The beginning of the Iron Age in history. Iron Age
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 came 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 more ahead of the attack 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, Southern Urals, 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.
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: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron and mercury. These metals can be called “prehistoric”, since they were used by man even before the invention of writing.
Obviously, of the seven metals, man first became acquainted with those that occur in native form in nature. These are gold, silver and copper. The remaining four metals entered human life after he learned to extract them from ores using fire.
The clock of human history began ticking faster when metals and, most importantly, their alloys entered human life. The Stone Age gave way to the Copper Age, then to the Bronze Age, and then to the Iron Age:
Lesson content lesson notes supporting frame lesson presentation acceleration methods interactive technologies Practice tasks and exercises self-test workshops, trainings, cases, quests homework discussion questions rhetorical questions from students Illustrations audio, video clips and multimedia photographs, pictures, graphics, tables, diagrams, humor, anecdotes, jokes, comics, parables, sayings, crosswords, quotes Add-ons abstracts articles tricks for the curious cribs textbooks basic and additional dictionary of terms other Improving textbooks and lessonscorrecting errors in the textbook updating a fragment in a textbook, elements of innovation in the lesson, replacing outdated knowledge with new ones Only for teachers perfect lessons calendar plan for the year guidelines discussion programs Integrated LessonsThe Iron Age is a historical and cultural period in the development of mankind, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools and weapons. The Iron Age gave way to the Bronze Age at the beginning of the first millennium BC; the use of iron stimulated the development of production and accelerated social development. All countries of the world passed through the period of mastering iron production. different time and in a broad sense, the entire history of mankind from the end of the Bronze Age to the present day can be attributed to the Iron Age. But in historical science The Iron Age includes only the cultures of primitive peoples who lived outside the territories of ancient states that arose in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, India, China). In the Iron Age, the majority of the peoples of Eurasia experienced the decomposition of the primitive system and the formation of a class society.
The idea of three eras of human development (Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age) arose in ancient world. This guess was made by Titus Lucretius Carus. Scientifically, the term “Iron Age” was based on archaeological material in the mid-19th century by the Danish archaeologist K.Yu. Thomsen. Iron Age, compared to stone age and the Copper Age, occupies relatively a short time. Its beginning dates back to the 9th-7th centuries BC. e. Traditionally, the end of the Iron Age in Western Europe was associated with the first century BC, when the first detailed written sources about barbarian tribes appeared. In general, for individual countries the end of the Iron Age can be associated with the formation of the state and the appearance of their own written sources.
Iron metallurgy
In contrast to the relatively rare deposits of copper and especially tin, iron ores are found almost everywhere on Earth, but usually in the form of low-grade brown iron ores. The process of obtaining iron from ore is much more complex than the process of obtaining copper. Iron melting occurs at high temperatures that were inaccessible to ancient metallurgists. They obtained iron in a dough-like state using the cheese-blowing process, which consisted of the reduction of iron ore at a temperature of about 900-1350 ° C in special furnaces - forges with air blown by forge bellows through a nozzle. A kritsa formed at the bottom of the furnace - a lump of porous iron weighing 1-5 kg, which had to be forged to compact it and also remove slag from it. Raw iron is a soft metal; tools and weapons made from it were not very practical in everyday life. But in the 9th-7th centuries BC. They discovered methods for producing steel from iron and heat treating it. The high mechanical qualities of steel products and the general availability of iron ores ensured that iron replaced bronze and stone, which had previously been the main materials for the production of tools and weapons.
The spread of iron tools greatly expanded human capabilities; it became possible to clear forest areas for crops, expand irrigation and reclamation structures, and improve land cultivation. The development of crafts accelerated, wood processing in construction and production improved Vehicle(ships, chariots), making utensils. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of handicraft and agricultural hand tools (except for screws and hinged scissors), which were later used both in the Middle Ages and in modern times, came into use.
The development of productive forces associated with the spread of iron over time led to the transformation public life. The growth of labor productivity served as an economic prerequisite for the collapse of the tribal primitive system and the emergence of the state. For many Iron Age tribes, social order took the form of military democracy. One of the sources of the accumulation of values and the growth of property inequality was the expansion of trade relations during the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment through robbery gave rise to wars; in response to the threat of military raids by neighbors at the beginning of the Iron Age, fortifications were built all around settlements.
Distribution of iron products in the world
Initially, people only knew meteorite iron. Iron objects, mainly jewelry, dating back to the first half of the third millennium BC. found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor. However, a method for obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the second millennium BC. The cheese metallurgical process is believed to have been first discovered by tribes living in the Antitaurus Mountains in Asia Minor in the 15th century BC. From the end of the second millennium BC. iron is known in Transcaucasia (Samtavra burial ground). The development of iron in Racha (Western Georgia) dates back to ancient times.
For a long time, iron was rare and highly valued. It began to be used more widely after the 11th century BC. in the Near and Middle East, India, southern Europe. In the 10th century BC. iron tools and weapons penetrate north of the Alps and Danube, into the steppe zone of Eastern Europe, but begin to dominate in these areas only from the 8th-7th centuries BC. In Transcaucasia, a number of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age are known, the heyday of which occurred in the early Iron Age: the Central Transcaucasian culture, the Kyzyl-Vank culture, the Colchis culture, the Urartian culture. The appearance of iron products in the agricultural oases and steppe regions of Central Asia dates back to the 7-6 centuries BC. Throughout the first millennium BC. and until the first half of the first millennium AD. The steppes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan were inhabited by the Sak-Usun tribes, in whose culture iron became widespread from the middle of the first millennium BC. In agricultural oases, the time of the appearance of iron coincides with the emergence of the first state formations (Bactria, Sogd, Khorezm).
Iron appeared in China in the 8th century BC. e., and spread widely from the 5th century BC. e. In Indochina and Indonesia, iron became dominant only at the turn of our era. In neighboring Egypt African countries(Nubia, Sudan, Libya) iron metallurgy has been known since the 6th century BC. In the second century BC. The Iron Age began in Central Africa, a number of African peoples moved from the Stone Age to iron metallurgy, passing the Bronze Age. In America, Australia, and Oceania, iron became known in the 16th and 17th centuries AD. with the advent of European colonialists.
In Europe, iron and steel began to play a leading role as materials for the manufacture of tools and weapons from the second half of the first millennium BC. Iron Age in the area Western Europe are divided into two periods according to the names of archaeological cultures - Hallstatt and La Tène. The Hallstatt period (900-400 BC) is also called the Early Iron Age (first Iron Age), and the La Tène period (400 BC - early AD) is also called the Early Iron Age (second Iron Age ). The Hallstatt culture was spread over the territory from the Rhine to the Danube, and was created in the western part by the Celts and in the east by the Illyrians. The Hallstatt period also includes cultures close to the Hallstatt culture - the Thracian tribes in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula; Etruscan, Ligurian, Italic tribes on the Apennine Peninsula; Iberians, Turdetans, Lusitanians on Iberian Peninsula; Late Lusatian culture in the basins of the Odra and Vistula rivers. The beginning of the Hallstatt period was characterized by the parallel circulation of bronze and iron tools and weapons, and the gradual displacement of bronze. Economically, the Hallstatt period was characterized by the growth of agriculture, and socially by the collapse of clan relations. In northern Europe at this time there was a Bronze Age.
From the beginning of the 5th century, the La Tène culture, characterized by a high level of iron production, spread in the territory of Gaul, Germany, in the countries along the Danube and to the north of it. The La Tène culture existed before the Roman conquest of Gaul in the first century BC. La Tène culture is associated with the Celtic tribes, who had large fortified cities that were centers of tribes and places of concentration of crafts. In this era, bronze tools and weapons were no longer found among the Celts. At the beginning of our era, in the areas conquered by Rome, La Tène culture was replaced by provincial Roman culture. In northern Europe, iron spread almost three hundred years later than in the south. The end of the Iron Age dates back to the culture of Germanic tribes that lived in the territory between the North Sea and the rivers Rhine, Danube, Elbe, as well as in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and archaeological cultures, the bearers of which are considered the ancestors of the Slavs. In the northern countries, iron tools and weapons began to predominate at the beginning of our era.
Iron Age in Russia and neighboring countries
The spread of iron metallurgy in Eastern Europe dates back to the first millennium BC. The most developed culture of the early Iron Age was created by the Scythians, who lived in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region (7th century BC - first centuries AD). Iron products were found in abundance in settlements and burial mounds of the Scythian period. Signs of metallurgical production were discovered during excavations of Scythian settlements. The largest number of remains of ironworking and blacksmithing were found at the Kamensky settlement (5-3 centuries BC) near Nikopol. Iron tools contributed to the development of crafts and the spread of arable farming.
The Scythians were replaced by the Sarmatians, who previously lived in the steppes between the Don and Volga. The Sarmatian culture, also dating back to the early Iron Age, dominated the Black Sea region in the 2nd-4th centuries AD. At the same time, in the western regions of the Northern Black Sea region, the Upper and Middle Dnieper, and Transnistria, there were cultures of “burial fields” (Zarubinets culture, Chernyakhov culture) of agricultural tribes who knew iron metallurgy; probably the ancestors of the Slavs. In the central and northern forest regions of Eastern Europe, iron metallurgy appeared in the 6th-5th centuries BC. The Ananino culture (8th-3rd centuries BC) was widespread in the Kama region, which was characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools. The Ananino culture on the Kama was replaced by the Pyanobor culture (end of the first millennium BC - first half of the first millennium AD).
The Iron Age of the Upper Volga region and in the regions of the Volga-Oka interfluve is represented by the settlements of the Dyakovo culture (mid-first millennium BC - mid-first millennium AD). South of the middle reaches of the Oka, west of the Volga, in the basins of the Tsna and Moksha rivers, the settlements of the Gorodets culture (7th century BC - 5th century AD) date back to the Iron Age. The Dyakovo and Gorodets cultures are associated with the Finno-Ugric tribes. Fortifications of the Upper Dnieper region and the south-eastern Baltic region of the 6th century BC. - 7th century AD belong to the Eastern Baltic tribes, later assimilated by the Slavs, as well as the Chud tribes. Southern Siberia and Altai are rich in copper and tin, which led to a high level of development of bronze metallurgy. For a long time, the bronze culture here competed with iron tools and weapons, which became widespread in the middle of the first millennium BC. - Tagar culture on the Yenisei, Pazyryk mounds in Altai.
The archaeological era from which the use of objects made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron-making furnaces, dating back to the 1st half. II millennium BC discovered in Western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early nomadic formations of the Scythian and Saka types (approximately VIII-VII centuries BC). In Africa it came immediately after the Stone Age (there is no Bronze Age). In America, the beginning of the Iron Age is associated with European colonization. It began in Asia and Europe almost simultaneously. Often, only the first stage of the Iron Age is called the Early Iron Age, the boundary of which is the final stages of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples (IV-VI centuries AD). In general, the Iron Age includes the entire Middle Ages, and based on the definition, this era continues to this day.
The discovery of iron and the invention of the metallurgical process was quite complex. If copper and tin are found in nature in pure form, then iron is found only in chemical compounds, mainly with oxygen, but also with other elements. No matter how long you keep iron ore in the fire, it will not melt, and this path of “accidental” discovery, possible for copper, tin and some other metals, is excluded for iron. Brown, loose stone, such as iron ore, was not suitable for making tools by beating. Finally, even reduced iron melts at a very high temperature - more than 1500 degrees. All this is an almost insurmountable obstacle to a more or less satisfactory hypothesis of the history of the discovery of iron.
There is no doubt that the discovery of iron was prepared by several millennia of development of copper metallurgy. Particularly important was the invention of bellows for blowing air into smelting furnaces. Such bellows were used in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the flow of oxygen into the forge, which not only increased the temperature in it, but also created conditions for successful chemical reaction metal recovery. A metallurgical furnace, even a primitive one, is a kind of chemical retort in which not so much physical as chemical processes occur. Such a stove was made of stone and coated with clay (or it was made of clay alone) on a massive clay or stone base. The thickness of the furnace walls reached 20 cm. The height of the furnace shaft was about 1 m. Its diameter was the same. In the front wall of the furnace at the bottom level there was a hole through which the coal loaded into the shaft was set on fire, and through it the kritsa was taken out. Archaeologists use the Old Russian name for a furnace for “cooking” iron - “domnitsa”. The process itself is called cheese making. This term emphasizes the importance of blowing air into a furnace filled with iron ore and coal.
At cheese-making process more than half of the iron was lost in slag, which led to the abandonment of this method at the end of the Middle Ages. However, for almost three thousand years this method was the only way to obtain iron.
Unlike bronze objects, iron objects could not be made by casting; they were forged. By the time iron metallurgy was discovered, the forging process had a thousand-year history. They forged on a metal stand - an anvil. A piece of iron was first heated in a forge, and then the blacksmith, holding it with tongs on an anvil, hit the place with a small hammer-handle, where his assistant then struck the iron, hitting the iron with a heavy hammer-sledgehammer.
Iron was first mentioned in the correspondence of the Egyptian pharaoh with the Hittite king, preserved in the archives of the 14th century. BC e. in Amarna (Egypt). From this time, small iron products have reached us in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Aegean world.
For some time, iron was a very expensive material, used to make jewelry and ceremonial weapons. In particular, a gold bracelet with iron inlay and a whole series of iron objects were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Iron inlays are also known in other places.
On the territory of the USSR, iron first appeared in Transcaucasia.
Iron things began to quickly replace bronze ones, since iron, unlike copper and tin, is found almost everywhere. Iron ores occur both in mountainous regions and in swamps, not only deep underground, but also on its surface. Nowadays bog ore is of no industrial interest, but in ancient times it was important. Thus, countries that held a monopoly position in the production of bronze lost their monopoly on the production of metal. With the discovery of iron, countries poor in copper ores quickly overtook the countries that were advanced in the Bronze Age.
Scythians
Scythians is an exoethnonym of Greek origin, applied to a group of peoples who lived in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia in antiquity. The ancient Greeks called the country where the Scythians lived Scythia.
Nowadays, Scythians in the narrow sense are usually understood as Iranian-speaking nomads who in the past occupied the territories of Ukraine, Moldova, Southern Russia, Kazakhstan and parts of Siberia. This does not exclude a different ethnicity of some of the tribes, which ancient authors also called Scythians.
Information about the Scythians comes mainly from the writings of ancient authors (especially Herodotus’s “History”) and archaeological excavations in the lands from the lower Danube to Siberia and Altai. The Scythian-Sarmatian language, as well as the Alan language derived from it, were part of the northeastern branch of the Iranian languages and were probably the ancestor of the modern Ossetian language, as indicated by hundreds of Scythian personal names, names of tribes, and rivers preserved in Greek records.
Later, starting from the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, the word “Scythians” was used in Greek (Byzantine) sources to name all the peoples of completely different origins who inhabited the Eurasian steppes and the northern Black Sea region: in sources of the 3rd-4th centuries AD “Scythians” are often called and German-speaking Goths, in later Byzantine sources the Scythians called the Eastern Slavs - Rus', the Turkic-speaking Khazars and Pechenegs, as well as the Alans related to the ancient Iranian-speaking Scythians.
Emergence. The underlying basis of early Indo-European, including Scythian, culture is being actively studied by supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. Archaeologists date the formation of the relatively generally recognized Scythian culture to the 7th century BC. e. (Arzhan burial mounds). At the same time, there are two main approaches to interpreting its occurrence. According to one, based on the so-called “third legend” of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east, expelling what can be archaeologically interpreted as coming from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, from Tuva or some other areas Central Asia(see Pazyryk culture).
Another approach, which can also be based on the legends recorded by Herodotus, suggests that the Scythians had by that time lived in the Northern Black Sea region for at least several centuries, having separated from the successors of the Timber-frame culture.
Maria Gimbutas and the scientists of her circle attribute the appearance of the Scythian ancestors (horse domestication cultures) to 5 - 4 thousand BC. e. According to other versions, these ancestors are associated with other cultures. They also appear to be the descendants of the bearers of the Timber Frame culture of the Bronze Age, who advanced from the 14th century. BC e. from the Volga region to the west. Others believe that the main core of the Scythians emerged thousands of years ago from Central Asia or Siberia and mixed with the population of the Northern Black Sea region (including the territory of Ukraine). The ideas of Marija Gimbutas extend in the direction of further research into the origins of the Scythians.
Grain farming was of considerable importance. The Scythians produced grain for export, in particular in greek cities, and through them - to the Greek metropolis. Grain production required the use of slave labor. The bones of murdered slaves often accompany the burials of Scythian slave owners. The custom of killing people during the burial of masters is known in all countries and is characteristic of the era of the emergence of the slave economy. There are known cases of slaves being blinded, which does not agree with the assumption of patriarchal slavery among the Scythians. Agricultural tools, in particular sickles, are found at Scythian settlements, but arable tools are extremely rare; they were probably all wooden and did not have iron parts. The fact that the Scythians had arable farming is judged not so much by the finds of these tools, but by the amount of grain produced by the Scythians, which would have been many times less if the land had been cultivated with a hoe.
Fortified settlements appeared relatively late, at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries. BC e., when the Scythians had sufficiently developed crafts and trade.
According to Herodotus, the royal Scythians were dominant - the easternmost of the Scythian tribes, bordering the Don with the Sauromatians, also occupied the steppe Crimea. To the west of them lived the Scythian nomads, and even further west, on the left bank of the Dnieper, the Scythian farmers. On the right bank of the Dnieper, in the basin of the Southern Bug, near the city of Olbia, lived the Callipids, or Hellenic-Scythians, to the north of them - the Alazons, and even further to the north - the Scythian ploughmen, and Herodotus points to agriculture as differences from the Scythians the last three tribes and clarifies that if the Callipids and Alazons grow and eat bread, then the Scythian plowmen grow bread for sale.
The Scythians already fully owned the production of ferrous metal. Other types of production are also represented: bone carving, pottery, weaving. But only metallurgy has so far reached the level of craftsmanship.
There are two lines of fortifications on the Kamensky settlement: external and internal. Archaeologists call the inner part the acropolis by analogy with the corresponding division of Greek cities. The remains of stone dwellings of the Scythian nobility have been traced on the acropolis. Row dwellings were mainly above-ground houses. Their walls sometimes consisted of pillars, the bases of which were dug into specially dug grooves along the contour of the dwelling. There are also semi-dugout dwellings.
The oldest Scythian arrows are flat, often with a spike on the sleeve. They are all socketed, that is, they have a special tube into which the arrow shaft is inserted. Classic Scythian arrows are also socketed, they resemble a trihedral pyramid, or three-bladed - the ribs of the pyramid seem to have developed into blades. The arrows are made of bronze, which has finally won its place in the production of arrows.
Scythian ceramics were made without the help of a potter's wheel, although in the Greek colonies neighboring the Scythians the wheel was widely used. Scythian vessels are flat-bottomed and varied in shape. Scythian bronze cauldrons up to a meter high, which had a long and thin leg and two vertical handles, became widespread.
Scythian art is well known mainly from objects from burials. It is characterized by the depiction of animals in certain poses and with exaggeratedly noticeable paws, eyes, claws, horns, ears, etc. Ungulates (deer, goat) were depicted with bent legs, cat predators - curled up in a ring. Scythian art presents strong or fast and sensitive animals, which corresponds to the Scythian’s desire to overtake, hit, and be always ready. It is noted that some images are associated with certain Scythian deities. The figures of these animals seemed to protect their owner from harm. But the style was not only sacred, but also decorative. The claws, tails and shoulder blades of predators were often shaped like the head of a bird of prey; sometimes full images of animals were placed in these places. This artistic style was called animal style in archeology. IN early time in the Volga region, animal ornaments are evenly distributed between representatives of the nobility and ordinary people. In the IV-III centuries. BC e. the animal style is degenerating, and objects with similar ornaments are presented mainly in graves. The Scythian burials are the most famous and best studied. The Scythians buried their dead in pits or catacombs, under mounds. lah nobles. In the area of the Dnieper rapids there are the famous Scythian burial mounds. Golden vessels are found in the royal burial mounds of the Scythians, art products made of gold, expensive weapon. Thus, a new phenomenon is observed in the Scythian mounds - a strong property stratification. There are small and huge mounds, some burials without things, others with a huge amount gold.
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.” The moral degeneration of people is punished by a worldwide flood that destroys everyone, with the exception of 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 aspect, in particular the eschatological aspect, 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. Veresaeva).
Thus, in ancient times, the term “Iron Age” was initially accompanied by an eschatological-tragic interpretation, and this ancient tradition was continued in modern 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 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 of ore nature for the manufacture of basic forms of tools and weapons and the widespread spread 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 magical-surgical iron instruments (lancets, incisors, chisels) inserted into 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 the deliberate production of 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 craving(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-blowing process could have occurred as a result of the fact that during the smelting of copper or lead from ores, in addition to copper ore and charcoal, iron-containing rocks, primarily hematite, were loaded into the smelting furnace (as materials for removing “waste rock”). In this regard, already in 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-making 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 the blade of a dagger 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 believed 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). Opening of the cheese-making process - the most important step in the development of iron by mankind, for if meteorite iron is relatively rare, then 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 zone temperate climate, 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, objects made of cryonic 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 started using others organic matter 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 next way hardening: “You need 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... gives 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 plunging a red-hot steel ax or ax into 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 these operations (as well as the cheese-making process itself) were discovered first and where their improvement progressed most rapidly was Asia Minor, and above all the area inhabited by the Hittites and 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 relative 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 various reasons the traditional connections of these regions with ore sources that provided non-ferrous metallurgy were severed.
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. Available sufficient quantity written evidence of the development of iron in India (both actually 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, 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 during the smelting of copper from ores in melting furnace under certain conditions. And although this phenomenon probably did not occur only in China, only this ancient civilization Based on relevant observations, she 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 iron products 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 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 of the 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 of ancient civilization and the onset of the Middle Ages.
There are other versions on this matter. Thus, in Western European and domestic archeology back in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 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.