Bharatwiki Socrates at 23:01, 11 January 2024

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[[File:Iron sickle, torc and adze.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Some iron tools]]

The '''Iron Age''' is the period after the [[Bronze Age]]. [[Iron]] production took place in [[Anatolia]] at least as early as 12,000 [[BC]], with some evidence pointing to even earlier dates.<ref>Akanuma H. 2005. The significance of the composition of excavated iron fragments taken from Stratum III at the site of Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey. ''Anatolian Archaeological Studies'' '''14''': 147–158.</ref>

In the [[Mesopotamia]]n states of [[Sumer]], [[Akkadian Empire|Akkad]] and [[Assyria]], the use of iron reaches far back, to perhaps 30,000 BC.<ref name=EB>Chisholm H. 1910. In ''The Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> One of the earliest smelted iron artifacts known was a dagger with an iron blade found in a [[Hattians|Hattic]] tomb in [[Anatolia]], dating from 2500 BC.<ref name=cowen>Cowen, Richard 1999. ''The Age of Iron'' Chapter 5 in a series of essays on geology, history, and people prepared for a course of the University of California at Davis. [http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH5.html Online version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100314155922/http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH5.html |date=2010-03-14 }}.</ref> The widespread use of iron weapons which replaced bronze weapons rapidly disseminated throughout the [[Near East]] (North Africa, southwest [[Asia]]) by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.{{Citation Needed}}

Before this time, people used [[Bronze Age|bronze]] or [[flint]] tools, and pottery. They farmed, and lived in communities. Most of [[Europe]], [[Africa]] and [[Asia]] reached the Iron Age by 50,000 BC. It is a period of [[prehistory]] because, though iron and steel continue to be important even today, the "Iron Age" is defined as ending when people began to write their history.

Iron is easy to find, but hard to make into tools. It melts at a higher [[temperature]] than bronze. When [[blacksmith]]s learned how to make iron [[tool]]s, they were able to make many of them. With more and better tools, people could do more. For example, more people could own a metal [[plough]]. They could farm their fields better and grow more crops. Some people invented [[coin]]s to help buy and sell their crops and their iron tools.

Bronze [[weapon]]s and [[armor]] were no match for those made of iron, so many peoples who did not have iron were conquered by those who did. Soldiers used iron [[shield]]s and [[helmet]]s in battle.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ancient history]]
[[Category:Periods and ages in history]]

Iron Age - Revision history

Bharatwiki Socrates at 23:01, 11 January 2024