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Iron Age Europe
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Iron Age Europe
In Europe, the Iron Age is the last stage of the prehistoric period and the first of the protohistoric periods, which initially meant descriptions of a particular area by Greek and Roman writers. For much of Europe, the period came to an abrupt end after conquest by the Romans, though ironworking remained the dominant technology until recent times. Elsewhere, the period lasted until the early centuries AD, and either Christianization or a new conquest in the Migration Period. Iron working was introduced to Europe in the late 11th century BC, probably from the Caucasus, and slowly spread northwards and westwards over the succeeding 500 years. For example, the Iron Age of Prehistoric Ireland begins around 500 BC, when the Greek Iron Age had already ended, and finishes around 400 AD. The use of iron and iron-working technology became widespread concurrently in Europe and Asia.
The start of the Iron Age is marked by new cultural groupings, or at least terms for them, with the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece collapsing in some confusion, while in Central Europe the Urnfield culture had already given way to the Hallstatt culture. In north Italy the Villanovan culture is regarded as the start of Etruscan civilization. Like its successor La Tène culture, Hallstatt is regarded as Celtic. Further to the east and north, and in Iberia and the Balkans, there are a number of local terms for the early Iron Age culture. Roman Iron Age is a term used in the archaeology of Northern Europe (but not Britain) for the period when the unconquered peoples of the area lived under the influence of the Roman Empire.
The Iron Age in Europe is characterized by an elaboration of designs in weapons, implements, and utensils. These are no longer cast but hammered into shape, and decoration is elaborate curvilinear rather than simple rectilinear; the forms and character of the ornamentation of the northern European weapons resemble Roman arms in some respects, while in other respects they are peculiar and evidently representative of northern art.
The early first millennium BC marks the Iron Age in Eastern Europe. In the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus region, the Iron Age begins with the Koban and the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures from c. 900 BC. By 800 BC, it was spreading to Hallstatt culture via the alleged "Thraco-Cimmerian" migrations.
Along with the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures, on the territory of ancient Russia and Ukraine the Iron Age is, to a significant extent, associated with Scythians, who developed iron culture since the 7th century BC. The majority of remains of their iron-producing and blacksmithing industries from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC was found near Nikopol in Kamenskoye Gorodishche, which is believed to be the specialized metallurgic region of the ancient Scythia.
The Old Iron Age was an era of immense changes in the lands inhabited by the Balts, i.e. the territories from the Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea in the west to the Oka in the east, and between the Middle Dnieper in the south and northern Latvia to the north. In the first century A.D., the Baltic people began mass production of iron from the available limonite, widely available in swamps. The local smiths learned to harden iron into steel, which resulted in tougher weapons than stone or horn instruments.
In the Greek Dark Ages, edged iron weapons were widely available, but a variety of explanations fits the available archaeological evidence. From around 1200 BC, the palace centers and outlying settlements of the Mycenaean culture began to be abandoned or destroyed, and by 1050 BC, the recognizable cultural features (such as Linear B script) had disappeared.
The Greek alphabet began in the 8th century BC. It is descended from the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks adapted the system, notably introducing characters for vowel sounds and thereby creating the first truly alphabetic (as opposed to abjad) writing system. As Greece sent colonists eastwards, across the Black Sea, and westwards towards Sicily and Italy (Pithekoussae, Cumae), the influence of their alphabet extended further. The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a few lines written in the Greek alphabet referring to "Nestor's Cup", discovered in a grave at Pithekoussae (Ischia) dates from c. 730 BC; it seems to be the oldest written reference to the Iliad. The fragmentary Epic Cycles, a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War, were a distillation in literary form of an oral tradition developed during the Greek Dark Age. The traditional material from which the literary epics were drawn treats the Mycenaean Bronze Age culture from the perspective of the Iron Age and later Greece.
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Iron Age Europe
In Europe, the Iron Age is the last stage of the prehistoric period and the first of the protohistoric periods, which initially meant descriptions of a particular area by Greek and Roman writers. For much of Europe, the period came to an abrupt end after conquest by the Romans, though ironworking remained the dominant technology until recent times. Elsewhere, the period lasted until the early centuries AD, and either Christianization or a new conquest in the Migration Period. Iron working was introduced to Europe in the late 11th century BC, probably from the Caucasus, and slowly spread northwards and westwards over the succeeding 500 years. For example, the Iron Age of Prehistoric Ireland begins around 500 BC, when the Greek Iron Age had already ended, and finishes around 400 AD. The use of iron and iron-working technology became widespread concurrently in Europe and Asia.
The start of the Iron Age is marked by new cultural groupings, or at least terms for them, with the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece collapsing in some confusion, while in Central Europe the Urnfield culture had already given way to the Hallstatt culture. In north Italy the Villanovan culture is regarded as the start of Etruscan civilization. Like its successor La Tène culture, Hallstatt is regarded as Celtic. Further to the east and north, and in Iberia and the Balkans, there are a number of local terms for the early Iron Age culture. Roman Iron Age is a term used in the archaeology of Northern Europe (but not Britain) for the period when the unconquered peoples of the area lived under the influence of the Roman Empire.
The Iron Age in Europe is characterized by an elaboration of designs in weapons, implements, and utensils. These are no longer cast but hammered into shape, and decoration is elaborate curvilinear rather than simple rectilinear; the forms and character of the ornamentation of the northern European weapons resemble Roman arms in some respects, while in other respects they are peculiar and evidently representative of northern art.
The early first millennium BC marks the Iron Age in Eastern Europe. In the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus region, the Iron Age begins with the Koban and the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures from c. 900 BC. By 800 BC, it was spreading to Hallstatt culture via the alleged "Thraco-Cimmerian" migrations.
Along with the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures, on the territory of ancient Russia and Ukraine the Iron Age is, to a significant extent, associated with Scythians, who developed iron culture since the 7th century BC. The majority of remains of their iron-producing and blacksmithing industries from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC was found near Nikopol in Kamenskoye Gorodishche, which is believed to be the specialized metallurgic region of the ancient Scythia.
The Old Iron Age was an era of immense changes in the lands inhabited by the Balts, i.e. the territories from the Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea in the west to the Oka in the east, and between the Middle Dnieper in the south and northern Latvia to the north. In the first century A.D., the Baltic people began mass production of iron from the available limonite, widely available in swamps. The local smiths learned to harden iron into steel, which resulted in tougher weapons than stone or horn instruments.
In the Greek Dark Ages, edged iron weapons were widely available, but a variety of explanations fits the available archaeological evidence. From around 1200 BC, the palace centers and outlying settlements of the Mycenaean culture began to be abandoned or destroyed, and by 1050 BC, the recognizable cultural features (such as Linear B script) had disappeared.
The Greek alphabet began in the 8th century BC. It is descended from the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks adapted the system, notably introducing characters for vowel sounds and thereby creating the first truly alphabetic (as opposed to abjad) writing system. As Greece sent colonists eastwards, across the Black Sea, and westwards towards Sicily and Italy (Pithekoussae, Cumae), the influence of their alphabet extended further. The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a few lines written in the Greek alphabet referring to "Nestor's Cup", discovered in a grave at Pithekoussae (Ischia) dates from c. 730 BC; it seems to be the oldest written reference to the Iliad. The fragmentary Epic Cycles, a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War, were a distillation in literary form of an oral tradition developed during the Greek Dark Age. The traditional material from which the literary epics were drawn treats the Mycenaean Bronze Age culture from the perspective of the Iron Age and later Greece.