technology from an invention point in the Near East to other regions. It is now known that meteoric iron, or iron-nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its native metallic state, required no smelting of ores.^[5][6] By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects (distinguishable from meteoric iron by the lack of nickel in the product) appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

Iron in its natural form is barely harder than bronze, and is not useful for tools unless combined with carbon to make steel. The percentage of carbon determines important characteristics of the final product: the more carbon, the harder the steel. The systematic production and use of iron implements in Anatolia began around 2000 BC.^[7] Recent archaeological research in the Ganges Valley, India showed early iron working by 1800 BC.^[8] However, this metal was expensive, perhaps because of the complications of steel-making. It is attested in both documents and archaeology as a material for precious items such as jewellery.

Snodgrass^[9][10] suggests that a shortage of tin, as a part of the Bronze Age Collapse and trade disruptions in the Mediterranean around 1300 BC, forced metalworkers to seek an alternative to bronze. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time. More widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently.^[11]

Recent archaeological work has modified not only the above chronology, but also the causes of the transition from bronze to iron. New dates from India suggest that iron was being worked there as early as 1800 BC, and African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC,^[12][13][14] confounding the idea that there was a simple discovery and diffusion model. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India (with the post-Rigvedic Vedic civilization), ancient Iran, and ancient Greece (with the Greek Dark Ages). In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe and the 6th century BC in Northern Europe. The Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I (1200–1000 BC) illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age. There is no definitive cultural break between the 13th and 12th century BC throughout the entire region, although certain new features in the hill country, Transjordan, and coastal region may suggest the appearance of the Aramaean and Sea People groups. There is evidence, however, that shows strong continuity with Bronze Age culture, although as one moves later into Iron I the culture begins to diverge more significantly from that of the late 2nd millennium.

History[link]

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During the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0.30% and 1.2% by weight. Alloys with less carbon than this, such as wrought iron, cannot be heat treated to a significant degree and will consequently be of low hardness, while a higher carbon content creates an extremely hard but brittle material that cannot be annealed, tempered, or otherwise softened. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, but stronger. However, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron,^[15] were more common in lower-priced goods. Many techniques have been used to create steel; Mediterranean ones differ dramatically from African ones, for example. Sometimes the final product is all steel, sometimes techniques like case hardening or forge welding were used to make cutting edges stronger.

Near East[link]

Southeast Asia / Middle East

In Chaldaea and Assyria, the initial use of iron reaches far back, to perhaps 4000 BC.^[4] One of the earliest smelted iron artifacts known is a dagger with an iron blade found in a Hattic tomb in Anatolia, dating from 2500 BC.^[16] The widespread use of iron weapons which replaced bronze weapons rapidly disseminated throughout the Near East (southwest Asia) by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

Near East timeline[link]

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Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

Ancient Near East[link]

The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus and Balkans in the late 2nd millennium BC (c. 1300 BC).^[18] However, this theory has been challenged by the emergence of those placing the transition in price and availability issues rather than the development of technology on its own. The earliest bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh, Jordan around 930 BC (C14 dating).

The development of iron smelting was once attributed to the Hittites of Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. It was believed that they maintained a monopoly on ironworking, and that their empire had been based on that advantage.^[19] Accordingly, the invading Sea Peoples were responsible for spreading the knowledge through that region. This theory is no longer held in the common current thought of the majority of scholarship,^[20] since there is no archaeological evidence of the alleged Hittite monopoly. While there are some iron objects from Bronze Age Anatolia, the number is comparable to iron objects found in Egypt and other places of the same time period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons.^[21] As part of the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age, the Bronze Age collapse saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working technology in the region. The Ugaritic script was in use during this time, around 1300 BC. Ugarit was one of the centres of the literate world.

Assyro-Babylonian literature, written in the Akkadian language, of Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) continues into the Iron Age up until the 6th centuries BC. The oldest Phoenician alphabet inscription is the Ahiram epitaph, engraved on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram from circa 1200 BC.^[22] It has become conventional to refer to the alphabetic script as "Proto-Canaanite" until the mid-11th century BC, when it is first attested on inscribed bronze arrowheads, and as "Phoenician" only after 1050 BC.^[23] The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is identical to the Phoenician alphabet and dates to the 10th century BC.

Europe[link]

In Europe, the use of iron covers the last years of the prehistoric period and the early years of the historic period.^[4] The regional Iron Age may be defined as including the last stages of the prehistoric period and the first of the proto-historic periods.^[1] Iron working was introduced to Europe in the late 11th century BC,^[24] probably from the Caucasus, and slowly spread northwards and westwards over the succeeding 500 years. The widespread use of the technology of iron was implemented in Europe simultaneously with Asia.^[25]

The usage of iron in northern Europe would seem to have been fairly general long before the invasion of Caesar. But iron was not in common use in Denmark until the 1st century AD. In the north of Russia and Siberia, its introduction was even as late as AD 800, whereas Ireland entered its Iron Age about the beginning of the 1st century. In Gaul, on the other hand, the Iron Age dates back some 500 years BC; whereas in Etruria the metal was known some six centuries earlier.^[4] As the knowledge of iron seems to have travelled over Europe from the south northward, the commencement of the Iron Age was very much earlier in the southern than in the northern countries. Homer represents Greece as beginning her Iron Age twelve hundred years before the Common era. Greece, as represented in the Homeric poems, was then in the transition period from bronze to iron, while Scandinavia was only entering its Iron Age about the time of the Common era.^[4]

The Iron Age in Europe is characterized by an elaboration of designs in weapons, implements, and utensils.^[4] These are no longer cast but hammered into shape, and decoration is elaborate curvilinear rather than simple rectilinear; the forms and character of the ornamentation of the northern European weapons resembles in some respects Roman arms, while in other respects they are peculiar and evidently representative of northern art. The dead were buried in an extended position, whereas in the preceding Bronze Age cremation had been the rule.

European timeline[link]

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 from: -1100 till: 500 text:European Iron Age
 bar:E.Europe color:age
 from: -1100 till: -500 shift:(-40,6) text:Koban
 from: -900 till: -725 text:Novocherkassk
 bar:E.Europe color:filler
 from: -500 till: 100  text:Scythian
 from: 100 till: 500  text:Sarmatians
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 from: -1100 till: -900 shift:(0,3) text:Villanovan I
 from: -900 till: -750 shift:(0,3) text:Villanovan II
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 from: -900 till: -400 shift:(0,-6) text:Golasecca culture
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 from: -1200 till: -600 shift:(0,-5) text:Phoenicia
 from: -1200 till: -1200 shift:(5,0) text:Greek Dark Ages
 from: -1200 till: -600 shift:(0,5) text:Etruscan civilization
 bar:Mediter color:Filler
 from: -600 till: -145 text:Ancient Greece
 from: -145 till: 300 text:Roman Empire
 from: 300 till: 500 text:Migration

</timeline>

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

Eastern Europe[link]

The early 1st millennium BC marks the Iron Age in Eastern Europe. In the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus region, the Iron Age begins with the Koban and the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures from c. 900 BC. By 800 BC, it was spreading to Hallstatt C via the alleged "Thraco-Cimmerian" migrations.

Along with Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures, on the territory of ancient Russia and Ukraine the Iron Age is to a significant extent associated with Scythians, who developed iron culture since the 7th century BC. The majority of remains of their iron producing and blacksmith's industries from 5th to 3rd century BC was found near Nikopol in Kamenskoe Gorodishche, which is believed to be the specialized metallurgic region of the ancient Scythia.^[26][27]

From the Hallstatt culture, the Iron Age spreads west with the Celtic expansion from the 6th century BC. In Poland, the Iron Age reaches the late Lusatian culture in about the 6th century, followed in some areas by the Pomeranian culture.

The ethnic ascriptions of many Iron Age cultures has been bitterly contested, as the roots of Germanic, Baltic and Slavic peoples were sought in this area.

Central Europe[link]

In Central Europe, the Iron Age is generally divided in the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture (HaC and D, 800–450) and the late Iron Age La Tène culture (beginning in 450 BC). The transition from bronze to iron in Central Europe is exemplified in the great cemetery, discovered in 1846, of Hallstatt, near Gmunden, where the forms of the implements and weapons of the later part of the Bronze Age are imitated in iron. In the Swiss or La Tene group of implements and weapons the forms are new and transition complete.^[1]

The Celtic culture, or rather Proto-Celtic groups, had expanded to much of Central Europe, (Gauls) and following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians). In Central Europe, the prehistoric Iron Age ends with the Roman Conquest.

Aegean[link]

In the Greek Dark Ages, there was a widespread availability of edged weapons of iron, but a variety of explanations fits the available archaeological evidence. From around 1200 BC, the palace centres and outlying settlements of the Mycenaean culture began to be abandoned or destroyed, and by 1050 BC, the recognisable cultural features (such as Linear B script) had disappeared.

The Greek alphabet began in the 8th century BC.^[28] It is descended from the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks adapted the system, notably introducing characters for vowel sounds and thereby creating the first truly alphabetic (as opposed to abjad) writing system. As Greece sent out colonies west towards Sicily and Italy (Pithekoussae, Cumae), the influence of their alphabet extended further. The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a few lines written in the Greek alphabet referring to "Nestor's cup", discovered in a grave at Pithekoussae (Ischia) dates from c. 730 BC; it seems to be the oldest written reference to the Iliad. The fragmentary Epic Cycles, a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War, were a distillation in literary form of an oral tradition developed during the Greek Dark Age. The traditional material from which the literary epics were drawn treats the Mycenaean Bronze Age culture from the perspective of Iron Age and later Greece.

Southern Europe[link]

In Italy, the Iron Age was probably introduced by the Villanovan culture but this culture is otherwise considered a Bronze Age culture, while the following Etruscan civilization is regarded as part of Iron Age proper. The Etruscans Old Italic alphabet spread throughout Italy from the 8th century. The Etruscan Iron Age was then ended with the rise and conquest of the Roman Republic, which conquered the last Etruscan city of Velzna in 265 BC.

Western Europe[link]

Hill forts spread across Europe in the Iron Age and Maiden Castle in England is one of the largest.^[29][30] Photograph taken in 1935 by Major George Allen (1891–1940).

The 'Celtic' culture had expanded to the group of islands of northwest Europe (Insular Celts) and Iberia (Celtiberians, Celtici and Gallaeci). On the British Isles, the British Iron Age lasted from about 800 BC^[31] until the Roman Conquest and until the 5th century in non-Romanised parts. Structures dating from this time are often impressive, for example the brochs and duns of northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the islands. On the Iberian peninsula, the Paleohispanic scripts began to be used between 7th century to the 5th century BC. These scripts were used until the end of the 1st century BC or the beginning of the 1st century AD.

Northern Europe[link]

The early Iron Age forms of Scandinavia show no traces of Roman influence, though these become abundant toward the middle of the period. The duration of the Iron Age is variously estimated according as its commencement is placed nearer to or farther from the opening years of the Christian era; but it is agreed on all hands that the last division of the Iron Age of Scandinavia, the Viking Period, is to be taken as from 700 to 1000 AD, when paganism in those lands was superseded by Christianity.^[1]

The Iron Age north of the Alps is divided into the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the Roman Iron Age. In Scandinavia, further periods followed up to AD 1100: the Migration Period, the Vendel or Merovingian Period and the Viking Period. The earliest part of the Iron Age in north-western Germany and southern Jutland was dominated by the Jastorf culture.

Early Scandinavian iron production typically involved the harvesting of bog iron. The Scandinavian peninsula, Finland and Estonia show sophisticated iron production from c. 500 BC. Metalworking and Asbestos-Ceramic pottery co-occur to some extent. Another iron ore used was iron sand (such as red soil). Its high phosphorus content can be identified in slag. Such slag is sometimes found together with asbestos ware-associated axe types belonging to the Ananjino Culture.

Asia[link]

The widespread use of the technology of iron was implemented in Asia simultaneously with Europe.^[32] In China, the use of iron reaches far back, to perhaps 4000 years before the Common era.^[4]

Central Asia[link]

The Iron Age in Central Asia began when iron objects appear among the Indo-European Saka in present-day Xinjiang between the 10th century BC and the 7th century BC, such as those found at the cemetery site of Chawuhukou.^[33]

North Asia[link]

The Pazyryk culture is an Iron Age archaeological culture (ca. 6th to 3rd centuries BC) identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans found in the Siberian permafrost in the Altay Mountains.

South Asia[link]

South Asia timeline[link]

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 from: -1200 till: -200 shift:(0,5) text:Iron Age India
 from: -200 till: 1 text:Indo-Greeks
 bar:India color:filler
 from: 1 till: 500 text:Middle kingdoms of India

</timeline>

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

Indian subcontinent[link]

The history of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent began during the 2nd millennium BC. Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in present day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements in the period 1800 BC – 1200 BC.^[8] Archaeological excavations in Hyderabad show an iron age burial site.^[34] Rakesh Tewari^[35] believes that around the beginning of the Indian Iron Age (13th century BC), iron smelting was widely practiced in India. Such use suggests that the date of the technology's inception may be around the 16th century BC.^[8]

Epic India is traditionally placed around early 10th century BC and later on from the Sanskrit epics of Sanskrit literature. Composed between approximately 1500 BC and 600 BC of pre-classical Sanskrit, the Vedic literature forms four Vedas (the Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva). The main period of Vedic literary activity is the 9th to 7th centuries when the various schools of thought compiled and memorized their respective corpora. Following this, the scholarship around 500 to 100 BC organized knowledge into Sutra treatises.

The beginning of the 1st millennium BC saw extensive developments in iron metallurgy in India. Technological advancement and mastery of iron metallurgy was achieved during this period of peaceful settlements. One iron working centre in east India has been dated to the first millennium BC.^[36] In Southern India (present day Mysore) iron appeared as early as 12th to 11th centuries BC; these developments were too early for any significant close contact with the northwest of the country.^[36] The Indian Upanishads mention metallurgy.^[37] and the Indian Mauryan period saw advances in metallurgy.^[38] As early as 300 BC, certainly by AD 200, high quality steel was produced in southern India, by what would later be called the crucible technique. In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.^[39]

Sri Lanka[link]

The protohistoric Early Iron Age in Sri Lanka lasted from 1000 to 600 BC. Radiocarbon evidence has been collected from Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya.^{[40][41][42][43]} The Anuradhapura settlement is recorded to extend 10 hectares by 800 BC and grew to 50 hectares by 700 - 600 BC to become a town.^[44] The skeletal remains of an Early Iron Age chief was excavated in Anaikoddai, Jaffna. The name 'Ko Veta' is engraved in Brahmi script on a seal buried with the skeleton and is assigned by the excavators to the 3rd century BC. Ko, meaning "King" in Tamil, is comparable to such names as Ko Atan and Ko Putivira occurring in contemporary Brahmi inscriptions in south India.^[45] It is also speculated that Early Iron Age sites may exist in Kandarodai, Matota, Pilapitiya and Tissamaharama.^[46]

East Asia[link]

East Asia timeline[link]

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 from: -221 till: 500 shift:(0,4) text:Imperial China
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 from: -221 till: 500 shift:(0,-7) text:(Early period)
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 from: -108 till: -18 shift:(0,4) text:Proto–Kingdoms
 from: -18 till: 500 text:Three Kingdoms

</timeline>

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

China[link]

In China, Chinese bronze inscriptions are found around 1200 BC. The development of iron metallurgy was transpired by the 9th century BC.^[47][48] The large seal script is identified with a group of characters from a book entitled Shĭ Zhoù Piān (ca. 800 BC). Iron metallurgy reached the Yangzi Valley toward the end of the 6th century BC.^[49] The few objects were found at Changsha and Nanjing. The mortuary evidence suggests that the initial use of iron in Lingnan belongs to the mid-to-late Warring States period (from about 350 BC). Important non-precious husi style metal finds include Iron tools found at the Tomb at Ku-wei ts'un of the fourth century BC..^[50]

The techniques used in Lingnan are a combination of bivalve moulds of distinct southern tradition and the incorporation of piece mould technology from the Zhongyuan. The products of the combination of these two periods are bells, vessels, weapons and ornaments and the sophisticated cast.

An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has tentatively been associated with the Zhang Zhung culture described in early Tibetan writings.

Korea[link]

Silla chest and neck armour from National Museum of Korea.

Iron objects were introduced to the Korean peninsula through trade with chiefdoms and state-level societies in the Yellow Sea area in the 4th century BC, just at the end of the Warring States Period but before the Western Han Dynasty began.^[51][52] Yoon proposes that iron was first introduced to chiefdoms located along North Korean river valleys that flow into the Yellow Sea such as the Cheongcheon and Taedong Rivers.^[53] Iron production quickly followed in the 2nd century BC, and iron implements came to be used by farmers by the 1st century in southern Korea.^[51] The earliest known cast-iron axes in southern Korea are found in the Geum River basin. The time that iron production begins is the same time that complex chiefdoms of Proto-historic Korea emerged. The complex chiefdoms were the precursors of early states such as Silla, Baekje, Goguryeo, and Gaya^[52][54] Iron ingots were an important mortuary item and indicated the wealth or prestige of the deceased in this period.^[55]

Japan[link]

Iron items, such as tools, weapons, and decorative objects, are postulated to have entered Japan during the late Yayoi period (c. 300 BC to AD 300)^[56] or the succeeding Kofun period (c. AD 250 to AD 538), most likely through contacts with the Korean Peninsula and China.

Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. Yayoi culture flourished in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes referred to collectively as the Yamato period; The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from that era.

Africa[link]

In Africa, where there was no continent-wide universal Bronze Age, the use of iron succeeded immediately the use of stone.^[4] Metallurgy was characterized by the absence of a Bronze Age, and the transition from "stone to steel" in tool substances. Sub-Saharan Africa has produced very early instances of carbon steel found to be in production around 2000 years before present in northwest Tanzania, based on complex preheating principles. Nubia was one of the relatively few places in Africa to have a sustained Bronze Age along with Egypt and much of the rest of North Africa. The Meroitic script was developed in the Napatan Period (c. 700–300 BC).

Africa timeline[link]

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 from: 1 till: 500 text:Aksumite Empire
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 from: -1000 till: 500 shift:(-50,5) text:African Iron Age
 from: -1000 till: -500 shift:(-50,5) text:Sub-Saharan Africa
 from: -1000 till: -500 text:Nok
 from: -1000 till: 500 text:Bantu expansion

</timeline>

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

Ancient Egypt[link]

In the Black Pyramid of Abusir, at least 3000 BC, Gaston Maspero found some pieces of iron, and in the funeral text of Pepi I, the metal is mentioned. ^[4] A sword bearing the name of pharaoh Merneptah as well as a battle axe with an iron blade and gold-decorated bronze shaft were both found in the excavation of Ugarit.^[57]

Iron metal is singularly scarce in collections of Egyptian antiquities. Bronze remained the primary material there until the conquest by Assyria. The explanation of this would seem to lie in the fact that the relics are in most cases the paraphernalia of tombs, the funereal vessels and vases, and iron being considered an impure metal by the ancient Egyptians it was never used in their manufacture of these or for any religious purposes. It was attributed to Seth, the spirit of evil who according to Egyptian tradition governed the central deserts of Africa.^[4]

Sub-Saharan[link]

Iron Age finds in East and Southern Africa, corresponding to the early 1st millennium Bantu expansion.

Discoveries of very early copper and bronze working sites in Niger, however, can still support that iron working may have developed in that region and spread elsewhere. Iron metallurgy has been attested very early, the earliest instances of iron smelting in Termit, Niger may date to as early as 1200 BC.^[12] It was once believed that iron and copper working in Sub-Saharan Africa spread in conjunction with the Bantu expansion, from the Cameroon region to the African Great Lakes in the 3rd century BC, reaching the Cape around AD 400.^[12]

Sub-Saharan Africa has produced very early instances of carbon steel found to be in production around 2000 years before present in northwest Tanzania, based on complex preheating principles. These discoveries, according to Schmidt and Avery (archaeologists credited with the discovery) are significant for the history of metallurgy.^[58]

At the end of the Iron Age, Nubia became a major manufacturer and exporter of iron. This was after being expelled from Egypt by Assyrians, who used iron weapons.^[59]

Indian subcontinent[link]

India timeline[link]

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 from: -424  till: -321 text:Nanda Empire
 bar:Maurya  color:era
 from: -321 till: -272 text:Maurya Empire

</timeline>

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

         Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age      Historic Iron Age

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

General

Fogou

Lists

List of archaeological periods, List of archaeological sites

Metallurgy

Blast furnace, Roman metallurgy

Other

Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

Further reading[link]

• Waldbaum, Jane C. From Bronze to Iron. Göteburg: Paul Astöms Förlag (1978): 56-8

References[link]