What is the Iron Age. Early Iron Century

24.09.2019

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Early Iron Institute - Archaeological Epoch with which the use of items made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron furnaces dating back to the 1st floor. II thousand BC. Detected in the territory of Western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and the forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early binding formations of Scythian and Saki types (approximately the 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. In Asia and Europe began, almost simultaneously. The early iron century is also called the first stage of the Iron Age of the border of which are the final stages of the era of the great resettlement of peoples (IV-VI centuries. N.E.). In general, the Iron Age includes all the Middle Ages, and on the basis of the definition, this era lasts so far. The term "Iron Age" Archaeologists are used to denote the period of human history, during which iron has become commonwriter for the manufacture of weapons and weapons. Meteoric iron was used in small quantities for a very long time - even in Dodinal Egypt, - but the end of the bronze century in the economy became possible only with the development of iron ore melting. Probably, at first Iron was accidentally paid in the furnaces who served to fill high-quality ceramics - and indeed, pieces of smelted iron were found on the monuments of Syria and Iraq, dated no later than 2,700 BC. But only twelve or thirteen centuries, the blacksmiths learned how to give metal an elasticity, mounted hot forging with hardening with water. It is possible to argue almost with complete confidence that this discovery was made in Eastern Anatolia, especially rich iron ore. The Hetta was about two hundred years kept him secretly, but after the fall of their state ok. 1200 BC The technology has been distributed and the crystal iron has become a publicly available material. One of the oldest finds testifying to the use of iron for the manufacture of weapons of everyday use is made in Gerara near Gaza (Palestine), where in the layer dated OK. 1200 BC, melting mines were excavated and iron hoes, sickles and coulters were found. Iron treatment has spread throughout the entire anterior Asia, and from there to Greece, Italy and the rest of Europe, but in each of these regions, the transition from the previous embodiment based on the processing of bronze was in different ways. In Egypt, this process was stretched almost to the era of the Ptolemyev and the Roman period, whereas outside of those areas of the ancient world, where bronze was widely used, the ferrous craft was established relatively quickly. From Egypt, it gradually spread almost through the entire African continent, and in most regions, the stone age directly changed; In Australia and Oceania, as in the new light, the practice of smelting iron has penetrated with the opening of these regions by Europeans. Early iron products were made only from curvature iron, since the casting of this metal was not widespread until the introduction of 14 V. Gores with mechanics led by water. However, the development of shock gland caused a number of technical innovations - for example, hinged pliers, turning and planing machines, a mill with rotating millstones, - the introduction of which, facilitating the cleaning of the land overgrown with forest and ensuring a jump in the development of agriculture, laid the foundations of modern civilization.

The Iron Institute - the Epoch in the primitive and early-grade history of mankind characterized by the propagation of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron weapons. An idea of \u200b\u200bthe three centuries: stone, bronze and iron - arisen in the ancient world (titons of Lucretia car). The term "Iron Age" was introduced about the mid-19th century by the Danish archaeologist K. Yu. Tomsen. The most important studies, the initial classification and dating of the monuments of the Iron Age in Western Europe were produced by M. Gurnsom, O. Montelus, O. Tischeler, M. Raineeke, J. Dessel, N. Oberg, Y. L. Khich and Yu. Kosheyshevsky; in vet Europe - V. A. Goldovov, A. A. Spitsyna, Yu. V. Gautier, P. N. Tretyakov, A. P. Smirnov, X. A. Moore, M. I. Artamonov, B. N. County and Dr.; in Siberia - S. A. Tepshov, S. V. Kiselev, S. I. Rudenko et al.; In the Caucasus - B. A. Kuftin, B. B. Piotrovsky, E. I. Larovnov, etc.

The period of the initial distribution of the Iron industry was survived by all countries at different times, but only cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of the ancient slave civilizations arising from the era of Eneolita and Bronze (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China) usually include the Iron Venus. The Iron Age is relatively with the previous archaeological epochs (stone and bronze centuries) very short. His chronological boundaries: from 9-7th century BC. E. When many of the primitive tribes of Europe and Asia received the development of its own iron metallurgy, and before the time of the occurrence of these tribes of the class society and the state. Some modern foreign scientists who consider the end of a primitive history of the appearance of written sources, refer to the end of the Iron Age of Western Europe to 1 century BC. e. When Roman written sources appear, containing information about Western European tribes. Since the iron remains the most important material from which the tools of labor is manufactured, the modern era is included in the Iron Institute, therefore, the term "early Iron Age" is also applied for the archaeological periodization of primitive history. On the territory of Western Europe, the early iron century is only its beginning (the so-called Galstatt culture). Despite the fact that the iron is the most common metal in the world, it was late mastered by a person, as it is almost not found in nature in its pure form, it is difficult to be processed and its ore is difficult to distinguish from various minerals. Initially, mankind became known meteorite iron. Small iron objects (mainly decorations) are found in the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In Egypt, Mesopotamia and Malaya Asia. The method of obtaining iron from ore was opened in the 2nd millennium BC. e. According to one of the most likely assumptions, the cheese process (see below) was first applied by subordinate hittons tribes who lived in the mountains of Armenia (antitron) in the 15th century BC. e. However, for a long time, iron remained a low-prolonged and very valuable metal. Only after the 11th century BC. e. A rather wide manufacture of iron weapons and labor guns in Palestine, Syria, Malaya Asia, India began. At the same time, iron becomes famous in the south of Europe. In 11-10 centuries BC e. Separate iron items penetrate the area lying north of the Alps, are found in the steppes of the south of the European part of the USSR, but iron tools begin to dominate these areas only in 8-7 centuries BC. e. In the 8th century BC e. Iron products are widely distributed in Mesopotamia, Iran and a slightly later in Central Asia. The first news of the gland in China belongs to the 8th century BC. er, but it is distributed only in the 5th century BC. e. In Indochier and Indonesia, iron spread at the turn of our era. Apparently, with a deep antiquity, iron metallurgy was known for various African tribes. Undoubtedly, in the 6th century BC. e. Iron was made in Nubia, Sudan, Libya. In the 2nd century BC e. The Iron Age has come in the Central region of Africa. Some African tribes switched from the stone century to the iron, the passing bronze. In America, Australia and on most of the Pacific Ocean Islands (except for meteorite), it became known only in the 2nd millennium N. e. Together with the appearance of Europeans in these regions.

In contrast to relatively rare copper mining sources and in particular tin, iron ores, however, most often low-grade (brownie ironing, lake, marsh, meadow, etc.) are almost everywhere. But getting iron from ore is much more difficult than copper. Melting iron, i.e., obtaining it in a liquid state, has always been for ancient metallurgists inaccessible, since it requires a very high temperature (1528 °). The iron was obtained in a tough condition using a cheese process, which consisted in the restoration of iron ore by carbon at a temperature of 1100-1350 ° in special furnaces with air intake air with a forge. At the bottom of the furnace, Kritz was formed - a lump of porous tough iron weighing 1-8 kg, which was necessary to repeatedly pierce with a hammer for sealing and partial removal (squeezing) slag from it. Krigon iron is soft, but still in ancient times (about the 12th century BC. E.) A method for quenching iron products was opened (by immersing them in cold water) and their cementation (carburry). Ready for blacksmithing crafts and iron bars intended for trading exchange had usually in front of Asia and Western Europe bipiramidal form. Higher mechanical quality of iron, as well as the accessibility of iron ore and low cost of the new metal, provided with iron bronze, as well as stone that remained an important material for the production of tools and in the bronze age. It happened not immediately. 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 the manufacture of guns. The technical coup caused by the spread of iron, much expanded the power of man over nature. It made it possible to clearing under crops of large forest areas, expansion and improvement of irrigation and reclamation facilities and improving the overall processing of the Earth. The development of crafts is accelerated, especially for blacks and weapons. Treatment of wood is improved for the purposes of houseworking, production of vehicles (ships, chariots, etc.), the manufacture of various utensils. Craftsmen, starting with shoemakers and mason and ending with mines, also received more advanced tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of craft and agricultural hand tools (except screws and hinged scissors), used in the Middle Ages, and partly and in the new time were already in the go. The construction of roads was facilitated, the military equipment was improved, the exchange was expanded, it was spread as a means of circulation a metal coin.

The development of productive forces associated with the propagation of iron, over time led to the transformation of all social life. As a result of productive work growth, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of man exploration by a man, breakdown tribal building. One of the sources of accumulation of values \u200b\u200band the growth of property inequality was expanded in the Epoch of the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment at the expense of operation gave rise to war with the goal of robbery and enslavement. To start the Iron Age, the widespread extension is characterized. In the era of the Iron Age, the tribes of Europe and Asia experienced the stage of decomposition of the primitive-commodity system, were on the eve of the emergence of class society and the state. The transition of a part of the means of production to the private property of the dominant minority, the emergence of slavement, increased bundle of society and separating the tribal aristocracy from the majority of the population are already traits typical of early class societies. Many tribes have a social structure of this transition period made the political form of the so-called military democracy.

A. L. Migight. 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; Arzikhovsky A. V., Introduction to Archaeology, 3 Ed., M., 1947; World History, t. 1-2, M., 1955-56; Gernes M., culture of the prehistoric past, lane. with him., Part 3, M., 1914; Gorodets V. A., Household Archeology, M., 1910; Gauthu Yu. V., Iron Age in Eastern Europe, M.-L., 1930; Graves B. N., the oldest finds of iron things in the European part of the territory of the USSR, "CA", 1958, NO 4; Jesense A. A., to the question of monuments of VIII - VII centuries. BC e. In the south of the European part of the USSR, in Sat: "CA" (t.) 18, M., 1953; Kiselev S. V., the ancient story Y. Siberia, (2 ed.), M., 1951; Clark D. G. D., Prehistoric Europe. Economy. Essay, per. from English, M., 1953; Mr. E. I., the ancient history of the North Caucasus, M., 1960; Lyapushkin I. I., monuments of Saltovo-Maytsky culture in the pool r. Don, "Mia", 1958, NO 62; his own, Dnieper forest-steppe left bank in the era of iron, "Mia", 1961, NO 104; Mongight A. L., Archeology in the USSR, M., 1955; Notherle L., Slavic antiquities, lane. with Czech., M., 1956; Okladnikov A. P., the distant past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Essays of the history of the USSR. Primitive purchase system and ancient states in the territory of the USSR, M., 1956; Monuments of Zarubinetskaya culture, "Mia", 1959, NO 70; Piotrovsky B.V., Archeology of Transcaucasia since ancient times to 1 thousand BC. er, L., 1949; His, Van Kingdom, M., 1959; Rudenko S. I., culture of the population of the Central Altai in the Scythian time, M. Bl., 1960; Smirnov A. P., Iron Age of the Chuvash Volga region, M., 1961; Tretyakov P. N., East Slavic tribes, 2 ed., M., 1953; Chernetsov V.N., Lower Priobye in 1 thousand n. 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; Rickard Ta, Man And Metals, v. 1-2, NY-L., 1932.

The archaeological era with which the use of items made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron furnaces dating back to the 1st floor. II thousand BC. Detected in the territory of Western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and the forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early binding formations of Scythian and Saki types (approximately the 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. In Asia and Europe began, almost simultaneously. The early iron century is also called the first stage of the Iron Age of the border of which are the final stages of the era of the great resettlement of peoples (IV-VI centuries. N.E.). In general, the Iron Age includes all the Middle Ages, and on the basis of the definition, this era lasts so far.

The discovery of iron and the invention of the metallurgical process was very complex. If copper and tin are in nature in pure form, iron is found only in chemical compounds, mainly with oxygen, as well as with other elements. How much to keep the iron ore in fire, it is not melted, and this path of "random" discovery, possible for copper, tin and some other metals, is excluded for iron. Brown loose stone, which is an iron ore, was not suitable for the manufacture of guns by intestinal. Finally, even the restored iron melts at a very high temperature - more than 1,500 degrees. All this is an almost insurmountable obstacle for more or less satisfactory hypothesis of iron opening history.

There is no doubt that the discovery of iron was prepared by several millennia for the development of copper metallurgy. It was especially important an invention of air blasting fur in melting furnaces. Such fur was used in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the inflow of oxygen into the mountain, which not only increased the temperature in it, but also created the conditions for a successful chemical reaction of the metal recovery. Metallurgical oven, even a primitive, is a peculiar chemical retort, which occurs not so much physical, how many chemical processes. Such a furnace was out of stone and fooled by clay (or it was made from one clay) on a massive clay or a stone base. The thickness of the wall of the furnace reached 20 cm. The height of the furnace mine was about 1 m. She was also her diameter. In the front wall of the furnace at the bottom level there was a hole through which the coal loaded into the mine, they were taken out through it. Archaeologists enjoy the ancient Russian title of the furnace for the "cooking" of iron - "Viznitsa". The process itself is called cheese. This term emphasizes the importance of blowing air in a domain filled with iron ore and coal.

For cheese process More than half of the iron disappeared in slags, which in the end of the Middle Ages led to the abandonment of this method. However, for almost three thousand years, this method was the only one to obtain iron.

Unlike bronze items, iron could not be made, they were shown. The forging process at the time of the opening of iron metallurgy had a thousand-year history. They pushed on a metal stand - anvil. A piece of iron was first fascinated in Mountain, and then a blacksmith, holding his ticks on anvil, a small hammer-handman hit the place where then his assistant was hit by a heavy hammer-sledgehammer.

The iron is first mentioned in the correspondence of the Egyptian Pharaoh with the Hatthe king, which remained in the archive of the XIV century. BC e. In Amarne (Egypt). From this time, it was reached by small iron products in two-range, Egypt and the Aegean world.

For some time, iron was a very expensive material used for the manufacture of jewelry and front weapons. In particular, in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamon found a gold bracelet with an inlaid from iron and a whole series of iron things. Iron inlays are also known in other places.

On the territory of the USSR, iron earlier appeared in the Transcaucasia.

Iron things began to quickly push the bronze, since iron, in contrast to copper and tin, occurs almost everywhere. Iron ores lie in the mountainous areas, and in swamps, not only deep underground, but also on its surface. Currently, the marsh ore is not industrial interest, but in ancient times it was essential. Thus, the countries that occupied the monopoly position in the production of bronze lost a monopoly on the production of metal. The countries, poor copper ores, with the opening of iron quickly caught up with the countries that were best in the bronze era.

Scythians

Scythians - exoatenonium of Greek origin, used to the group of peoples who lived in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia in the era of antiquity. Ancient Greeks called the country where Scythians, Scythia dwell.

Nowadays, under Scyths in a narrow sense, Iranian-speaking nomads are usually understood in the past territory of Ukraine, Moldova, southern Russia, Kazakhstan and Parts of Siberia. This does not exclude a different ethnicity of some of the tribes that antique authors also called Scythians.

Information about the Scythians takes place mainly from the compositions of antique authors (especially the "History" of Herodotus) and archaeological excavations on the lands from the lower Danube to Siberia and Altai. Skifo-Sarmatian language, as well as a derivative of him Alansky, was included in the northeast branch of Iranian languages \u200b\u200band was probably the ancestor of the modern Ossetian language, which is indicated by hundreds of Scythian personal names, names of tribes, rivers survived in Greek records.

Later, starting with the era of the great resettlement of peoples, the word "Scythians" was used in Greek (Byzantine) sources for the name of all completely different in the origin of the peoples who inhabited the Eurasian Steppes and the Northern Black Sea region: in the sources of the III-IV centuries of our era, Scythians are often called And German-speaking goths, in later Byzantine sources of Scythians called the Eastern Slavs - Russia, Turkic-speaking Khazar and Pechenegs, as well as related to ancient Iranian-speaking Scythians Alan.

Appearance. For the maintenance of early Indo-European, including Scythian, cultures are actively learning supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. The formation of a relatively generally accepted Scythian culture archeologists belong to the VII century BC. e. (Argen Kurgan). In this case, there are two main approaches to the interpretation of its occurrence. According to one, based on the so-called "third legend" of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east, driven, which can be archeologically interpreted as the arrival of Syrdarya, from Tuva or any other regions of Central Asia (see Pazyryk culture).

Another approach, which can also rely on the tales recorded by Herodota, suggests that the Scythians were inhabited by that time in the territory of the Northern Black Sea region at least several centuries, allocated from the environment of successors of a carbonaceous culture.

Maria Gimbutas and her circle scholars include the appearance of the greatness of Scythians (horses domestication cultures) to 5 - 4 thousand BC. e. For other versions of these rapids, they are associated with other cultures. They appear the descendants of the carriers of the carbon culture of the bronze era, moving from the XIV century. BC e. From the territory of the Volga region to the West. Others believe that the main kernel of Scythians has emerged thousands of years ago from Central Asia or Siberia and mixed with the population of Northern Black Sea region (including the territory of Ukraine). The ideas of Mary Gimbutas extend towards further study of the origins of the origin of the Scythians.

The grain farm was considerable. Scythians produced grain to export, in particular to the Greek cities, and through them through the Greek metropolis. Grain production required the use of slave labor. The bones of the killed slaves often accompany the burial of the Skif-slave owners. The custom of killing people in the burial of the Lord is known in all countries and is characteristic of the era of the emergence of slave-ownership. There are cases of blinding slaves, which is not consistent with the assumption of patriarchal slavery in Scythians. In the Scythian settlements, agricultural tools are found, in particular sickles, but the arable tools are extremely rare, they probably didn't have wooden and iron parts. The fact that agriculture in the Scythians was watered, they are judged not so much according to the findings of these guns, as in the number of grains produced by Scythians, which would be many times less, if the Earth was treated with a hoe.

The fortified settlements appear relatively late, at the turn of the V and IV centuries. BC e. When Scythians received sufficient fishery and trade.

According to Herodotus, the most east of the Scythian tribes, bordering the Don with Savromat, was also the Steppe Crimea. The Scythian Nomads lived west, and still west, on the left bank of the Dnieper - Scythians-farmers. On the right bank of the Dnieper, in the South Bug basin, calling the Callipids, or Hellenic Scythians, north of them - Alazons, and also north - scoffs - paharai, and Herodotus indicates farming as differences from Scythians Three recent tribes and clarifies that if the callipids and alazons grow and eat bread, then the scam pains grow bread for sale.

Scythians have already fully owned the production of ferrous metal. Other types of production are also presented: firefly, pottery, weaving. But the level of the craft has also reached only metallurgy.

The Kamensky settlement has two lines of fortifications: external and internal. The inner part of the archaeologists are called Acropolia by analogy with the appropriate division of Greek cities. On the Acropolis, the remains of the stone housing Scythian nobility are traced. Private residents were mainly terrestrial houses. Their walls sometimes consisted of columns, the foundations of which were discovered in specially dumped grooves along the dwelling contour. Housing and semi-mining also meet.

The oldest Scythian booms are flat, often with a spike on the sleeve. They are all honey, that is, they have a special tube where the arrow is inserted. Classic Scythian booms are also sleemed, they resemble a three-shred pyramid, or three-blade - pyramid ribs as it were developed in the blade. The arrows are made of bronze, which finally won a place and in the production of arrows.

Scythian ceramics was made without the help of a pottery circle, although in neighboring Scythians Greek colonies was used widely. Scythian flat-bottom vessels and diverse in forms. Scythian bronze boilers high to a meter that had a long and thin leg and two vertical handles were widespread.

Scythian art is well known mainly on subjects from burials. It is characterized by an image of animals in certain poses and with exaggeratedly noticeable paws, eyes, claws, horns, ears, etc. Hoping (deer, goat) were depicted with bent feet, predators of feline rocks - rolled into the ring. In Scythian art, strong or fast and sensitive animals are presented, which corresponds to the desire of the Scythian to overtake, hit, always be ready. It is noted that some images are associated with certain Scythian deities. The figures of these animals as if they protected their owner from trouble. But the style was not only sacral, but also decorative. Claws, tails and vanes of predators were often drawn up in the form of a bird of predatory bird; Sometimes full images of animals were placed at these places. This artistic manner has received the name of the animal style in archeology. At the same time, the zero ornament is evenly distributed between representatives of nobility and ordinary. In the IV-III centuries. BC e. The animal style degenerates, and objects with such an ornament are represented mainly in the MOGi most famous and the Scythian burials are best studied. Scythians buried the dead in the pits or in the catacombs, under the mounds. Lah know. In the area of \u200b\u200bthe Dnieper thresholds there are famous Scythian Kurgans. Golden vessels, artistic products made of gold, expensive weapons are found in the royal smbies of Scythians. Thus, in the Scythian mounds there is a new phenomenon - a strong property bundle. Mounds are small and huge, some burials without things, others - with a huge amount of gold.

The era of iron, or the iron age, is the third of the technological macroeop in the history of mankind (after the stone age and the epoch of the Eneolita and Bronze). The term "Early Iron Age" is made to designate the first stage of the era of the iron, approximately dated within the boundary of the II-I milk. BC. - Middle I thousand 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 \u200b\u200bthe existence of an iron era in human history was clearly formulated at the end of the VIII - early VII century. BC. Ancient Greek poet Hesiod. According to his periodization of the historical process (see Introduction), modern Hesiod Iron Age turns out to be the last and worst stage of human history, on which there are no people "the breaths at night, in the afternoon and from grief" and "Only some more severe, serious troubles will remain In life "(" Works and Days ", LC. 175-201. Per. V.V. Veresaeva). Ovid at the beginning of 1B. AD Ethical imperfection of the iron era is even more accentuated. Ancient Roman poet calls the iron "worst ore", in the era of the domination of which "shame ran away, and the truth, and loyalty; And in their place immediately appeared deceptions, cunning; Kozny, the violence came and damned thirst for profit. " The moral degeneration of people is punishable by the worldwide flood destroying everyone, excluding the Genkalion and Pyrrhr, who revive humanity ("Metamorphosis", Ch. I, Strk. 127-150, 163-415. Pen. S. Shervinsky).

As we see, in the assessment of the era of iron by these ancient authors, the relationship between the cultural and technological aspect with the philosophical-ethical, in particular eschatological, i.e. The Iron Age was thinking as a kind of running out of the end of the world. It is quite natural, for the primary concepts of historical periodization finally took shape and imprinted in written sources at the beginning of the real iron century. Consequently, for the first authors of the history of the history, cultural and technological epochs of the previous iron century (whether the mythical, as the age of gold and age of heroes, or the real, as a century of copper) were a long-time or recent past, while the Iron Institute itself - modernity, shortcomings which are always clear more and more tangible. Therefore, the starting era of iron was perceived as a certain crisis line in human history. In addition, the iron who won the bronze primarily in the weapon case, inevitably became the witnesses of this process with a symbol of weapons, violence, destruction. It's not by chance that the Gay-Earth's Geeiode, wanting to punish the uranium-sky for his villain, specifically creates the "portion of gray iron", from which the punishing sickle makes ("Theogony", LC. 154-166. Per. V.V. Veresaeva).

Thus, in antiquity, the term "Iron Age" initially accompanied the eschatology-tragic interpretation, and this ancient tradition found a continuation in the newest fiction literature (see, for example, the poem of A. Block "Retribution").

However, still compatriot Ovid Lucretia in the first half of I century. BC. Jouvenified in the poem "On the nature of things" a qualitatively new, exclusively production and technological characteristics of historical eras, and including the era of iron. This idea is ultimately formed the basis of the first scientific concept of K.Yu. Tomsen (1836). Following that the problem of the chronological framework of the era of iron and its inner division, as in the XIX century. Loaded long discussion. The founder of the typological method O. Montelus was put in this dispute. He noted that it is impossible to indicate a single absolute date of shift of the bronze era of iron throughout Okumen; The countdown of the start of the Iron Age for each region should be conducted since the predominance of iron and alloys based on it (first of all, it is steel) over other materials as raw materials for weapons and instruments of labor.

The position of the montelus found a confirmation in the subsequent archaeological developments, which showed that the iron was first used as rare raw materials for jewelry (sometimes in combination with gold), then - more and more often for the production of workers and weapons, gradually disappearing copper and bronze into the background. Thus, in modern science, an indicator of the onset of the Iron Age in the history of each particular region is the use of iron of ore nature for the manufacture of basic forms of labor and weapons and the widespread distribution of iron metallurgy and a blacksmith.

The onset of the Iron Age is preceded by a long preparatory period relating to previous technological epochs.

Yeshe in the Eneolyte and the Bronze Age, people sometimes used iron for the production of some jewelry and the simplest tools of labor. However, it was originally a meteoric iron that is constantly coming from space. Humanity has come to generating iron from ores.

Products made of meteorite iron differ from iron products from metallurgical (i.e. received from ores) primarily in the fact that there are no slag inclusions as part of the first, whereas in the composition of metallurgical inclusions, at least in small fractions, inevitably Present as a consequence of the recovery operation of iron from ores. In addition, meteorite iron is usually a much higher nickel content than a significantly large hardness of such iron is determined. However, this indicator itself is not absolute, and in modern science there is a serious and not yet solved problem of distinguishing the ancient products from meteorite and ore iron. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that nickel content in products from meteorite raw materials could be significantly reduced with time as a result of long-term corroding. On the other hand, on our planet there are iron ores with high nickel content.

Theoretically, it was possible to use a terrestrial native iron - the so-called televoric (its appearance, mainly in basalt rocks, is explained by the interaction of iron oxides with organic minerals). However, it is found only in the smallest grains and streaks (excluding Greenland, where large clusters are known), so that the practical use of televoric iron in antiquity was impossible.

Due to the high content of nickel (from 5 to 20%, an average of 8%), increasing fragility, meteorite raw materials were treated mainly by cold forging - by analogy with a stone. At the same time, some products from meteorite iron were obtained as a result of the use of hot forging.

The earliest rails are dated more than VI thousand BC. And they occur from the burial of the Eneolytic culture of Samarra in Northern Iraq. These are 14 small beads or balls, undoubtedly made from meteorite iron, as well as a four-moisture tool that could be made of ore iron (this is, of course, an exceptional case).

A much greater number of meteorite products (mainly ritual-ceremonial destination) refers to the period of the Bronze Age.

The most famous products such as the Ancient Egyptian beads of the end of IV - the beginning of the III thousand BC. from hertz and media (monuments of a diving period); Dagger with a handle, asked by gold, from the royal burial ground Hrs in Sumer (Mescalemdug Tomb, dated Ser. III thousand BC); Bulawa from Troy I (2600-2400 BC); Pins with gold heads, suspension and some other products from Aladja-Hayuk's burial ground (2400 2100 BC); Handle dagger produced in the middle of the II thousand BC. In Malaya Asia and brought to the area of \u200b\u200bcurrent Slovakia (Ganovse) - finally, things from the tomb of Tutankhamon (about 1375 BC), including: Dagger with an iron blade and a golden handle, iron "Mountain", attached To the gold bracelet, amulet in the form of a head stand and 16 thin magic and surgical iron tools (lancets, cutters, chistes) inserted into a wooden base. On the territory of the former USSR, the first products from meteoric iron appear earlier in the Southern Ural region and in the Sayano-Altai Highlands. This is dated to the end of the IV-III milk. BC Melting and bimetallic (bronze-iron) tools and decorations made by the metallurgists of a pit (see section II, ch. 4) and Afanasyevsky cultures with the help of cold and hot forges.

Obviously, the previous experience in using meteoric iron did not affect the discovery of the effect of iron production from ores. Meanwhile, the last discovery, i.e. The actual origin of ferrous metallurgy, which was still in the bronze age, predetermined the change of technological epoch, although it did not mean the immediate end of the bronze age and the transition to the era of iron.

Ancient gland products dating from 111-11 thousand BC:
1.3-iron daggers with a handle with gold (from the tomb of the Mescalamdug in Ura and from the Maudeja Hayuk's burial ground in Malaya Asia); 2, 4 - iron pie with copper seizure for handles and iron chisel from the burial of the ancient culture (South Ural); 5, 6 - Dagger with an iron blade and a golden handle and iron blades inserted into a wooden base (Tutankhamon's tomb), 7 - a knife with a copper handle and an iron blade from the burial of the catacomb culture (Russia, Belgorod region, p. Gerasimovka); 8 - iron handle dagger (Slovakia)

Reconstruction of the cheese process in the early Iron Institute:
the initial and final phases of the cheese process; 2 - Getting iron from ore in an ancient master of heaven (Mushetsky Scharovice, Czech Republic); 3 - the main types of ancient
cheese furnaces (in the context)

The two most important stages of the development of ore iron can be distinguished:
The 1st stage is the discovery and improvement of the method of restoring iron from ore - the so-called cheese process.
The 2nd stage is the opening of methods for deliberate steel (cement technology), and subsequently the methods of its heat treatment in order to increase the hardness and strength of products.

The cheese process was carried out in special furnaces, where iron ore and charcoal were loaded, incited when filing ungeneted, "raw" air (hence the name of the process). The coal itself could be obtained by pre-burning firewood, folded with pyramids and turf coated. At first, the coal fastened to the bottom of the mountain or oven was burned, then the alternate layers of ore and the same coal were loaded from above. As a result of coal combustion, gas was distinguished - carbon monoxide, which, passing through the crowd of ore, iron oxides restored. The cheese process, as a rule, did not ensure the achievement of iron melting temperature (1528-1535 degrees Celsius), and reached the maximum to 1200 degrees, which was quite enough to restore iron from ores. It was a kind of "Cooking" of Iron.

Initially, the cheese process was carried out in pits, covered with refractory clay or stones, then began to build a small stove of stone or bricks, sometimes using clay. The cheese furnaces could work on a natural line (especially if they were built on the slopes of the hills), but with the development of metallurgy, air pumping was increasingly used through ceramic nozzles. In the open pit, this air was received from above, in the oven - through the hole at the bottom of the structure.

The reduced iron was concentrated in a tough form at the very bottom of the furnace, forming the so-called mining criterion - the iron spongy mass with the inclusions of unburned charcoal and with an admixture of slag. In more advanced variants of minor furnaces, the liquid slag released from the mountain of the groove.

From the city critic, which was removed from the furnace in a hot-cropped form, it was possible to produce products only after pre-removing this slag impurity and eliminate porosity. Therefore, the immediate continuation of the cheese process was a hot forging of a mining critic, which consisted in its periodic heating to "bright white crown" (1400-1450 degrees) and in the docking by a shock tool. As a result, a more dense mass of metal was obtained - actually crocheted, from which semi-finished products and billets of the corresponding blacksmiths were made. Even before processing in a semi-finished product, Krizz could become a unit of exchange, for which it was given a standard size, mass and convenient for warehousing and transporting shape - a lepthekoid, spindle-shaped, bipyramidal, stripped. For the same purposes, semi-finished products themselves can give the form of workers and weapons of weapons.

The opening of the cheese process could occur as a result of the smelting of copper or lead from ores in a melting furnace in addition to copper ore and charcoal, iron-containing rocks, primarily hematite. In connection with this already in The first particles of iron could be accidentally emerging with the result of the copper-smelting process. It is possible that the corresponding furnaces could serve as a prototype of cheese.

Tools and products of the cheese and blacksmithing process:
1-9 - crims 10-13 - semi-finished products in the form of Tesla, axes and knives; 14 - Stone Pest to crush ore; 15 is a ceramic nozzle for supplying air to a cheese-cutting furnace.

Findings of the earliest crops are associated with the territories of Malaya Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is not by chance that it is from these regions that the oldest products from ore iron are also occurred.

This is the blade of the dagger from Tell-Ashmar (2800 BC) and a dagger with a golden handle from the aforementioned Tomb of Aladja-Hayuk (2400- 2100 BC), the iron blade of which, for a long time considered Meteorite, with spectrographic analysis, discovered an extremely low nickel content, which speaks in favor of its ore or mixed nature (combination of meteorite and ore raw materials).

On the territory of the former USSR, experiments on the development of shock gland are intensely proceeded in the Transcaucasus, in the North Caucasus and in the Northern Black Sea region.

We have reached such early iron products on an ore-based basis, like the Knife of the first quarter of the II thousand BC. From the burial of the catacomb culture from p. Gerasimovka (Belgorod region), knife and awl to the third quarter of the second thousand BC. From the settlements of the Cubean Culture Lyubov (Kharkiv region) and Tatsgyk (Nikolaev region). The opening of the cheese process is the most important step in the development of iron by mankind, for if the meteorite iron is relatively rare, then iron ores are spread much wider than copper and tin. At the same time, iron ores often locate very shallow; In a number of areas, such as in the Forest-Dean field in the UK or the Krivoy Rog in Ukraine, iron ore could be mined during surface development. Swampy iron ores are widespread, especially in the northern regions of the zone of moderate climate, as well as the ores of the turf, meadow, etc.

The cheese process was constantly evolving: the volume of furnaces increased, the blowing was improved, etc. However, objects from shock gland were not solid until the method was opened to obtain steel (iron alloy with carbon) and have not yet achieved an increase in the hardness and strength of steel products by special thermal processing.

Initially, cementation was mastered - intentional carbonization of iron. As such a carburization, but a random, unintended, which brought to the appearance of the so-called raw steel, could occur earlier during the cheese process. But then this process was adjustable and carried out separately from cheese. At first, cementation was carried out through the many hours of heating of the iron product or the workpiece to "red cagine" (750-900 degrees) in wood or bone medium; Then began to use other organic substances containing carbon. At the same time, the depth of the carburization was directly proportional to the height of the temperature and the duration of the heating of iron. With an increase in carbon content, metal hardness increased.

An increase in the hardness was also aimed at an order, consisting in a sharp cooling of a steel stuff in water, in the snow, in olive oil or in any other liquid.

Most likely, the process of hardening, like the carburization, was discovered by chance, and his physical essence, naturally, remained a mystery for ancient Kuznetsov, which we often encounter in writing sources with very fantastic explanations of the reasons for enhancing the hardness of iron products when hardening. For example, the chronicle of the IX century. BC. From the Temple of Balgaal in Malaya Asia, he prescribes the next way to quenching: "You need to heat the dagger until he lit up, as the sun rising in the desert, then cool it to the color of the royal purple, immersing the body of the muscular slave ... the power of the slave, moving to the dagger ... gives the metal hardness". At just as ancient times, the famous fragment from Odyssey, created, probably in the VIII century. BC: here burning the eyes of the Cyclopes "the edge of the hot" olive cola ("Odyssey", the song IX, Strk. 375-395. Per. V.A. Zhukovsky) is compared with the immersion of the grinding steel ax or secrets into cold water , and the homer does not accidentally use to describe the hardening process the same verb, which were designated medical and magical actions - obviously, the mechanisms of these phenomena were for the Greeks of that time equally mysterious

However, the hardened steel was inherent in a certain fragility. In this regard, the ancient masters, seeking to increase the strength of the steel product, improved thermal processing; In some cases, they used an operation opposite to hardening - thermal leave, i.e. Heating the product only to the lower threshold of "red cagine", at which the transformation of the structure occurs - to a temperature not exceeding 727 degrees. As a result, the hardness decreased somewhat, but the strength of the product increased.

In general, the development of cementation and thermal processing operations is a long and very complex process. Most researchers believe that the area where the whole of all the opening of these operations (as well as the most cheese process) occurred and where their improvement went faster than all, was a small Asia, and primarily the area of \u200b\u200bHittite residence and related tribes, especially the anti-Anti-Mountain, where already in the last quarter of the II thousand BC Delivered high-quality steel products.

It is the improvement of the technologies for processing cryphic iron and production of steel finally solved the problem of competition between iron and bronze. Along with this, in the change of the Bronze Age, a wider prevalence and comparative ease of iron ore development played an essential role.

In addition, for some areas of Okumen, devoid of non-ferrous metal ores, an additional factor in the development of ferrous metallurgy was that, for various reasons, traditional connections of these regions with ore sources that provided non-ferrous metallurgy were broken.

The Offensive of the Iron Age: Chronology and Geography of the Process, the main cultural and historical consequences

The advanced area in the development of iron, where the Iron Age began in the last quarter of the II thousand BC, was, as already mentioned, Malaya Asia (district of the Hittt kingdom), as well as closely related to her East Mediterranean and Transcaucasia.

It is not by chance that the first indisputable written evidence of the production and use of curvature gland and became reached us from the texts, one way or another related to the hitts.

From the texts translated by the hitts of their predecessors - Hattov, it follows that the Hatta already knew the iron well that had rather ritual-ritual for them than domestic value. However, in these Hatt and the oldest hatt texts ("the text of the anithi" of the XVIII century. BC) can spell about products from meteorite, and not ore iron.

The earliest undoubted written references on the products from ore ("screaming") iron appear in the Hett clinical signs of the XV-XIII centuries. BC, in particular in the message of the Hett Tsar Pharaoh Roses II (end of the XIV - the beginning of the XIII century. BC) with a message about sending the last ship loaded with iron. It is also a clinical signs from the neighboring the kingdom of the Mitarian kingdom, addressed to the Egyptians and therefore the second half of the XV-early XIV in the famous "AMARN archive". BC. - The correspondence of the pharaohs of the XVIII dynasty with the rulers of the countries of Front Asia. It is noteworthy that in the Hichtt Message to the Assyrian king of the XIII century. BC. The term "good iron" appears indicating steel. All this is confirmed by the findings of a significant amount of iron products on a ore-based basis on the monuments of the Novokhettsky kingdom of the XIV-XII centuries. BC, as well as steel products in Palestine already in the XII century. BC. And in Cyprus in the X century. BC.

Under the influence of Malaya Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the II - early I thousand BC. The Iron Age comes in Mesopotamia and Iran.

Thus, during the excavations of the Palace of the Assyrian Tsar Sargon II in Horsabad (the last quarter of the VIII century BC), about 160 tons of iron were found, mainly in the form of bipiramidal and spine-shaped commodity cries, - probably offering with subject territories.

From Iran, ferrous metallurgy extends to India, where the era of iron is counted from the beginning of the first thousand BC. There is a sufficient number of written certificates of the development of iron in India (both Indian, starting with Rigveda and later Neindian, in particular ancient Greek).

Under the influence of Iran and India in the VIII century. BC. The era of iron comes in Central Asia. North, in the steppes of Asia, the Iron Age begins not earlier than the VI-V centuries. BC.
In China, the development of ferrous metallurgy went quite apart. Because of the highest level of local bridal production, providing China with high-quality metal products, the era
Iron begins here not earlier than the middle of the i thousand BC. At the same time, written sources (Schizin VIII century BC, comments to the confusion of the VI century. BC) record the earlier acquaintance of the Chinese with iron. And yet for the first half of the I thousand BC. Excavations identified only a small number of items from ore iron actually Chinese production. A significant increase in the number, assortment and range of local iron and steel products began here from the middle of I thousand BC. At the same time, in the second half of the I thousand BC. Chinese masters became the first in the world to purposefully produce cast iron (iron-based alloy with higher than steel, carbon content) and, using its lightweight, produce most of the products not using forging, but by casting.

The researchers admit that cast iron, like iron, could initially form randomly when smelting copper from ores in a melting furnace under certain conditions. And although this phenomenon probably occurred not only in China, only this ancient civilization on the basis of the relevant observations came to the deliberate production of cast iron. Following this, as a number of scientists believes, in ancient China, for the first time, the practice of maidging iron and steel is caused by reducing carbon content in cast iron, heated and left outdoors. At the same time, steel in China was obtained with the help of iron cementation.

The Korea of \u200b\u200bthe Iron Age comes in the second half of the I thousand BC, and in Japan - in the III-II centuries. BC. In Indochier and Indonesia, the Iron Age begins with the turn of the ER.

Turning to Europe, we note that through the Greek cities of Malaya Asia, iron skills are distributed at the end of the II thousand to AD. At the Aegean Islands and to European Greece, where the era of iron comes around x century. BC. Since then, in Greece, commodity cries are spread - spindle-shaped and in the form of rods, and the dead are burying, as a rule, with iron swords. By the end of the VI century. BC. The ancient Greek masters have already enjoyed such important gland tools such as hinged tongs, an amid saw, and by the end of the IV century. BC. - iron spring scissors and a hinged circulation. It brightly reflects the development of iron and in ancient Greek texts: so, in "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Homer mentions various products from iron, and the operation of steel ordering; Gesiod in "Theogonia" metaphorically characterizes the simplest way to produce iron from ore in the pit; Aristotle in "Meteorological" briefly describes the cheese process and deliberately obtained steel.

On the rest of Europe outside the Greek civilization, the Iron Age comes later: in Western and Central Europe - in the VIII-VII centuries. BC, in southwestern Europe - in the VII-VI centuries. BC, in Britain - in V- I bb. BC, in Northern Europe - at the turn of the ER.

Turning to Eastern Europe, it should be noted that in those of its regions that were leading in a metallurgical relation - in the Northern Black Sea region, in the North Caucasus and in Volgo-Kamie - the period of primary development of iron was completed in the IX-VIII centuries. BC, that manifested itself in the spread of bimetallic items, in particular daggers and swords whose handles were cast from bronze on individual models, and the blades were made from iron. They became prototypes of subsequent cellular daggers and swords. In the same period, along with an Eastern European tradition based on the use of iron and raw steel, the products developed in the framework of the Transcaucasian tradition involving the deliberate production of steel (cementation of the iron product or workpiece) penetrate into these regions.

Nevertheless, a significant quantitative increase in iron products in Eastern Europe is associated with the VIII-VII centuries. BC, when the era of iron begins here itself. The technology of manufacturing the first iron products on an ore-based basis, previously limited by operations of primitive hot forge and the simplest blacksmith welding, is now enriched with the skills of molding forging (using special conchs and stamps) and blacksmithing welding of several plates of braziness or folded together.

The advanced areas of the iron processing during this period on the territory of the former USSR were the prediccase and the Transcaucasia, a forest-steppe subway and Volga-Kamye. By the same time, the gradual start of the era of iron in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe can also be taken, excluding deep taiga and tundra territories.

On the territory of the Urals and Siberia, the Epoch of Iron earlier comes in the steppe, forest-steppe and mountain forest regions - within the framework of the so-called Siberian Siberian Cultural and Historical Oblast and in the Zone of the Itvkulsky culture. In Taiga, Siberia and the Far East in the middle - the second half of the I thousand BC. The bronze age also actually continues, but the corresponding monuments are closely interrelated with the cultures of the early Iron Age (excluding the northern part of the taiga and tundra).

In Africa, the Iron Age is previously installed in the Mediterranean coast area (in the VI century. BC), and above all in Egypt - in the period of the 26th dynasty (663-525 BC); However, there is an opinion that the era of iron in Egypt began in the IX century. BC. In addition, in the middle of the I thousand BC. The era of iron begins in Nubia and Sudan (Merbonic, or Kushitskoye, Kingdom), as well as in a number of areas of Western and Central Africa (in particular, in the zone of the so-called NOC culture in Nigeria), at the turn of the ER - in East Africa, closer to the middle I thousand AD - In South Africa.

Finally, not earlier than the middle of the II thousand AD, with the arrival of Europeans, the Iron Age came in most other areas of Africa, as well as in America, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Such is the approximate chronology of the occurrence of the era of iron in various parts of the Okumen. The final frontier of the early Iron Age and, accordingly, the beginning of the late iron century is usually conventionally associated with the collapse of the ancient civilization and the onset of the Middle Ages.

There are other versions on this. So, in the Western European and domestic archeology in the XIX-early XX century. There was a concept of an average Iron Age as a transition period from an early to late, and the line between the early and middle iron century was synchronized with the frontier of the ER and was largely determined by the spread of provincial-Roman culture in the territory of Western Europe. Although the concept of "Middle Iron Age" has since used consuming, in Western European science, there is still a tradition to leave the early items outside of our era.

In relation to the finals of the era of iron, there are different opinions. It is assumed that this era continued to an industrial coup or even lasts at this time, for now alloys on the base of iron - steel and cast iron are one of the main construction materials.

With the onset of the Iron Age, agriculture is improved, because the use of iron guns facilitates the processing of the Earth, it allows you to clear the large forest territory under the crop, develop the irrigation system. It improves wood treatment, stone, as a result of which a construction case is developing; Melts and mining copper ore. The use of iron leads to the improvement of offensive and defensive weapons, horse equipment, wheeled vehicles. The development of production and transport leads to an expansion of trade relations, as a result, a monetary case appears. In many professional societies, social inequality strengthens, as a result, new foci of statehood arise. These are the most significant changes in the global historical and cultural situation associated with the development of iron.

the archaeological era with which the use of items made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron furnaces dating back to the 1st floor. II thousand BC. Detected in the territory of Western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and the forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early binding formations of Scythian and Saki types (approximately the 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. In Asia and Europe began, almost simultaneously. The early iron century is also called the first stage of the Iron Age of the border of which are the final stages of the era of the great resettlement of peoples (IV-VI centuries. N.E.). In general, the Iron Age includes all the Middle Ages, and on the basis of the definition, this era lasts so far.

On the territory of the USSR, iron earlier appeared in the Transcaucasia.