Natalia Adnoral
Why is our age called the Iron Age? Is this related to the physical properties of the metal? Perhaps acquaintance with the history of the development of iron, with its nature and symbolism, will make it easier to understand our time and our place in it.
Iron Age
(began around the 2nd 1st millennium BC)
In archaeology: the historical period of widespread distribution of iron as a material for the manufacture of weapons and tools. Follows stone and bronze.
In Indian philosophy - Kali Yuga: the age of darkness, the fourth and final period in the cycle of the manifested world. Follows Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Plato in the Republic also talks about four centuries of humanity.
"Portrait" of an Iron Age man “From day to day, such a person lives, satisfying the first desire that hits him: either he gets drunk to the sound of flutes, then he suddenly drinks only water and exhausts himself, then he gets carried away with bodily exercises; but it happens that laziness attacks him, and then he has no desire for anything. Sometimes he spends his time in pursuits that seem philosophical. Social affairs often occupy him: suddenly he jumps up and speaks, and does whatever he has to. If he gets carried away by military people, that’s where he’ll be carried, and if they’re businessmen, then in that direction. There is no order in his life, there is no necessity in it; He calls this life pleasant, free and blissful, and as such he uses it all the time.” Equality and freedom lead people to the point that “everything forced causes them to be indignant as something unacceptable, and they will end up ceasing to take into account even the laws - written and unwritten - so that no one and nothing will have authority over them." |
Iron Age. This is an era of change, action and duality. Where there is war, there is both cruelty and heroism. Where there is personality, there is both a cult of ego and a bright individuality. Where freedom means a complete rejection of the law and absolute responsibility. Where power is both the desire to capture and subjugate others, and the ability to “rule oneself.” Where the search is both a thirst for new pleasures and a love for wisdom. Where life is both survival and the Path. The Iron Age is a stage of movement from the past to the future, from the old to the new. This is the century in which each of us lives.
Part one,
archaeological-etymological
Iron is called the metal of the power of civilizations. Historically, the onset of the Iron Age is directly associated with the discovery of a method for obtaining iron from ores located in the bowels of the Earth. But along with “earthly” iron, there is also its “heavenly” counterpart - iron of meteorite origin. Meteoric iron is chemically pure (does not contain impurities), and therefore does not require labor-intensive technologies for their removal. Iron in ores, on the contrary, requires several stages of purification. The fact that it was “heavenly” iron that was the first to be recognized by man is evidenced by archeology, etymology, and myths widespread among some peoples about gods or demons who dropped iron objects and tools from the sky.
In ancient Egypt, iron was called bi-ni-pet, which literally means “heavenly ore” or “heavenly metal.” The oldest examples of processed iron found in Egypt are made from meteorite iron (they date back to the 4th millennium BC). In Mesopotamia, iron was called an-bar - “heavenly iron”, in ancient Armenia - erkat, “dripped (fell) from the sky.” The ancient Greek and North Caucasian names for iron come from the word sidereus, “starry”.
The first iron - a gift from the gods, pure, easy to process - was used exclusively for the manufacture of “pure” ritual objects: amulets, talismans, sacred images (beads, bracelets, rings, hearths). Iron meteorites were worshiped, religious buildings were created at the site of their fall, they were ground into powder and drunk as a cure for many ailments, and carried with them as amulets. The first meteorite iron weapons were decorated with gold and precious stones and used in burials.
Some peoples were not familiar with meteoric iron. For them, the development of metal began with ore deposits of “earthly” iron, from which they made objects for applied purposes. Among such peoples (for example, the Slavs), iron was named according to its “functional” characteristics. So Russian iron (South Slavic zalizo) has the root “lez” (from “lezo” - “blade”). Some philologists derive the German name for the metal Eisen from the Celtic isara, meaning “strong, strong.” Became international Latin name Ferrum, adopted among the Romance peoples, is probably related to the Greco-Latin fars (“to be hard”), which comes from the Sanskrit bhars (“to harden”).
Part two,
practically mystical
The “applied” duality of objects made from iron is obvious: it is both an instrument of creation and a weapon of destruction. Even the same iron object can be used for diametrically opposed purposes. According to legends, the blacksmiths of antiquity knew how to endow iron objects with powers of one direction or another. That is why they treated blacksmiths with respect and fear.
Mythological and mystical interpretations of the properties of iron in different cultures are also sometimes contradictory. In some cases, iron was associated with a destructive, enslaving force, in others - with protection from such forces. So, in Islam, iron is a symbol of evil, among the Teutons it is a symbol of slavery. Bans on the use of iron were widespread in Ireland, Scotland, Finland, China, Korea, and India. Altars were built without iron, and it was forbidden to collect medicinal herbs using iron tools. Hindus believed that iron in homes contributed to the spread of epidemics.
On the other hand, iron is an integral attribute of protective rituals: during plague epidemics, nails were driven into the walls of houses; a pin was pinned to clothing as a talisman against the evil eye; iron horseshoes were nailed to the doors of houses and churches, and attached to the masts of ships. In antiquity, rings and other amulets made of iron were common to ward off demons and evil spirits. In Ancient China, iron served as a symbol of justice, strength and chastity; figurines made from it were buried in the ground for protection from dragons. Iron as a warrior metal was glorified in Scandinavia, where the military cult reached unprecedented development. In addition, some peoples revered iron for its ability to awaken spiritual strength and cause dramatic changes in life.
Part three,
natural science
Iron is a metal, one of the most common elements in the Universe, an active participant in the processes occurring in the bowels of stars. The core of the Sun - the main source of energy for our planet (according to modern hypothesis) - consists of iron. On Earth, iron is ubiquitous: in the core (the main element), and in the earth's crust (in second place after aluminum), and in all living organisms without exception - from bacteria to humans.
The basic properties of iron metal, strength and conductivity, are determined by its crystalline structure. Positively charged ions “rest” at the nodes of a metal lattice, and negatively charged “free” electrons continuously “scurry” between them. The strength of a metallic bond is determined by the force of attraction between the “nodal pluses” and “moving minuses”; the conductivity potential is determined by the chaotic movement of electrons. A metal becomes a “real” conductor when, under the influence of poles applied to the metal, this electronic chaos turns into a directed, ordered flow (actually, electric current).
Man, like metal, with a fairly rigid external organization, is internally movement itself. At the physical level, this is expressed in the continuous movements and interconversions of billions of atoms and molecules, in the exchange of substances and energy in cells, in the blood flow, etc. At the mental level, in the constant change of emotions and thoughts. Stopping movement on all planes means death. It is noteworthy that iron is an invariable participant in the processes that provide energy to our bodies. Failure of at least one iron-containing system threatens the body with irreparable disaster. Even a decrease in iron content significantly impairs energy metabolism. In humans, this is expressed in chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, sensitivity to cold, apathy, decreased attention, decreased mental and cognitive abilities, and increased susceptibility to stress and infections. To be fair, it should be said that excess iron does not lead to anything good: iron poisoning is expressed in rapid fatigue, damage to the liver, spleen, increased inflammatory processes in the body, deficiency of other vital microelements (copper, zinc, chromium and calcium).
Any movement requires energy. Our body receives it through the process of chemical transformation of substances obtained from food. The driving force behind this process is atmospheric oxygen. This method of obtaining energy is called breathing. Iron is its most important component. Firstly, as part of a complex molecule - blood hemoglobin - it directly binds oxygen (structures in which iron is replaced by manganese, nickel or copper are not capable of binding oxygen). Secondly, muscle myoglobin stores this oxygen in reserve. Thirdly, it serves as a conductor of energy in complex systems, which, in fact, carry out the chemical transformation of substances.
In bacteria and plants, iron is also involved in the processes of transformation of substances and energy (photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation). If there is a lack of iron in the soil, plants stop catching sunlight and lose their green color.
Iron not only helps transform matter and energy in living organisms, it also serves as an indicator of changes that occurred on Earth in the distant past. Based on the depth of iron oxide deposits on the bottom of the world's oceans, scientists make assumptions about the timing of the emergence of the first photosynthetic organisms and the appearance of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. The orientation of iron-containing inclusions in lavas that erupted during ancient cataclysms indicates the position of the planet’s magnetic poles at that ancient time.
Part four,
symbolic (astrological-alchemical)
So what kind of energy does iron conduct that fuels the activity of our bodies? In the old days, it was assumed that the energies of celestial bodies were transmitted to the inhabitants of the Earth with the help of the conductive force of metals. Each specific metal (out of the seven mentioned in alchemy and astrology) promotes the distribution of a very specific type of energy in the body. Iron was considered a piece of heavenly power, which is given to the Earth by its closest neighbor, the planet Mars. Other names for this planet are Ares, Yar, Yari. The Russian word “rage” has the same root. In ancient times, it was said about the energy of Mars that it “heats the blood and mind” and is favorable for “work, war and love.” Mars and iron were often mentioned in connection with the astral plane - the plane of emotions. It was said that the power of Mars not only “ignites” our physical activity, but also provokes the “output” of our instincts, passions and emotions - active, mobile, changeable and, of course, sometimes diametrically opposed. It’s not for nothing that they say that from love to hate there is only one step.
Philosophers of the past considered these manifestations of "vigorous and restless elements" as necessary stage growth, development, improvement. It is no coincidence that in alchemy the path of evolution, the transformation of metals, the culmination of which is inert, integral, perfect gold, begins precisely with iron - a symbol of action.
The Iron Age is the historical era of iron mining and processing, the era of destructive wars and creative discoveries.
Iron in itself can be neither good nor bad, “neither great nor insignificant.” His internal properties manifest themselves as intended by Nature. In human hands, iron is transformed into a product. Is it good or evil? Obviously not. Only the result of a completed action can be creative or destructive. Only a person chooses the goal, method and direction of action and is responsible for its result.
Historical reference The earliest finds of iron objects made from meteorite iron were noted in Iran (VI IV millennium BC), Iraq (V millennium BC), Egypt (IV millennium BC) and Mesopotamia ( III millennium BC). Products made from meteorite iron are known in different cultures Eurasia: in the Yamnaya (III millennium BC) in the Southern Urals and in Afanasyevskaya (III millennium BC) in Southern Siberia. He was known to the Eskimos, the Indians of northwestern North America and the population of Zhou China. There are iron finds dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. in Cyprus and Crete, in Assyria and Babylon. The most ancient iron smelting furnaces (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC) belonged to the Hittites. Historically, the beginning of the Iron Age in Europe dates back to the end of the 2nd millennium BC; in Egypt - around 1300 BC. In Greece, the spread of iron coincided with the era of the Homeric epic (IX VI centuries BC). Among the Slavs, the god of the sky, the father of all things, was Svarog. The name of God comes from the Vedic svargas - “sky”; The root var means burning, heat. Legend says that Svarog, representing heavenly fire, gave people the first plow and blacksmith's tongs and taught people how to smelt iron. In the Chinese “Book of History” (Shu-ching), which, according to legend, was compiled by Confucius in the 6th century BC, the metal element is said to be in subjection (to external influence) and in change. The characteristic red color (the color of manifested duality, action, energy and life) of blood is given by iron. In the Old Russian language, metal deposits and blood were denoted by one word - ore. According to the generally accepted theory, our Sun is a hot ball of hydrogen and helium. But now a new hypothesis has emerged about its composition. Its author is Oliver Manuel, professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Missouri-Rolla. He argues that the hydrogen fusion reaction, which produces some of the sun's heat, occurs near the surface of the sun. And the main heat is released from the core, which consists mainly of iron. The professor believes that the entire solar system was formed after a supernova explosion about 5 billion years ago. The Sun was formed from the collapsed core of the supernova, and planets were formed from the matter thrown into space. The planets closest to the Sun (including the Earth) were formed from internal parts - heavier elements (iron, sulfur and silicon); distant (for example, Jupiter) - from matter outer layers that star (made of hydrogen, helium and other light elements). |
The original article is on the website of the magazine "New Acropolis": www.newacropolis.ru
for the magazine "Man Without Borders"
IRON AGE - an era in the primitive and early class history of mankind, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. The idea of three centuries: stone, bronze and iron - arose in the ancient world (Titus Lucretius Carus). The term "Iron Age" was coined around the mid-19th century by the Danish archaeologist K. J. Thomsen. The most important studies, initial classification and dating of Iron Age monuments in Western Europe were carried out by M. Görnes, O. Montelius, O. Tischler, M. Reinecke, J. Dechelet, N. Oberg, J. L. Pietsch and J. Kostrzewski; in East Europe - V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, Yu. V. Gauthier, P. N. Tretyakov, A. P. Smirnov, Kh. A. Moora, M. I. Artamonov, B. N. Grakov and etc.; in Siberia - S. A. Teploukhov, S. V. Kiselev, S. I. Rudenko and others; in the Caucasus - B. A. Kuftin, B. B. Piotrovsky, E. I. Krupnov and others.
The period of initial spread of the iron industry was experienced by all countries at different times, but the Iron Age usually refers only to the cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of ancient slave-owning civilizations that arose in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China). The Iron Age is very short compared to previous archaeological eras (Stone and Bronze Ages). Its chronological boundaries: from 9-7 centuries BC. e., when many primitive tribes of Europe and Asia developed their own iron metallurgy, and before the emergence of a class society and state among these tribes. Some modern foreign scientists, who consider the time of the appearance of written sources to be the end of primitive history, attribute the end of the Iron Age of Western Europe to the 1st century BC. e., when Roman written sources appear containing information about Western European tribes. Since to this day iron remains the most important material from which tools are made, the modern era is entering the Iron Age, therefore for archaeological periodization In primitive history, the term “early Iron Age” is also used. In Western Europe, only its beginning is called the Early Iron Age (the so-called Hallstatt culture). Despite the fact that iron is the most common metal in the world, it was developed late by man, since it is almost never found in nature in its pure form, is difficult to process, and its ores are difficult to distinguish from various minerals. Initially, meteorite iron became known to mankind. Small iron objects (mainly jewelry) are found in the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The method of obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the 2nd millennium BC. e. According to one of the most likely assumptions, the cheese-making process (see below) was first used by tribes subordinate to the Hittites living in the mountains of Armenia (Antitaurus) in the 15th century BC. e. However long time iron remained a rare and very valuable metal. Only after the 11th century BC. e. Quite a wide production of iron weapons and tools began in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and India. At the same time, iron became famous in southern Europe. In the 11th-10th centuries BC. e. individual iron objects penetrate into the region lying north of the Alps and are found in the steppes of the south of the European part of the USSR, but iron tools begin to dominate in these areas only in the 8-7 centuries BC. e. In the 8th century BC. e. iron products are widely distributed in Mesopotamia, Iran and somewhat later in Central Asia. The first news of iron in China dates back to the 8th century BC. e., but it spread only in the 5th century BC. e. Iron spread to Indochina and Indonesia at the turn of our era. Apparently, since ancient times, iron metallurgy was known to various tribes of Africa. Undoubtedly, already in the 6th century BC. e. iron was produced in Nubia, Sudan, and Libya. In the 2nd century BC. e. The Iron Age began in central Africa. Some African tribes moved from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, bypassing the Bronze Age. In America, Australia and most of the Pacific Islands, iron (except meteorite) became known only in the 2nd millennium AD. e. along with the arrival of Europeans in these areas.
In contrast to the relatively rare sources of copper and especially tin, iron ores, although most often low-grade (brown iron ores, lake ores, swamps, meadows, etc.), are found almost everywhere. But it is much more difficult to obtain iron from ores than copper. Melting iron, that is, obtaining it in a liquid state, was always inaccessible to ancient metallurgists, since this required a very high temperature (1528°). Iron was obtained in a dough-like state using the cheese-blowing process, which consisted of the reduction of iron ore with carbon at a temperature of 1100-1350° in special furnaces with air blown by forging bellows through a nozzle. A kritsa was formed at the bottom of the furnace - a lump of porous dough-like iron weighing 1-8 kg, which had to be hammered repeatedly to compact and partially remove (squeeze out) the slag from it. Hot iron is soft, but back in ancient times (about the 12th century BC) a method of hardening iron products was discovered (by immersing them in cold water) and their cementation (carburization). Iron bars ready for blacksmithing and intended for trade exchange usually had a bipyramidal shape in Western Asia and Western Europe. The higher mechanical qualities of iron, as well as the general availability of iron ore and the low cost of the new metal, ensured the displacement of bronze by iron, as well as stone, which remained an important material for the production of tools in the Bronze Age. This did not happen right away. In Europe, only in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. e. iron began to play a truly significant role as a material for making tools. The technical revolution caused by the spread of iron greatly expanded man's power over nature. It made it possible to clear large forest areas for crops, expand and improve irrigation and reclamation structures, and generally improve land cultivation. The development of crafts, especially blacksmithing and weapons, is accelerating. Wood processing is being improved for the purposes of house construction, the production of vehicles (ships, chariots, etc.), and the manufacture of various utensils. Craftsmen, from shoemakers and masons to miners, also received more advanced tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of handicraft and agricultural hand tools (except for screws and hinged scissors), used in the Middle Ages, and partly in modern times, were already in use. The construction of roads has become easier and the military equipment, exchange expanded, metal coins spread as a means of circulation.
The development of productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time, led to the transformation of all social life. As a result of the growth of productive labor, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of exploitation of man by man and the collapse of the tribal system. One of the sources of accumulation of values and growth of property inequality was the expansion of exchange during the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment through exploitation gave rise to wars for the purpose of plunder and enslavement. The beginning of the Iron Age was characterized by widespread fortifications. During the Iron Age, the tribes of Europe and Asia experienced the stage of decomposition of the primitive communal system, and were on the eve of the emergence of class society and the state. The transition of part of the means of production into the private ownership of the ruling minority, the emergence of slavery, the increased stratification of society and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already features typical of early class societies. For many tribes, the social structure of this transitional period took the political form of the so-called military democracy.
A. L. Mongait. Moscow.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 5. DVINSK - INDONESIA. 1964.
Literature:
Engels F., The origin of the family, private property and the state, M., 1953; Artsikhovsky A.V., Introduction to Archeology, 3rd ed., M., 1947; World History, vol. 1-2, M., 1955-56; Gernes M., Culture of the Prehistoric Past, trans. from German, part 3, M., 1914; Gorodtsov V. A., Household Archeology, M., 1910; Gauthier Yu. V., The Iron Age in Eastern Europe, M.-L., 1930; Grakov B.N., The oldest finds of iron objects in the European part of the USSR, "CA", 1958, No. 4; Jessen A. A., On the issue of monuments of the VIII - VII centuries. BC e. in the South of the European part of the USSR, in collection: "CA" (vol.) 18, M., 1953; Kiselev S.V., Ancient history of Southern Siberia, (2nd ed.), M., 1951; Clark D.G.D., Prehistoric Europe. Economical essay, trans. from English, M., 1953; Krupnov E.I., Ancient history North Caucasus, M., 1960; Lyapushkin I.I., Monuments of the Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture in the river basin. Don, "MIA", 1958, No. 62; his, Dnieper forest-steppe left bank in the Iron Age, "MIA", 1961, No. 104; Mongait A.L., Archeology in the USSR, M., 1955; Niederle L., Slavic antiquities, trans. from Czech., M., 1956; Okladnikov A.P., The distant past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Essays on the history of the USSR. The primitive communal system and the most ancient states on the territory of the USSR, M., 1956; Monuments of Zarubintsy culture, "MIA", 1959, No. 70; Piotrovsky B.V., Archeology of Transcaucasia from ancient times to 1 thousand BC. e., Leningrad, 1949; his, Van Kingdom, M., 1959; Rudenko S.I., Culture of the population of Central Altai in Scythian times, M.-L., 1960; Smirnov A.P., Iron Age of the Chuvash Volga Region, M., 1961; Tretyakov P.N., East Slavic tribes, 2nd ed., M., 1953; Chernetsov V.N., Lower Ob region in 1 thousand AD. e., "MIA", 1957, No. 58; Déchelette J., Manuel d'archéologie prehistorique celtique et gallo-romaine, 2 ed., t. 3-4, P., 1927; Johannsen O., Geschichte des Eisens, Düsseldorf, 1953; Moora H., Die Eisenzeit in Lettland bis etwa 500 n. Chr., (t.) 1-2, Tartu (Dorpat), 1929-38; Redlich A., Die Minerale im Dienste der Menschheit, Bd 3 - Das Eisen, Prag, 1925; and metals, v. 1-2, N. Y.-L., 1932.
The Iron Age, or Iron Age, is the third of the technological macro-epochs in human history (following the Stone Age and the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages). The term “Early Iron Age” is usually used to designate the first stage of the Iron Age, approximately dating from the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. - mid-1st millennium AD (with certain chronological variations for different regions).
The use of the term “Iron Age” has a long history. For the first time, the idea of the existence of the Iron Age in human history was clearly formulated at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 7th century. BC. ancient Greek poet Hesiod. According to his periodization of the historical process (see Introduction), the Iron Age contemporary to Hesiod turns out to be the last and worst stage of human history, at which people have “no respite either night or day from labor and grief” and “only the most severe, grave troubles will remain for people in life" ("Works and Days", pp. 175-201. Translated by V.V. Veresaev). Ovid at the beginning of the 1st century. AD the ethical imperfection of the Iron Age is even more emphasized. The ancient Roman poet calls iron “the worst ore,” during the era of whose dominance “shame fled, and truth, and fidelity; and in their place deceptions and deceit immediately appeared; intrigues, violence and a damned thirst for profit came.” Moral degeneration of people is punishable global flood, destroying everyone, excluding Deucalion and Pyrrha, who revive humanity (“Metamorphoses”, Chapter I, pp. 127-150, 163-415. Translated by S.V. Shervinsky).
As we see, in the assessment of the Iron Age by these ancient authors, the relationship between the cultural and technological aspect and the philosophical and ethical, in particular eschatological, was especially strong. The Iron Age was thought of as a kind of eve of the end of the world. This is quite natural, since the primary concepts of historical periodization finally took shape and were imprinted in written sources precisely at the beginning of the real Iron Age. Consequently, for the first authors who created the periodization of history, the cultural and technological eras preceding the Iron Age (whether mythical, like the Age of Gold and the Age of Heroes, or real, like the Age of Copper) were the ancient or recent past, while the Iron Age itself was modernity, disadvantages which are always visible more clearly and more perceptibly. Therefore, the beginning of the Iron Age was perceived as a certain crisis point in human history. In addition, iron, which defeated bronze primarily in weapons, inevitably became for witnesses of this process a symbol of weapons, violence, and destruction. It is no coincidence that in the same Hesiod, Gaia-Earth, wanting to punish Uranus-Heaven for his atrocities, specially creates a “breed of gray iron”, from which he makes a punishing sickle (“Theogony”, pp. 154-166. Translated by V.V. Veresaev).
Thus, in ancient times the term “Iron Age” was initially accompanied by an eschatological-tragic interpretation, and this ancient tradition found its continuation in the latest fiction (see, for example, A. Blok’s poem “Retribution”).
However, Ovid’s compatriot Lucretius in the first half of the 1st century. BC. substantiated in the poem “On the Nature of Things” a qualitatively new, exclusively production and technological characteristic of historical eras, including the Iron Age. This idea ultimately formed the basis of the first scientific concept of K.Yu. Thomsen (1836). Following this, the problem of the chronological framework of the Iron Age and its internal division arose, which was discussed in the 19th century. There were long discussions. The final point in this dispute was put by the founder of the typological method, O. Montelius. He noted that it is impossible to indicate a single absolute date for the change from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age throughout the entire territory of the ecumene; The beginning of the Iron Age for each region should be counted from the moment of the predominance of iron and alloys based on it (primarily steel) over other materials as raw materials for weapons and tools.
Montelius's position was confirmed in subsequent archaeological developments, which showed that iron was first used as a rare raw material for jewelry (sometimes in combination with gold), then increasingly for the production of tools and weapons, gradually displacing copper and bronze into the background. Thus, in modern science An indicator of the onset of the Iron Age in the history of each specific region is the use of iron ore for the manufacture of basic forms of tools and weapons and the widespread use of iron metallurgy and blacksmithing.
The onset of the Iron Age was preceded by a long preparatory period dating back to previous technological eras.
Even in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, people sometimes used iron to produce some jewelry and simple tools. However, it was originally meteorite iron, constantly coming from space. Humanity came to the production of iron from ores much later.
Products made from meteoritic iron differ from products made from metallurgical iron (i.e., obtained from ores) primarily in that the former do not contain any slag inclusions, whereas in metallurgical iron such inclusions, at least in small proportions, are inevitable are present as a consequence of the operation of reducing iron from ores. In addition, meteoritic iron usually has a much higher nickel content, which makes such iron much harder. However, this indicator in itself is not absolute, and in modern science there is a serious and as yet unsolved problem of distinguishing between ancient objects made of meteorite and ore iron. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the nickel content in products made from meteorite raw materials could significantly decrease over time as a result of prolonged corrosion. On the other hand, iron ores with a high nickel content are found on our planet.
Theoretically, it was also possible to use terrestrial native iron - the so-called telluric iron (its appearance, mainly in basalt rocks, is explained by the interaction of iron oxides with organic minerals). However, it is found only in minute grains and veins (except in Greenland, where large accumulations are known), so that the practical use of telluric iron in ancient times was impossible.
Due to the high nickel content (from 5 to 20%, on average 8%), which increases fragility, meteorite raw materials were processed mainly by cold forging - by analogy with stone. However, some items made from meteorite iron were obtained through the use of hot forging.
The earliest iron products date back to the 6th millennium BC. and come from a burial of the Chalcolithic Samarra culture in Northern Iraq. These are 14 small beads or balls, undoubtedly made of meteoric iron, as well as a tetrahedral tool that could be made of ore iron (this is, of course, an exceptional case).
A significantly larger number of objects of meteorite nature (mainly for ritual and ceremonial purposes) date back to the Bronze Age.
The most famous products are ancient Egyptian beads from the late 4th - early 3rd millennium BC. from Hertz and Meduma (pre-dynastic monuments); a dagger with a hilt overlaid with gold, from the royal burial ground of Ur in Sumer (the tomb of Meskalamdug, dating back to the mid-3rd millennium BC); mace from Troy I (2600-2400 BC); pins with gold heads, pendants and some other items from the Aladzha-Heyuk burial ground (2400-2100 BC); the handle of a dagger made in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. in Asia Minor and brought to the area of present-day Slovakia (Hanovce) - finally, things from the tomb of Tutankhamun (about 1375 BC), including: a dagger with an iron blade and a golden handle, an iron “Eye of Horus” attached to a gold bracelet, an amulet in the form of a head stand and 16 thin magico-surgical iron instruments (lancets, incisors, chisels) inserted into a wooden base. In the territory of the former USSR, the first products made from meteorite iron appear first of all in the Southern Urals and on the Sayan-Altai Plateau. These date back to the end of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. all-iron and bimetallic (bronze-iron) tools and decorations made by metallurgists of the Yamnaya (see Section II, Chapter 4) and Afanasyevskaya cultures using cold and hot forging.
Obviously, previous experience with the use of meteorite iron did not in any way influence the discovery of the effect of obtaining iron from ores. Meanwhile, it was the last discovery, i.e. the actual emergence of ferrous metallurgy, which took place back in the Bronze Age, predetermined the change of technological eras, although it did not mean the immediate end of the Bronze Age and the transition to the Iron Age.
The oldest iron products, dating back to 111-11 thousand BC:
1.3- iron daggers with hilts lined with gold (from the tomb of Meskalamdug in Ur and from the Aladzha-Heyuk burial ground in Asia Minor); 2, 4 - an iron adze with a copper grip for the handle and an iron chisel from the burial of the ancient Yamnaya culture (Southern Urals); 5, 6 - a dagger with an iron blade and a gold handle and iron blades inserted into a wooden base (Tutankhamun’s tomb), 7 - a knife with a copper handle and an iron blade from a Catacomb culture burial (Russia, Belgorod region, Gerasimovka village); 8 - iron dagger handle (Slovakia)
Reconstruction of the cheese-making process in the Early Iron Age:
the initial and final phases of the cheese-making process; 2 - obtaining iron from ore in an open, semi-dugout ancient workshop (Mšecké Žehrovice, Czech Republic); 3 - main types of ancients
cheese furnaces (sectional view)
There are two most important stages in the development of iron ore:
Stage 1 - discovery and improvement of a method for recovering iron from ores - the so-called cheese-blowing process.
Stage 2 - the discovery of methods for deliberately producing steel (carburization technology), and subsequently methods for its heat treatment in order to increase the hardness and strength of products.
The cheese-blowing process was carried out in special furnaces into which iron ore and charcoal were loaded, ignited by supplying unheated, “raw” air (hence the name of the process). The coal itself could be produced by first burning firewood stacked in pyramids and covered with turf. First, coal was lit, poured at the bottom of the forge or furnace, then alternate layers of ore and the same coal were loaded on top. As a result of coal combustion, gas was released - carbon monoxide, which, passing through the ore, reduced iron oxides. The cheese-making process, as a rule, did not ensure that the melting temperature of iron was reached (1528-1535 degrees Celsius), but reached a maximum of 1200 degrees, which was quite sufficient for the recovery of iron from ores. It was a kind of “melting” of iron.
Initially, the cheese-making process was carried out in pits lined with refractory clay or stones, then small ovens began to be built from stone or brick, sometimes using clay. Cheese furnaces could operate on natural draft (especially if they were built on hillsides), but with the development of metallurgy, pumping air with bellows through ceramic nozzles was increasingly used. This air entered the open pit from above, and into the furnace through a hole in the lower part of the structure.
The reduced iron was concentrated in a dough-like form at the very bottom of the furnace, forming the so-called forge crust - an iron spongy mass with inclusions of unburned charcoal and an admixture of slag. In more advanced versions of cheese-blowing furnaces, liquid slag was discharged from the hearth through a chute.
It was possible to make products from the furnace, which was removed from the furnace in a hot state, only after the preliminary removal of this slag impurity and the elimination of porosity. Therefore, a direct continuation of the cheese-making process was the hot forging of the forge, which consisted of periodically heating it to “bright white heat” (1400-1450 degrees) and forging it with a percussion tool. The result was a denser mass of metal - the kritsa itself, from which semi-finished products and blanks for the corresponding forge products were made through further forging. Even before processing into a semi-finished product, the kritsa could become a unit of exchange, for which it was given standard size, mass and shape convenient for storage and transportation - flat-cake, spindle-shaped, bipyramidal, striped. For the same purposes, the semi-finished products themselves could be shaped into tools and weapons.
The discovery of the cheese-making process could have occurred as a result of the smelting of copper or lead from ores into a smelting furnace in addition to copper ore and charcoal were loaded (as materials for removing “waste rock”) iron-containing rocks, primarily hematite. In this regard, as a result of the copper smelting process, the first particles of iron could accidentally appear. It is possible that the corresponding furnaces could serve as a prototype for cheese furnaces.
Tools and products of the cheese-blowing and forging process:
1-9 - kritsy 10-13 - semi-finished products in the form of an adze, axes and a knife; 14 - stone pestle for crushing ore; 15 - ceramic nozzle for supplying air to the cheese-blowing oven.
The finds of the earliest cheese-making ovens are associated with the territories of Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is no coincidence that the most ancient products made of ore iron originate from these regions.
This is a dagger blade from Tell Ashmar (2800 BC) and a dagger with a gold-lined hilt from the above-mentioned tomb of the Aladzha Heyuk burial ground (2400-2100 BC), the iron blade of which, for a long time considered meteorite, spectrographic analysis revealed an extremely low nickel content, which speaks in favor of its ore or mixed nature (a combination of meteorite and ore raw materials).
On the territory of the former USSR, experiments on the production of cryogenic iron took place most intensively in Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region.
Such early ore-based iron products as a knife from the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC have reached us. from a burial of the catacomb culture near the village. Gerasimovka (Belgorod region), knife and awl from the third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. from the Srubna culture settlements Lyubovka (Kharkov region) and Tatshgyk (Nikolaev region). The discovery of the cheese-blowing process is the most important step in the development of iron by mankind, because while meteorite iron is relatively rare, iron ores are much more widespread than copper and tin ores. At the same time, iron ores often lie very shallow; In some areas, such as the Forest of Dean in the UK or Krivoy Rog in the Ukraine, iron ore could be mined by surface mining. Swamp iron ores are widespread, especially in the northern regions of the temperate climate zone, as well as turf ores, meadow ores, etc.
The cheese-blowing process was constantly developing: the volume of furnaces increased, the blast was improved, etc. However, items made from cast iron were not hard enough until a method for producing steel (an alloy of iron and carbon) was discovered and until they achieved an increase in the hardness and strength of steel products through special heat treatment.
Initially, cementation was mastered - the deliberate carburization of iron. As such, carburization, but accidental, unintentional, leading to the appearance of so-called raw steel, could have occurred earlier during the cheese-blowing process. But then this process became regulated and was carried out separately from the cheese-making process. At first, cementation was carried out by heating an iron product or workpiece for many hours to “red heat” (750-900 degrees) in a wood or bone environment; then they began to use other organic substances containing carbon. In this case, the depth of carburization was directly proportional to the temperature height and duration of heating of the iron. With increasing carbon content, the hardness of the metal increased.
The hardening method was also aimed at increasing hardness, which consisted of sharply cooling a steel object preheated to “red heat” in water, snow, olive oil or some other liquid.
Most likely, the hardening process, like carburization, was discovered by accident, and its physical essence, naturally, remained a mystery to the ancient blacksmiths, which is why we often encounter in written sources very fantastic explanations of the reasons for the increase in the hardness of iron products during hardening. For example, the chronicle of the 9th century. BC. from the temple of Balgala in Asia Minor prescribes the following method of hardening: “It is necessary to heat the dagger until it glows like the sun rising in the desert, then cool it to the color of royal purple, immersing it in the body of a muscular slave... The strength of the slave, passing into the dagger... imparts to the metal hardness". The famous fragment from the Odyssey, probably created in the 8th century, dates back to an equally ancient time. BC: here the burning out of the Cyclops’ eye with the “hot point” of an olive stake (“Odyssey”, Canto IX, pp. 375-395. Translated by V.A. Zhukovsky) is compared to a blacksmith immersing a red-hot steel ax or poleaxe in cold water , and it is no coincidence that Homer uses the same verb to describe the hardening process that denoted medical and magical actions - obviously, the mechanisms of these phenomena were equally mysterious for the Greeks of that time
However, hardened steel had a certain brittleness. In this regard, ancient craftsmen, trying to increase the strength of a steel product, improved heat treatment; in a number of cases they used an operation opposite to hardening - thermal tempering, i.e. heating the product only to the lower threshold of “red heat”, at which the structure is transformed - to a temperature not exceeding 727 degrees. As a result, the hardness decreased somewhat, but the strength of the product increased.
In general, mastering the operations of carburization and heat treatment is a long and very complex process. Most researchers believe that the area where the earliest discovery of these operations (as well as the cheese-making process itself) and where their improvement was most rapid was Asia Minor, and above all the area inhabited by the Hittites and the tribes associated with them, especially the Antitaurus Mountains, where already in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. made high-quality steel products.
It was the improvement of the technology of processing critical iron and the production of steel that finally solved the problem of competition between iron and bronze. Along with this, the widespread occurrence and comparative ease of mining of iron ores played a significant role in the change from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
In addition, for some regions of the ecumene, devoid of deposits of non-ferrous metal ores, an additional factor in the development of ferrous metallurgy was the fact that, for various reasons, the traditional connections of these regions with ore sources that provided non-ferrous metallurgy, turned out to be torn.
THE ADVANCE OF THE IRON AGE: CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROCESS, MAIN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONSEQUENCES
The advanced region in the development of iron, where the Iron Age began in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC, was, as already mentioned, Asia Minor (the region of the Hittite kingdom), as well as the Eastern Mediterranean and Transcaucasia, closely connected with it.
It is no coincidence that the first indisputable written evidence of the production and use of red iron and steel came to us precisely from texts that were in one way or another connected with the Hittites.
From the texts of their predecessors, the Hutts, translated by the Hittites, it follows that the Hutts already knew iron well, which had more of a cult-ritual value for them than an everyday value. However, in these Hattian and ancient Hittite texts (“Anitta’s text” of the 18th century BC) we can talk about products made of meteorite rather than ore iron.
The earliest undoubted written references to products made of ore (“brick”) iron appear in Hittite cuneiform tablets of the 15th-13th centuries. BC, in particular in the message of the Hittite king to Pharaoh Ramses II (late XIV - early XIII centuries BC) with a message about sending the latter a ship loaded with iron. These are also cuneiform tablets from the kingdom of Mitanni, neighboring the Hittites, addressed to the Egyptians and therefore included in the famous “Amarna Archives” of the second half of the 15th - early 14th centuries. BC. - correspondence between the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty and the rulers of the countries of Western Asia. It is noteworthy that in the Hittite message to the Assyrian king of the 13th century. BC. the term “good iron” appears, meaning steel. All this is confirmed by the finds of a significant amount of ore-based iron products at the monuments of the New Hittite kingdom of the 14th-12th centuries. BC, as well as steel products in Palestine already in the 12th century. BC. and in Cyprus in the 10th century. BC.
Under the influence of Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The Iron Age begins in Mesopotamia and Iran.
Thus, during excavations of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II in Khorsabad (the last quarter of the 8th century BC), about 160 tons of iron were discovered, mainly in the form of bipyramidal and spindle-shaped commodity krits, probably offerings from subject territories.
From Iran, ferrous metallurgy spread to India, where the Iron Age dates back to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. There is a sufficient amount of written evidence about the development of iron in India (both Indian, starting with the Rig Veda, and later non-Indian, in particular ancient Greek).
Under the influence of Iran and India in the 8th century. BC. The Iron Age begins in Central Asia. To the north, in the steppes of Asia, the Iron Age begins no earlier than the 6th-5th centuries. BC.
In China, the development of ferrous metallurgy proceeded rather separately. Due to the highest level of local bronze foundry production, which provided China with high-quality metal products, the era
iron begins here no earlier than the middle of the 1st millennium BC. At the same time, written sources (“Shijing” of the 8th century BC, comments on Confucius of the 6th century BC) record an earlier acquaintance of the Chinese with iron. And yet for the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Excavations have revealed only a small number of iron ore objects of Chinese origin. A significant increase in the quantity, range and area of local iron and steel products began here precisely from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Moreover, already in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. Chinese craftsmen became the first in the world to purposefully produce cast iron (an alloy based on iron with a higher carbon content than steel) and, using its fusibility, to produce most products not by forging, but by casting.
Researchers admit that cast iron, like iron, could initially have been formed accidentally when copper was smelted from ores in a smelting furnace under certain conditions. And although this phenomenon probably did not occur only in China, only this ancient civilization, based on relevant observations, came to the deliberate production of cast iron. Following this, according to a number of scientists, in ancient China the practice of producing malleable iron and steel first arose by reducing the carbon content of cast iron, heated and left to cool. outdoors. At the same time, steel in China was also produced by carburizing iron.
In Korea, the Iron Age began in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, and in Japan - in the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC. In Indochina and Indonesia, the Iron Age begins at the turn of the era.
Turning to Europe, we note that ironmaking skills spread through the Greek cities of Asia Minor at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. to the Aegean Islands and European Greece, where the Iron Age begins around the 10th century. BC. Since this time, commercial krits - spindle-shaped and in the form of rods - have been spreading in Greece, and the dead are buried, as a rule, with iron swords. By the end of the 6th century. BC. Ancient Greek craftsmen already used such important iron tools as articulated tongs, a bow saw, and by the end of the 4th century. BC. - iron spring scissors and a hinged compass. The development of iron is also clearly reflected in ancient Greek texts: for example, in the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer mentions various products from iron, and the operation of hardening steel; Hesiod in his Theogony metaphorically characterizes the simplest method of extracting iron from ores in a pit; Aristotle in Meteorology briefly describes the cheese-blowing process and the deliberate production of steel.
In the rest of Europe outside the Greek civilization, the Iron Age begins later: in Western and Central Europe - in the 8th-7th centuries. BC, in Southwestern Europe - in the 7th-6th centuries. BC, in Britain - in the V-IV centuries. BC, in Northern Europe - at the turn of the era.
Moving on to Eastern Europe, it should be noted that in those regions that were leaders in metallurgical terms - in the Northern Black Sea region, the Northern Caucasus and the Volga-Kama region - the period of primary development of iron ended in the 9th-8th centuries. BC, which manifested itself in the spread of bimetallic objects, in particular daggers and swords, the handles of which were cast from bronze according to individual models, and the blades were made of iron. They became the prototypes for subsequent all-iron daggers and swords. During the same period, along with the Eastern European tradition based on the use of iron and raw steel, products produced within the framework of the Transcaucasian tradition, which involved the deliberate production of steel (cementation of an iron product or workpiece), penetrated into these regions.
And yet, a significant quantitative increase in iron products in Eastern Europe is associated with the 8th-7th centuries. BC, when the Iron Age actually begins here. The technology for manufacturing the first ore-based iron products, previously limited to the operations of primitive hot forging and simple forge welding, was now enriched with the skills of form forging (using special crimpers and dies) and forge welding of several plates overlapping or folded together.
The leading areas of iron processing during this period in the territory of the former USSR were the Ciscaucasia and Transcaucasia, the forest-steppe Dnieper region and the Volga-Kama region. The gradual beginning of the Iron Age in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe, excluding deep taiga and tundra territories, can also be attributed to this time.
On the territory of the Urals and Siberia, the Iron Age begins first in the steppe, forest-steppe and mountain-forest regions - within the so-called Scythian-Siberian cultural-historical region and in the zone of the Itkul culture. In the taiga regions of Siberia and the Far East in the middle - second half of the 1st millennium BC. The Bronze Age is actually still ongoing, but the corresponding monuments are closely interconnected with the cultures of the early Iron Age (excluding the northern part of the taiga and tundra).
In Africa, the Iron Age was first established in the area of the Mediterranean coast (in the 6th century BC), and primarily in Egypt - during the 26th dynasty (663-525 BC); however, there is an opinion that the Iron Age in Egypt began in the 9th century. BC. In addition, in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The Iron Age begins in Nubia and Sudan (Meroitic, or Kushite, kingdom), as well as in a number of areas of Western and Central Africa (in particular, in the zone of the so-called Nok culture in Nigeria), at the turn of eras - in East Africa, closer to the middle 1st millennium AD - in South Africa.
Finally, no earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD, with the arrival of Europeans, the Iron Age began in most of the rest of Africa, as well as in America, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
This is the approximate chronology of the onset of the Iron Age in various parts ecumene. The final boundary of the Early Iron Age and, accordingly, the beginning of the Late Iron Age are usually conventionally associated with the collapse ancient civilization and the advent of the Middle Ages.
There are other versions on this matter. Thus, in Western European and domestic archeology back in XIX - early XX century there was a concept of the Middle Iron Age as a transitional period from early to late, and the line between the early and middle Iron Ages was synchronized with the turn of eras and was largely determined by the spread of provincial Roman culture in Western Europe. Although the concept of the "Middle Iron Age" has since fallen into disuse, there is still a tradition in Western European scholarship of leaving the Early Iron Age outside the Common Era.
There are different opinions regarding the end of the Iron Age. It is assumed that this era lasted until the industrial revolution or even continues to this day, because even now iron-based alloys - steel and cast iron - are one of the main structural materials.
With the advent of the Iron Age, agriculture improved, because the use of iron tools made it easier to cultivate the land, made it possible to clear large forest areas for crops, and develop an irrigation system. The processing of wood and stone is improving, as a result of which the construction industry is developing; The extraction of copper ore is also easier. The use of iron leads to the improvement of offensive and defensive weapons, horse equipment, and wheeled vehicles. The development of production and transport leads to the expansion of trade relations, as a result of which coinage appears. In many pre-class societies, social inequality is increasing, and as a result, new centers of statehood are emerging. These are the most significant changes in the world historical and cultural situation associated with the development of iron.
IRON AGE, an era of human history, identified on the basis of archaeological data and characterized by the leading role of products made of iron and its derivatives (cast iron and steel). As a rule, the Iron Age replaced the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Iron Age in different regions dates back to different times, and the dating of this process is approximate. An indicator of the beginning of the Iron Age is the regular use of ore iron for the manufacture of tools and weapons, the spread of ferrous metallurgy and blacksmithing; the massive use of iron products signifies a special stage of development already within the Iron Age, in some cultures separated from the beginning of the Iron Age by several centuries. The end of the Iron Age is often considered the onset of the technological era associated with the industrial revolution, or it is extended until modern times.
The widespread introduction of iron made it possible to produce mass series of labor tools, which was reflected in the improvement and further spread of agriculture (especially in forest areas, on difficult-to-cultivate soils, etc.), progress in construction, crafts (in particular, saws appeared, files, hinged tools, etc.), mining of metals and other raw materials, manufacturing of wheeled vehicles, etc. The development of production and transport led to the expansion of trade and the appearance of coins. The use of massive iron weapons had a significant impact on progress in military affairs. In many societies, all this contributed to the decomposition of primitive relations, the emergence of statehood, and inclusion in the circle of civilizations, the oldest of which are much older than the Iron Age and had a level of development that surpassed many societies of the Iron Age period.
There are early and late Iron Ages. For many cultures, primarily European, the border between them is usually attributed to the era of the collapse of ancient civilization and the onset of the Middle Ages; a number of archaeologists correlate the end of the Early Iron Age with the beginning of the influence of Roman culture on many peoples of Europe in the 1st century BC - 1st century AD. In addition, different regions have their own internal periodization of the Iron Age.
The concept of “Iron Age” is used primarily for the study of primitive societies. Processes associated with the formation and development of statehood, the formation of modern peoples, as a rule, are considered not so much within the framework of archaeological cultures and “centuries”, but in the context of the history of the corresponding states and ethnic groups. It is with them that many archaeological cultures of the late Iron Age correlate
Distribution of ferrous metallurgy and metalworking. The most ancient center of iron metallurgy was the region of Asia Minor, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Transcaucasia (2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC). Evidence of the widespread use of iron appears in texts from the mid-2nd millennium. The message of the Hittite king to Pharaoh Ramesses II with a message about the dispatch of a ship loaded with iron (late 14th - early 13th century) is indicative. A significant number of iron products were found at archaeological sites of the 14-12th century of the New Hittite Kingdom; steel has been known in Palestine since the 12th century, in Cyprus - since the 10th century. One of the oldest finds of a metallurgical forge dates back to the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia (Kvemo-Bolnisi, the territory of modern Georgia), slag - in the layers of the archaic period of Miletus. At the turn of the 2nd - 1st millennia, the Iron Age began in Mesopotamia and Iran; Thus, during excavations of the palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad (4th quarter of the 8th century), about 160 tons of iron were discovered, mainly in the form of krits (probably tribute from subject territories). Perhaps from Iran at the beginning of the 1st millennium, ferrous metallurgy spread to India (where the widespread use of iron dates back to the 8th or 7th/6th centuries), and in the 8th century to Central Asia. In the steppes of Asia, iron became widespread no earlier than the 6th/5th century.
Through the Greek cities of Asia Minor, ironworking skills spread at the end of the 2nd millennium to the Aegean Islands and around the 10th century to mainland Greece, where trade krits and iron swords in burials have been known since that time. In Western and Central Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th-7th centuries, in Southwestern Europe - in the 7th-6th centuries, in Britain - in the 5th-4th centuries, in Scandinavia - actually at the turn of eras.
In the Northern Black Sea region, the Northern Caucasus and the southern taiga Volga-Kama region, the period of primary iron development ended in the 9th-8th centuries; Along with things made in the local tradition, products created in the Transcaucasian tradition of steel production (cementation) are known here. The beginning of the Iron Age proper in the regions of Eastern Europe indicated and influenced by them dates back to the 8th-7th centuries. Then the number of iron objects increased significantly, the methods of their production were enriched with the skills of molding forging (with the help of special crimpers and dies), lap welding and the stacking method. In the Urals and Siberia, the Iron Age came earliest (by the middle of the 1st millennium BC) in the steppe, forest-steppe and mountain forest regions. In the taiga and the Far East and in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC, the Bronze Age actually continued, but the population was closely related to the Iron Age cultures (excluding the northern part of the taiga and the tundra).
In China, the development of ferrous metallurgy proceeded separately. Due to the high level of bronze foundry production, the Iron Age did not begin here until the mid-1st millennium BC, although iron ore was known long before that. Chinese craftsmen were the first to begin purposefully producing cast iron and, using its fusibility, produced many products not by forging, but by casting. In China, the practice of producing malleable iron from cast iron by reducing the carbon content arose. In Korea, the Iron Age began in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC, in Japan - around the 3rd-2nd century, in Indochina and Indonesia - at the turn of the era or a little later.
In Africa, the Iron Age was established first in the Mediterranean (by the 6th century). In the middle of the 1st millennium BC it began in Nubia and Sudan, in several areas of West Africa; in the East - at the turn of eras; in the South - closer to the middle of the 1st millennium AD. In several areas of Africa, America, Australia and the Pacific Islands, the Iron Age began with the arrival of Europeans.
The most important cultures of the early Iron Age beyond civilizations
Due to the widespread use and relative ease of mining iron ores, bronze foundry centers gradually lost their monopoly on metal production. Many previously backward regions began to catch up with the old ones in terms of technological and socio-economic level cultural centers. The zoning of the ecumene changed accordingly. If for the early metal era an important culture-forming factor was belonging to a metallurgical province or to a zone of its influence, then in the Iron Age the role of ethnolinguistic, economic, cultural and other ties intensified in the formation of cultural and historical communities. The widespread distribution of effective iron weapons contributed to the involvement of many communities in predatory and conquest wars, accompanied by mass migrations. All this led to fundamental changes in the ethnocultural and military-political landscape.
In some cases, based on linguistic data and written sources, we can talk about the dominance within certain cultural and historical communities of the Iron Age of one or a group of peoples with similar languages, sometimes even linking a group of archaeological sites with a specific people. However, written sources for many regions are scarce or absent, and not for all communities it is possible to obtain data that allows them to be correlated with the linguistic classification of peoples. It should be borne in mind that the speakers of many languages, perhaps even entire families of languages, did not leave direct linguistic descendants, and therefore their relationship to known ethnolinguistic communities is hypothetical.
Southern, Western, Central Europe and the southern Baltic region. After the collapse of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, the beginning of the Iron Age in Ancient Greece coincided with the temporary decline of the “Dark Ages”. Subsequently, the widespread introduction of iron contributed to a new rise in the economy and society, leading to the formation of ancient civilization. On the territory of Italy, at the beginning of the Iron Age, many archaeological cultures are distinguished (some of them formed in the Bronze Age); in the north-west - Golasecca, correlated with part of the Ligurians; in the middle reaches of the Po River - Terramar, in the northeast - Este, comparable to the Veneti; in the northern and central parts of the Apennine Peninsula - Villanova and others, in Campania and Calabria - “pit burials”, the monuments of Apulia are associated with the Mesans (close to the Illyrians). In Sicily the culture of Pantalica and others is known, in Sardinia and Corsica - Nuraghe.
On the Iberian Peninsula there were large centers for the extraction of non-ferrous metals, which led to the long-term predominance of bronze products (Tartessus culture, etc.). In the early Iron Age, waves of migrations of different nature and intensity were recorded here, and monuments appeared that reflected local and introduced traditions. Based on some of these traditions, the culture of the Iberian tribes was formed. The originality of traditions was preserved to the greatest extent in the Atlantic regions (“fortification culture”, etc.).
The development of Mediterranean cultures was strongly influenced by Phoenician and Greek colonization, the flowering of culture and expansion of the Etruscans, and the invasions of the Celts; later the Mediterranean Sea became internal to the Roman Empire (see Ancient Rome).
In large parts of Western and Central Europe, the transition to the Iron Age took place during the Hallstatt era. The Hallstatt cultural area is divided into many cultures and cultural groups. Some of them in the eastern zone are correlated with groups of Illyrians, in the western zone - with the Celts. In one of the regions of the western zone, the La Tène culture was formed, which then spread over a vast territory during the expansion and influence of the Celts. Their achievements in metallurgy and metalworking, borrowed from the northern and eastern neighbors, determined the dominance of iron products. The La Tène era defines a special period of European history (about 5-1 centuries BC), its finale is associated with the expansion of Rome (for the territories north of the La Tène culture, this era is also called “pre-Roman”, “early Iron Age”, etc. ).
A sword in a sheath with an anthropomorphic hilt. Iron, bronze. La Tène culture (2nd half of the 1st millennium BC). Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).
In the Balkans, east of the Illyrians, and north to the Dniester, there were cultures associated with the Thracians (their influence reached the Dnieper, the Northern Black Sea region, up to the Bosporan state). To designate the community of these cultures at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, the term “Thracian Hallstatt” is used. Around the middle of the 1st millennium BC, the originality of the “Thracian” cultures of the northern zone intensified, where associations of the Getae, then the Dacians formed; in the southern zone, the Thracian tribes came into close contact with the Greeks, who were moving here in groups of Scythians, Celts, etc., and then were annexed to the Roman Empire.
At the end of the Bronze Age in Southern Scandinavia and partly to the south, a decline in culture was recorded, and a new rise was associated with the spread and widespread use of iron. Many Iron Age cultures north of the Celts cannot be correlated with known groups of peoples; It is more reliable to compare the formation of the Germans or a significant part of them with the Jastorf culture. To the east of its area and the upper reaches of the Elbe to the Vistula basin, the transition to the Iron Age took place within the framework of the Lusatian culture, in the later stages of which the originality of local groups intensified. On the basis of one of them, the Pomeranian culture was formed, which spread in the middle of the 1st millennium BC to large parts of the Lusatian area. Towards the end of the La Tène era, the Oksyw culture was formed in Polish Pomerania, and to the south - the Przeworsk culture. In the new era (within the 1st-4th centuries AD), called the “Roman Imperial”, “provincial Roman influences”, etc., to the northeast of the borders of the Empire, various associations of Germans became the leading force.
From the Masurian Lake District, parts of Mazovia and Podlasie to the lower reaches of the Pregolia, the so-called Western Baltic mound culture is distinguished in the La Tène period. Its relationship with subsequent crops for a number of regions is controversial. In Roman times, cultures associated with peoples classified as Balts were recorded here, including the Galindas (see Bogachev culture), Sudavians (Sudins), Estii, compared with the Sambian-Natang culture, etc., but the formation of most of the known peoples of the Western and the eastern (“Summer-Lithuanian”) Balts already dates back to the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD, that is, the late Iron Age.
Steppes of Eurasia, forest zone and tundra of Eastern Europe and Siberia. By the beginning of the Iron Age, nomadic cattle breeding had developed in the steppe belt of Eurasia, stretching from the Middle Danube to Mongolia. Mobility and organization, along with the mass availability of effective (including iron) weapons and equipment, became the reason for the military-political significance of nomadic associations, which often extended power to neighboring settled tribes and were a serious threat to states from the Mediterranean to the Far East.
The European steppes from the middle or late 9th to the early 7th century BC were dominated by a community with which, according to some researchers, the Cimmerians are associated. The forest-steppe tribes (Chernolesskaya culture, Bondarikha culture, etc.) were in close contact with it.
By the 7th century BC, from the Danube region to Mongolia, the “Scythian-Siberian world” was formed, within which the Scythian archaeological culture, the Sauromatian archaeological culture, the Sako-Massaget culture circle, the Pazyryk culture, the Uyuk culture, the Tagar culture (the only one that preserved the production of high-quality bronze items) and others, to varying degrees correlated with the Scythians and the peoples of “Herodotus” Scythia, Sauromatians, Sakas, Massagetae, Yuezhi, Wusuns, etc. Representatives of this community were predominantly Caucasians, probably a significant part of them spoke Iranian languages.
In close contact with the “Cimmerian” and “Scythian” communities were the tribes of the Crimea and the population of the North Caucasus and the southern taiga Volga-Kama region, distinguished by a high level of metalworking (Kizilkoba culture, Meotian archaeological culture, Koban culture, Ananyin culture). The influence of the “Cimmerian” and Scythian cultures on the population of the Middle and Lower Danube region is significant. Therefore, the distinguished “Cimmerian” (aka “Pre-Scythian”) and “Scythian” eras are used in the study of not only steppe cultures.
Iron arrowhead inlaid with gold and silver, from the Arzhan-2 mound (Tuva). 7th century BC. Hermitage (St. Petersburg).
In the 4th-3rd centuries BC in the steppes of Europe, Kazakhstan and the Southern Trans-Urals, the Scythian and Sauromatian ones were replaced by Sarmatian archaeological cultures, defining the era, divided into early, middle, late periods and lasting until the 4th century AD. A significant influence of Sarmatian cultures can be traced in the North Caucasus, which reflects both the resettlement of part of the steppe population and the transformation of local cultures under its influence. The Sarmatians penetrated far into the forest-steppe regions - from the Dnieper region to Northern Kazakhstan, contacting the local population in various forms. Large stationary settlements and craft centers east of the Middle Danube are associated with the Sarmatians of the Alföld. Partly continuing the traditions of the previous era, largely Sarmatized and Hellenized, the so-called Late Scythian culture was preserved in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and in the Crimea, where a kingdom arose with its capital in Scythian Naples; part of the Scythians, according to written sources, concentrated on the Lower Danube; A number of researchers also classify some groups of monuments in the Eastern European forest-steppe as “Late Scythian”.
IN Central Asia and Southern Siberia, the end of the era of the “Scythian-Siberian world” is associated with the rise of the Xiongnu unification at the end of the 3rd century BC under Maodun. Although it collapsed in the mid-1st century BC, the southern Xiongnu fell into the orbit of Chinese influence, and the northern Xiongnu were finally defeated by the mid-2nd century AD, the “Hun” era was extended until the mid-1st millennium AD. Monuments associated with the Xiongnu (Xiongnu) are known in a significant part of Transbaikalia (for example, the Ivolginsky archaeological complex, Ilmovaya Pad), Mongolia, and steppe Manchuria and indicate the complex ethnocultural composition of this association. Along with the penetration of the Xiongnu, the development of local traditions continued in Southern Siberia [in Tuva - Shumrak culture, in Khakassia - Tesin type (or stage) and Tashtyk culture, etc.]. The ethnic and military-political history of Central Asia in the Iron Age is largely based on information from Chinese written sources. One can trace the rise of one or several associations of nomads that extended power over vast areas, their disintegration, absorption by subsequent ones, etc. (Donghu, Tabgachi, Jurans, etc.). The complexity of the composition of these associations, poor knowledge of a number of regions of Central Asia, dating difficulties, etc. make their comparison with archaeological sites still very hypothetical.
The next era in the history of the steppes of Asia and Europe is associated with the dominance of speakers of Turkic languages, the formation of the Turkic Khaganate, and other medieval military-political associations and states that replaced it.
The cultures of the settled population of the forest-steppe of Eastern Europe, the Urals, and Siberia were often included in the “Scythian-Siberian,” “Sarmatian,” “Hunnic” “worlds,” but could form cultural communities with forest tribes or form their own cultural areas.
In the forest zone of the Upper Poneman and Podvina, Dnieper and Poochye traditions of the Bronze Age, the culture of hatched ceramics continued; on the basis of predominantly local cultures, the Dnieper-Dvina culture and the Dyakovo culture were formed. In the early stages of their development, iron, although common, did not become the dominant raw material; The monuments of this circle were characterized by archaeologists as “bone-bearing fortifications” based on the massive finds of bone artifacts at the main excavation sites - fortifications. The massive use of iron here begins around the end of the 1st millennium BC, when changes occur in other areas of culture and migrations are noted. Therefore, for example, in relation to the Hatched Pottery and Dyakovo cultures, researchers distinguish the corresponding “early” and “late” cultures as different formations.
In origin and appearance, the early Dyakovo culture is close to the Gorodets culture adjacent to the east. By the turn of the era, there is a significant expansion of its range to the south and north, to the taiga regions of the Vetluga River. Around the turn of the era, the population moved into its range from beyond the Volga; From Sura to Ryazan Poochye, cultural groups associated with the tradition of St. Andrew's Kurgan are formed. On their basis, the cultures of the late Iron Age, associated with the speakers of the Finno-Volgian languages, developed.
The southern zone of the forest Dnieper region was occupied by the Milograd culture and the Yukhnov culture, in which a significant influence of the Scythian culture and La Tene can be traced. Several waves of migrations from the Vistula-Oder region led to the appearance of the Pomeranian and Przeworsk cultures in Volyn, and the formation of the Zarubintsy culture in most of the south of the forest and forest-steppe Dnieper region. It, along with the Oksyw, Przeworsk, Pojanesti-Lukashevo culture, is singled out in the circle of “Latenized” ones, noting the special influence of the Laten culture. In the 1st century AD, the Zarubintsy culture experienced a collapse, but on the basis of its traditions, with the participation of the more northern population, monuments of the late Zarubintsy horizon were formed, which formed the basis of the Kyiv culture, which determined the cultural appearance of the forest and part of the forest-steppe Dnieper region in the 3-4 centuries AD. Based on the Volyn monuments of the Przeworsk culture, the Zubretsk culture was formed in the 1st century AD.
Researchers associate the formation of the Slavs with cultures that adopted the components of the Pomeranian culture, primarily along the so-called Zarubinets line.
In the middle of the 3rd century AD, the Chernyakhov culture developed from the Lower Danube to the Seversky Donets, in which the Wielbar culture played a significant role, the spread of which to the southeast is associated with the migrations of the Goths and Gepids. The collapse of socio-political structures correlated with the Chernyakhov culture under the blows of the Huns at the end of the 4th century AD marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Europe - the Great Migration.
In northeastern Europe, the beginning of the Iron Age is associated with the Ananyino cultural and historical region. In the territory of northwestern Russia and part of Finland, cultures are widespread in which the components of Ananyino and textile ceramics cultures are intertwined with local ones (Luukonsari-Kudoma, late Kargopol culture, late White Sea culture, etc.). In the basins of the Pechora, Vychegda, Mezen, and Northern Dvina rivers, monuments appeared in the ceramics of which the development of the comb ornamental tradition associated with the Lebyazh culture continued, while new ornamental motifs indicate interaction with the Kama and Trans-Ural population groups.
By the 3rd century BC, on the basis of the Ananino culture, the communities of the Pyanobor culture and the Glyadenovo culture took shape (see Glyadenovo). A number of researchers consider the middle of the 1st millennium AD to be the upper limit of the cultures of the Pyanobor circle, others identify the Mazunin culture, the Azelin culture, etc. for the 3rd-5th centuries. A new stage historical development associated with a number of migrations, including the appearance of monuments of the Kharino circle, which led to the formation of medieval cultures associated with speakers of modern Permian languages.
In the mountain forest and taiga regions of the Urals and Western Siberia in the early Iron Age, the cross ceramics culture, the Itkul culture, the comb-pit ceramics culture of the West Siberian circle, the Ust-Poluy culture, the Kulai culture, the Beloyarsk, Novochekinsk, Bogochanovsk, etc. were widespread; in the 4th century BC, the focus on non-ferrous metalworking remained here (a center was associated with the Itkul culture, supplying many areas, including the steppe, with raw materials and copper products); in some cultures, the spread of ferrous metallurgy dates back to the 3rd third of the 1st century millennium BC. This cultural circle is associated with the ancestors of the speakers of part of the modern Ugric languages and Samoyed languages.
Iron items from the Barsovsky III burial ground (Surgut Ob region). 6-2/1 centuries BC (according to V. A. Borzunov, Yu. P. Chemyakin).
To the south was the region of forest-steppe cultures of Western Siberia, the northern periphery of the world of nomads, associated with the southern branch of the Ugrians (Vorobievskaya and Nosilovsko-Baitovskaya cultures; they were replaced by the Sargatskaya culture, Gorokhovskaya culture). In the forest-steppe Ob region in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC, the Kizhirovskaya, Staroaleiskaya, Kamenskaya cultures spread, which are sometimes combined into one community. Part of the forest-steppe population was involved in migrations in the mid-1st millennium AD, while another part moved north along the Irtysh (Potchevash culture). Along the Ob River to the south, all the way to Altai, the Kulai culture (Upper Ob culture) spread. The remaining population, associated with the traditions of the Sargat and Kamensk cultures, was Turkified during the Middle Ages.
In the forest cultures of Eastern Siberia (late Ymyyakhtakh culture, Pyasinskaya, Tsepanskaya, Ust-Milskaya, etc.), bronze products are few in number, mostly imported; iron processing appears no earlier than the end of the 1st millennium BC from the Amur region and Primorye. These cultures were left behind by mobile groups of hunters and fishermen - the ancestors of the Yukaghirs, the northern part of the Tungus-Manchu peoples, the Chukchi, the Koryaks, etc.
Eastern regions of Asia. In the cultures of the Russian Far East, northeast China and Korea, the Bronze Age is not as pronounced as in Siberia or in more southern regions, but already at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennia BC, the development of iron began here within the framework of the Uril culture and Yankovskaya culture, and then the Talakan, Olginskaya, Poltsevskaya culture and other cultures close to them from the territory of China (Wanyanhe, Guntulin, Fenglin) and Korea. Some of these cultures are associated with the ancestors of the southern part of the Tungus-Manchu peoples. More northern monuments (Lakhta, Okhotsk, Ust-Belsk and other cultures) are branches of the Ymyyakhtakh culture, which in the middle of the 1st millennium BC reached Chukotka and, interacting with the Paleo-Eskimos, participated in the formation of the ancient Bering Sea culture. The presence of iron incisors is evidenced, first of all, by the rotating tips of bone harpoons made with their help.
On the territory of Korea, the manufacture of tools from stone prevailed throughout the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age; metal was used mainly to make weapons, some types of jewelry, etc. The spread of iron dates back to the middle of the 1st millennium BC, when the Joseon unification took shape here; the later history of these cultures is connected with the Chinese conquests, the formation and development of local states (Koguryo, etc.). On the Japanese Islands, iron appeared and became widespread during the development of the Yayoi culture, within which, in the 2nd century AD, tribal unions, and then the state formation of Yamato. IN South-East Asia The beginning of the Iron Age coincided with the formation of the first states.
Africa. In the Mediterranean regions, significant parts of the Nile basin, near the Red Sea, the formation of the Iron Age took place on the basis of Bronze Age cultures, within the framework of civilizations (Ancient Egypt, Meroe), in connection with the emergence of colonies from Phenicia, the rise of Carthage; by the end of the 1st millennium BC, Mediterranean Africa became part of the Roman Empire.
A feature of the development of more southern cultures is the absence of the Bronze Age. Some researchers associate the penetration of iron metallurgy south of the Sahara with the influence of Meroe. More and more arguments are being made in favor of another point of view, according to which the routes through the Sahara played an important role in this. These could be “chariot roads” reconstructed from rock carvings; they could pass through Fezzan, as well as where the ancient state of Ghana arose, etc. In some cases, iron production could be concentrated in specialized areas, monopolized by their residents, and blacksmiths could form closed communities; communities of different economic specializations and levels of development coexisted. All this, as well as the poor archaeological knowledge of the continent, make our idea of the development of the Iron Age here very hypothetical.
In West Africa, the oldest evidence of the production of iron products (2nd half of the 1st millennium BC) is associated with the Nok culture, its relationship with synchronous and later cultures is largely unclear, but no later than the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD iron was known throughout West Africa. However, even on monuments associated with state entities the end of the 1st millennium - the 1st half of the 2nd millennium AD (Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Benin, etc.), there are few iron products; during the colonial period it was one of the imported items.
On the east coast of Africa, the Azanian cultures date back to the Iron Age, and there is evidence of iron imports for them. An important stage in the history of the region is associated with the development of trading settlements with the participation of people from southwest Asia, primarily Muslims (such as Kilwa, Mogadishu, etc.); iron production centers are known for this time from written and archaeological sources.
In the Congo Basin, the interior of East Africa and further south, the spread of iron is associated with cultures belonging to the tradition of “pottery with a concave bottom” (“a hole in the bottom”, etc.) and traditions close to it. The beginning of metallurgy in certain places of these regions is attributed to different segments of the 1st half (no later than the middle) of the 1st millennium AD. Migrants from these lands probably brought iron to South Africa for the first time. A number of emerging “empires” in the Zambezi and Congo river basins (Zimbabwe, Kitara, etc.) were associated with the export of gold, Ivory and etc.
A new stage in the history of sub-Saharan Africa is associated with the emergence of European colonies.
Lit.: Mongait A.L. Archeology of Western Europe. M., 1973-1974. Book 1-2; Coghlan N. N. Notes on prehistoric and early iron in the Old World. Oxf., 1977; Waldbaum J. S. From bronze to iron. Gott., 1978; The coming of the age of iron. New Haven; L., 1980; Iron Age Africa. M., 1982; Archeology of Foreign Asia. M., 1986; Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian period. M., 1989; Tylecote R. F. A history of metallurgy. 2nd ed. L., 1992; The steppe strip of the Asian part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian time. M., 1992; Shchukin M. B. At the turn of the era. St. Petersburg, 1994; Essays on the history of ancient ironworking in Eastern Europe. M., 1997; Collis J. The European Iron age. 2nd ed. L., 1998; Yalcin Ü. Early iron metallurgy in Anatolia // Anatolian Studies. 1999. Vol. 49; Kantorovich A.R., Kuzminykh S.V. Early Iron Age // BRE. M., 2004. T.: Russia; Troitskaya T.N., Novikov A.V. Archeology of the West Siberian Plain. Novosibirsk, 2004; Russian Far East in antiquity and the Middle Ages; discoveries, problems, hypotheses. Vladivostok, 2005; Kuzminykh S.V. Final Bronze and Early Iron Age of the North of European Russia // II Northern Archaeological Congress. Ekaterinburg; Khanty-Mansiysk, 2006; Archeology. M., 2006; Koryakova L. N., Epimakhov A. E. The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron ages. Camb., 2007.
I. O. Gavritukhin, A. R. Kantorovich, S. V. Kuzminykh.
The Iron Age is a period of time in human history when iron metallurgy arose and began to actively develop. The Iron Age came immediately after and lasted from 1200 BC. to 340 AD
Processing for ancient people became the first type of metallurgy after. It is believed that the discovery of the properties of copper occurred by accident when people mistook it for a stone, tried to process it and got an incredible result. After the Copper Age came the Bronze Age, when copper began to be mixed with tin and thus obtain a new material for the manufacture of tools, hunting, jewelry, and so on. After the Bronze Age came the Iron Age, when people learned to mine and process materials such as iron. During this period, there was a noticeable increase in the production of iron tools. Independent iron smelting is spreading among the tribes of Europe and Asia.
Iron products are found much earlier than the Iron Age, but previously they were used very rarely. The first finds date back to the VI-IV millennium BC. e. Found in Iran, Iraq and Egypt. Iron products that date back to the 3rd millennium BC were found in Mesopotamia, the Southern Urals, and Southern Siberia. At this time, iron was predominantly meteorite, but it was in very small quantities, and it was intended mainly for the creation of luxury goods and ritual objects. The use of products made from meteorite iron or by mining from ore was noticed in many regions in the territories of settlement of ancient people, but before the beginning of the Iron Age (1200 BC) the spread of this material it was very poor.
Why did ancient people use iron instead of bronze in the Iron Age? Bronze is a harder and more durable metal, but is inferior to iron in that it is brittle. In terms of fragility, iron clearly wins, but people had great difficulty processing iron. The fact is that iron melts at much higher temperatures than copper, tin and bronze. Because of this, special furnaces were needed where suitable conditions for melting could be created. Moreover, iron in its pure form is quite rare, and to obtain it requires preliminary smelting from ore, which is a rather labor-intensive task that requires certain knowledge. Because of this, iron was not popular for a long time. Historians believe that iron processing became a necessity for ancient man, and people began to use it instead of bronze due to the depletion of tin reserves. Due to the fact that active mining of copper and tin began during the Bronze Age, deposits of the latter material were simply depleted. Therefore, the mining of iron ores and the development of iron metallurgy began to develop.
Even with the development of iron metallurgy, bronze metallurgy continued to be very popular due to the fact that this material is easier to process and its products are harder. Bronze began to be replaced when man came up with the idea of creating steel (alloys of iron and carbon), which is much harder than iron and bronze and has elasticity.
Make your home convenient and comfortable with SantehShop products. Here you can choose and purchase a shower drain for your bathtub, as well as other products. High quality sanitary ware from world famous manufacturers.
Loading...