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The coming of the iron age brought fundamental change in human civilization. Iron was known to civilized society during the Bronze Age. In fact iron is the fourth most common element on earth, much more common than the bronze elements (copper and especiallt tin). This was because iron was formed in stars s part of the fussion process--the heaviest metal to be formed in stars. (Neiter copper or tin are formed as part of the fussion process and therefr aruch rarer. As iron is so common, People did not have to go to the end of the world to finf iron as they did for copper and especially tin. It was not, however, commonly used for millennia because it was so difficult to smelt. The basic problem was the higher smelting temperatures needed and which ancient metal workers found so difficult to achieve. 【Wildbaum】 Advances in metallurgy eventually enabled iron weapons and tools tools to be fashioned. Iron gradually replaced bronze over a broad time-line (about 1100-500 BC). This occurred as metallurgical technology improved. Iron may have been used at a very early period (about 3000 BC). This was because the metal was so common, but for two millennial the usage was very limited because it was so difficult to work with. The time line for the more intensive use of iron varies geographically, primarily because of varied technological capabilities. The process seems to have first developed in the Middle East and southeastern Europe (about 1200 BC). For unknown reasons it developed in China much later (about 600 BC). Suddenly metal workers as technology developed began to realize the superior chasrctristics of iron (1200-1100 BC). It is at this time that we begin to see large numbers of iron tools and weapons and the rapid spread of iron working technology. As iron was so plentiful, ancient civilizations could make far greater use of metal. Even common people could have iron implements and tools. There were immense cultural consequences. New patterns of more permanent settlement developed. And iron weapons put military arms in the hands of the masses for the first time. Until the iron age, only very wealthy societies could afford the bronze weapons needed to arm warriors. And even wealthy societies, because of the basic agricultural methods, could only afford relatively small armies. It meant that ancient civilizations were commonly dominated by a small warrior elite. It also meant that settled agrarian states while rich, because of their small armies were vulnerable to the poorer, less civilized, nomadic steppe people. Iron created a new dynamic. Much larger armies could be raised and armed. The Hitties may have been the first to do this, but no one is sure. Iron did not replace bronze over night, it was a slow process. The Assyrians were the first civiization to adopt iron on a really large scale and it was part of their enrmous and brutal success (900-600 BC). 【Pleiner and Bjorkman】 Iron weapons were part of the success of Assyrian armies overwheling smller bronzed armed enemies. Historical record note Assyrian demanding tribute in iron from conquetred vassals. Iron made ancient civilizations more secure from outside momadic invasions, but also meant that the ruling elite needed more popular domestic support which was managed in variety of ways. It is for this reason that iron is sometime called the 'democratic' metal. It made it more difficult for a small warrior elite to conquer a large settled population. It is no accident that democracy first appeared during the Iron Age--ancient Greece. Iron alo gave even relatively poor small states, like the Greeks the ability to arm themselves and stand up to the great empires--the Persians. Iron was not only used for weaponry. Iron was also used for tools like axes. This made it easier to clear lkand for grculture, expanding he land that could be cultivated. In addition this created a metal that was inexpensive enough to be used for plows which increased agricultural productivity. The inceased food prodution meang that populations increased.
Pleiner, R., and J. K. Bjorkman. The Assyrian Iron Age: The History of Iron in the Assyrian Civilization (1974).
Waldbaum, J. "The First Archaeological Appearance of Iron and the Transition to the Iron Age" in The Coming of the Iron Age (1980), pp 69-98.
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