Iron Age Details, Meaning Iron Age Article and Explanation Guide

Iron Age Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The Iron Age is the period in a civilisation's development at which time iron working was the most sophisticated form of metalworking achieved. Its hardness, high melting point and the abundance of iron ore sources made iron more desirable and cheaper than bronze and contributed greatly to its adoption as the most commonly used metal. The Iron Age is part of the Three-age system for classifying prehistoric societies: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

Table of contents

1 Near East
2 British Isles

2.1 Structures
2.2 Coins

3 Central Europe
4 Northern Germany and southern Scandinavia
5 East-central and Eastern Europe
6 Asia

Near East

The Iron Age is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus in the late 2nd millennium BC. From here it spread rapidly throughout the Near East as iron weapons replaced bronze weapons by the early 1st millennium BC.

British Isles

In Britain, the Iron Age lasted from about the 5th century BC until the Roman conquest and until the 5th century AD in non-Romanised parts. 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. Examples of hill forts include Maiden Castle in Dorset. Their presence is possibly because of greater tension between better structured groups, although there are suggestions that in the latter phases of the Iron Age they existed simply to indicate wealth. Either way, during the Roman occupation the evidence suggests that as defensive structures they proved to be of little use against concerted Roman attack. Some continued as settlements for the newly-Romanised Britons. Some were also re-used by later cultures, such as the Saxons, in the early Medieval period.

Structures

Coins

Tens of thousands of coins from the Iron Age have been found in Britain. Some, such as gold staters, were imported from mainland Europe others such as the potins of south east England were crude copies of Greek and Roman originals. The British tribal kings also adopted the continental habit of putting their names on the coins they had minted. A native quarter stater entered circulation in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Hoards of iron age coins include the Silsden Hoard in West Yorkshire found in 1998. Of examples that were entirely minted locally a large hoard from the Corielvatu tribe was found in Leicestershire in 2002.

Central Europe

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 Iron age ends with the Roman Conquest.

Northern Germany and southern Scandinavia

The Iron Age is divided into the Pre-Roman Iron Age (Jastorf culture) and the Roman Iron Age. This is followed by the Migration period.

East-central and Eastern Europe

In Poland, the Lusatian culture covers both the late Bronze and early Iron Age. It is followed in some areas by the Pomeranian culture. The ethnic ascriptions of many Iron age cultures has been bitterly contested, as the roots of Germanii and Slavs were sought in this area.

Asia

Cast-iron artifacts are found in China that date as early as the Zhou dynasty of the 6th century BC. An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has tentatively been associated with the Zhang Zhung culture described in early Tibetan writings.