Iron Age

The period during which iron was utilized by early man, beginning about 3000 years ago, following the Stone Age and Bronze Age in the Three-Age System. In this period, tools, implements, and weapons were first made of iron. Iron had many advantages over bronze, so its spread was rapid. The Iron Age began at different times in different parts of the world according to the availability of iron ore and the state of knowledge. In Europe, the earliest iron appears around 1100 BC. The traditional timing of the transition from bronze to iron is placed in the early 1st millennium BC. The age began about 1500 BC in the Middle East, about 900 BC in southern Europe, and after 400 BC in northern Europe. In most of Asia the Iron Age falls entirely within the historic period. In America, iron was introduced by the arrival of Europeans; in Africa, it began before the earlier metal ages. The southern African Iron Age is divided into the Early Iron Age, 200-1000 AD and the Late Iron Age, 1000 AD till the 19th century. The term is general and arbitrary. There is evidence that meteorites were used as a source of iron before 3000 BC, but extraction of the metal from ores dates from about 2000 BC.

Third age of the Three Age System, defined by the use of iron as the main material for making tools. The term is still widely used in West Asiatic, European and African prehistory. In Western Asia the Iron Age begins in the later 2nd millennium bc, in Europe during the earlier 1st millennium bc, and in Africa south of the Sahara in the first millennium AD. Technically we could regard ourselves as still in the Iron Age today, but traditionally the term is not used in this way. Usage varies from area to area: in much of Europe, for instance, the Iron Age is taken to end with the expansion of the Romans, while in parts of Africa the Iron Age continues until the colonial era.