Iron Age

The Iron Age (c. 1200 – c. 550 BC) is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.^[1] It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progressing to protohistory (before written history). In this usage, it is preceded by the Stone Age (subdivided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age. These concepts originated for describing Iron Age Europe and the ancient Near East. In the archaeology of the Americas, a five-period system is conventionally used instead; indigenous cultures there did not develop an iron economy in the pre-Columbian era, though some did work copper and bronze. Indigenous metalworking arrived in Australia with European contact. Although meteoric iron has been used for millennia in many regions, the beginning of the Iron Age is defined locally around the world by archaeological convention when the production of smelted iron (especially steel tools and weapons) replaces their bronze equivalents in common use.

Archaeologists have discovered iron objects at six sites in Tamil Nadu, dating back to 2,953–3,345 BCE, or between 5,000 to 5,400 years old.Which suggests that Iron age began in Tamil Nadu, India. Archaeological findings in Tamil Nadu, including six sites with iron objects dated between 2,953–3,345 BCE, strongly suggest that the Iron Age may have begun in Tamil Nadu. These discoveries, between 5,000 to 5,400 years old, indicate that the process of iron extraction, smelting, forging, and shaping may have developed independently in the Indian subcontinent. At burials excavated at one site, over 85 iron objects - knives, arrowhead, rings, chisels, axes and swords - were found inside and outside burial urns. More than 20 key samples were robustly dated in five labs worldwide, confirming their antiquity.

In Anatolia and the Caucasus, or Southeast Europe, the Iron Age began c. 1300 BC.^[2] In the ancient Near East, this transition occurred simultaneously with the Late Bronze Age collapse, during the 12th century BC. The technology soon spread throughout the Mediterranean basin region and to South Asia between the 12th and 11th centuries BC. Its further spread to Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe was somewhat delayed, and Northern Europe was not reached until c. the 5th century BC.

The Iron Age in India is stated as beginning with the ironworking Painted Grey Ware culture, dating from c. 1200 BC to the reign of Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. This was after the Iron age in Tamil Nadu, India. The term "Iron Age" in the archaeology of South, East, and Southeast Asia is more recent and less common than for western Eurasia. Africa did not have a universal "Bronze Age", and many areas transitioned directly from stone to iron. Some archaeologists believe that iron metallurgy was developed in sub-Saharan Africa independently from Eurasia and neighbouring parts of Northeast Africa as early as 2000 BC.^[3][4][5]

The concept of the Iron Age ending with the beginning of the written historiographical record has not generalized well, as written language and steel use have developed at different times in different areas across the archaeological record. For instance, in China, written history started before iron smelting began, so the term is used infrequently for the archaeology of China. In Mesopotamia, written history predates iron smelting by hundreds of years. For the ancient Near East, the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire c. 550 BC is used traditionally and still usually as an end date; later dates are considered historical according to the record by Herodotus despite considerable written records now being known from well back into the Bronze Age. In Central and Western Europe, the conquests by the Roman Empire during the 1st century BC serve as marking the end of the Iron Age. The Germanic Iron Age of Scandinavia is considered to end c. AD 800, with the beginning of the Viking Age.