Iron Age. General characteristics of the Iron Age

Archaeological era, which begins the use of items made from iron ore. The earliest iron-making furnaces, dating from the 1st half. II millennium BC found on the territory of Western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the formation of the early nomadic formations of the Scythian and Saka types (approximately VIII-VII centuries BC). In Africa, it came immediately after the Stone Age (the Bronze Age is missing). In America, the beginning of the Iron Age is associated with European colonization. In Asia and Europe it started almost simultaneously. Often, only the first stage of the Iron Age is called the Early Iron Age, the border of which is the final stages of the Migration Period (IV-VI centuries AD). In general, the Iron Age includes all the Middle Ages, and based on the definition, this era still lasts.

The discovery of iron and the invention of the metallurgical process was very difficult. If copper and tin are found in nature in a pure form, then iron is found only in chemical compounds, mainly with oxygen, as well as with other elements. No matter how much iron ore is kept in a fire, it will not melt, and this path of "accidental" discovery, which is possible for copper, tin and some other metals, is excluded for iron. Loose brown stone, such as iron ore, was not suitable for the manufacture of tools by upholstery. Finally, even reduced iron melts at very high temperatures - over 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. The invention of bellows for blowing air into smelting furnaces was especially important. Such furs were used in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the flow of oxygen into the furnace, which not only increased the temperature in it, but also created conditions for a successful chemical reaction of metal reduction. A metallurgical furnace, even a primitive one, is a kind of chemical retort, in which not so much physical as chemical processes take place. Such a stove was made of stone and covered with clay (or it was made of clay alone) on a massive clay or stone base. The thickness of the walls of the furnace 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 mine was set on fire, and the grill was taken out through it. Archaeologists use the Old Russian name for the furnace for "cooking" iron - "blast furnace". The process itself is called cheese-blowing. This term emphasizes the importance of blowing air into a blast furnace filled with iron ore and coal.

At raw-blowing process more than half of the iron was lost in the slags, which at 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 for obtaining iron.

Unlike bronze items, iron items could not be made by casting, they were forged. The forging process had a thousand-year history at the time of the discovery of iron metallurgy. Forged on a metal support - an anvil. A piece of iron was first heated in a forge, and then the blacksmith, holding it with tongs on the anvil, hit the place with a small hand hammer, where his assistant then struck, hitting the iron with a heavy sledgehammer.

Iron was first mentioned in the correspondence of the Egyptian pharaoh with the Hittite king, preserved in the archive of the XIV century. BC NS. in Amarna (Egypt). From this time, small iron products have come down to 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, in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, a gold bracelet with iron inlay and a whole series of iron things were found. Iron inlays are known elsewhere as well.

On the territory of the USSR, iron first appeared in the Transcaucasus.

Iron things began to quickly displace bronze ones, since iron, unlike copper and tin, is found almost everywhere. Iron ores are found in mountainous areas and in swamps, not only deep underground, but also on its surface. At present, bog ore is not of industrial interest, but in ancient times it was of great importance. Thus, the countries that had a monopoly in the production of bronze lost their monopoly on the production of metal. Countries poor in copper ores, with the discovery of iron, quickly caught up with the countries that were advanced in the Bronze Age.

Scythians

Scythians are an exoethnonym of Greek origin, applied to a group of peoples who lived in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia in the era of antiquity. The ancient Greeks called the country where the Scythians lived, Scythia.

In our time, the Scythians in the narrow sense are usually understood as Iranian-speaking nomads who in the past occupied the territories of Ukraine, Moldova, South Russia, Kazakhstan and part of Siberia. This does not exclude a different ethnicity of some of the tribes, which were also called Scythians by ancient authors.

Information about the Scythians comes mainly from the works of ancient authors (especially the "History" of Herodotus) and archaeological excavations in the lands from the lower Danube to Siberia and Altai. The Scythian-Sarmatian language, as well as the Alanic language derived from it, was part of the northeastern branch of the Iranian languages ​​and was probably the ancestor of the modern Ossetian language, as indicated by hundreds of Scythian personal names, tribal names, 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 peoples completely different in origin who inhabited the Eurasian steppes and the northern Black Sea region: in sources of the 3rd-4th centuries AD, "Scythians" are often called and the German-speaking Goths, in later Byzantine sources the Eastern Slavs - Russia, the Turkic-speaking Khazars and Pechenegs, as well as the Alans, related to the ancient Iranian-speaking Scythians - were called Scythians.

Occurrence. The basis of the early Indo-European, including the Scythian, culture is actively studied by the supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. Archaeologists attribute the formation of a relatively generally recognized Scythian culture to the 7th century BC. NS. (Arzhan burial mounds). At the same time, 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, expelling what can archeologically be interpreted as coming from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, from Tuva or some other regions of Central Asia (see Pazyryk culture).

Another approach, which can also rely on the legends recorded by Herodotus, suggests that the Scythians by that time inhabited the territory of the Northern Black Sea region for at least several centuries, separating from the environment of the successors of the Srubna culture.

Maria Gimbutas and scholars of her circle attribute the appearance of the ancestors of the Scythians (horse domestication cultures) to 5-4 thousand BC. NS. According to other versions, these ancestors are associated with other cultures. They also appear as the descendants of the carriers of the Timber-era culture of the Bronze Age, who advanced from the XIV century. BC NS. from the territory of 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 Maria Gimbutas extend towards further research into the origins of the Scythian origin.

Grain farming was of great importance. The Scythians produced grain for export, in particular to the Greek cities, and through them - to the Greek metropolis. The production of grain required the use of slave labor. The bones of slain 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 the blinding of slaves, which does not agree with the assumption of patriarchal slavery among the Scythians. Agricultural tools, in particular sickles, are found in Scythian settlements, however, arable tools are extremely rare, probably all of them were made of wood and did not have iron parts. The fact that agriculture among the Scythians was plowed is judged not so much by the finds of these tools, but by the amount of grain produced by the Scythians, which would be many times less if the land were cultivated with a hoe.

Fortified settlements appear relatively late, at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries. BC e., when the Scythians received sufficient development of crafts and trade.

According to Herodotus, the royal Scythians were dominant - the easternmost of the Scythian tribes, bordering on the Don with the Savromats, also occupied the steppe Crimea. To the west of them lived the Scythian nomads, and even to the 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, the Callipids, or Hellenic-Scythians, lived, to the north of them - the Alazones, and even further north - the Scythians-Ploughmen, and Herodotus points to agriculture as differences from the Scythians of the last three tribes and specifies that if the Callipids and Alazones grow and eat bread, then the Scythians-Pahari grow bread for sale.

The Scythians already fully owned the production of ferrous metal. Other types of production are also presented: bone-cutting, pottery, weaving. But the level of craft has so far reached only metallurgy.

At the Kamenskoye settlement there are two lines of fortifications: external and internal. The interior is called the acropolis by archaeologists by analogy with the corresponding division of Greek cities. The remains of stone dwellings of the Scythian nobility are traced on the acropolis. Ordinary dwellings were mostly above ground. 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-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 where the shaft of the arrow is inserted. Classical Scythian arrows are also socketed, they resemble a three-sided 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 arrow production.

Scythian pottery was made without the aid of a potter's wheel, although the circle was widely used in the Greek colonies neighboring the Scythians. Scythian vessels are flat-bottomed and varied in shape. Scythian bronze cauldrons with a height of up to a meter, which had a long and thin stem and two vertical arms, became widespread.

Scythian art is well known mainly for objects from burials. It is characterized by the image of animals in certain poses and with exaggeratedly noticeable paws, eyes, claws, horns, ears, etc. Ungulates (deer, goat) were depicted with bent legs, predators of feline breeds - curled up in a ring. In Scythian art, strong or fast and sensitive animals are represented, which corresponds to the desire of the Scythian to overtake, strike, 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 carnivores were often shaped like the head of a bird of prey; sometimes complete images of animals were placed in these places. This artistic style has received the name of the animal style in archeology. In the early years in the Trans-Volga region, animal ornament was evenly distributed between representatives of the nobility and privates. In the IV-III centuries. BC NS. the animal style is degenerating, and objects with a similar ornament are presented mainly in the burials. The most famous and best studied are Scythian burials. The Scythians buried the dead in pits or in catacombs, under mounds. lah of the nobility. The famous Scythian burial mounds are located in the area of ​​the Dnieper rapids. In the royal mounds of the Scythians, they find golden vessels, art items made of gold, and expensive weapons. Thus, a new phenomenon is observed in the Scythian burial mounds - a strong property stratification. There are small and huge burial mounds, some burials without things, others with a huge amount of gold.

Iron age

an era in the primitive and early class history of mankind, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. The idea of ​​three centuries: stone, bronze and iron - arose in the ancient world (Titus Lucretius Carus). The term "J. v." was introduced to science around the middle of the 19th century. Danish archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen om. The most important research, the initial classification and dating of the monuments of the Zh. Century. in Western Europe they were made by the Austrian scientist M. Görnes, the Swedish scientist O. Montelius and O. Oberg, the German one O. Tischler and P. Reinecke, the French one J. Dechelet, the Czech one I. Peach, and the Polish one J. Kostrzewski; in Eastern Europe - Russian and Soviet scientists V.A.Gorodtsov, A.A. Spitsyn, Yu.V. Gauthier, P.N. BN Grakov and others; in Siberia - S. A. Teploukhov, S. V. Kiselev, S. I. Rudenko and others; in the Caucasus - B. A. Kuftin, A. A. Jessen, B. B. Piotrovsky, E. I. Krupnov and others; in Central Asia - S.P. Tolstov, A.N.Bernshtam, A.I. Terenozhkin and others.

The period of the initial spread of the iron industry was experienced by all countries at different times, but by the Zh. Century. usually only the cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of the ancient slave-owning civilizations that arose in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China, etc.) are considered. Zh. In. in comparison with previous archaeological eras (Stone and Bronze Ages) is very short. Its chronological boundaries: from the 9th-7th centuries. BC BC, when many of the primitive tribes of Europe and Asia developed their own iron metallurgy, and until the time when these tribes developed a class society and state. Some modern foreign scholars, who consider the time of the appearance of written sources to be the end of primitive history, attribute the end of life to the era. Western Europe to the 1st century. BC e., when there are Roman written sources containing information about Western European tribes. Since to this day iron remains the most important metal, from the alloys of which tools of labor are made, the term "early life style" is also used for archaeological periodization of primitive history. On the territory of Western Europe, the early Zh. Century. only its beginning is called (the so-called Hallstatt culture). Initially, meteorite iron became known to mankind. Selected iron items (mainly ornaments) of the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC NS. found in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The method of obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the 2nd millennium BC. NS. According to one of the most probable assumptions, the raw-blown process (see below) was first used by tribes subordinate to the Hittites who lived in the mountains of Armenia (Antitavr) in the 15th century. BC NS. However, for a long time, iron remained a rare and very valuable metal. Only after the 11th century. BC NS. a fairly widespread manufacture of iron weapons and tools began in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and India. At the same time, iron became famous in southern Europe. In the 11-10th centuries. BC NS. some iron objects penetrate into the region north of the Alps and are found in the steppes of the south of the European part of the present-day USSR, but iron tools began to prevail in these areas only from the 8th to 7th centuries. BC NS. In the 8th century. BC NS. iron products are widely distributed in Mesopotamia, Iran, and somewhat later in Central Asia. The first news of iron in China dates back to the 8th century. BC e., but it spreads only from the 5th century. BC NS. In Indochina and Indonesia, iron predominates at the turn of our era. Apparently, from ancient times, iron metallurgy was known to various tribes in Africa. Undoubtedly, already in the 6th century. BC NS. iron was made in Nubia, Sudan, Libya. In the 2nd century. BC NS. Zh. In. came in the central region of Africa. Some African tribes passed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, bypassing the Bronze Age. In America, Australia and most of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, iron (except for meteorite) became known only in the 16th and 17th centuries. n. NS. with the advent of Europeans in these areas.

In contrast to the relatively rare deposits of copper and especially tin, iron ores, however, most often low-grade (brown iron ores) are found almost everywhere. But getting iron from ores is much more difficult than copper. Iron smelting was inaccessible for the ancient metallurgists. Iron was obtained in a dough-like state using a cheese-blowing process (See Cheese-blowing process) , which consisted in the reduction of iron ore at a temperature of about 900-1350 ° C in special furnaces - forges with air blowing by forging bellows through a nozzle. At the bottom of the furnace, a crust formed - a lump of porous iron weighing 1-5 kg, which had to be forged to compact, as well as to remove slag from it. Raw iron is a very soft metal; tools and weapons made of pure iron had poor mechanical qualities. Only with the opening in the 9-7 centuries. BC NS. Methods of making steel from iron and its heat treatment, the widespread dissemination of the new material begins. The higher mechanical properties of iron and steel, as well as the general availability of iron ores and the cheapness of the new metal, ensured the displacement of bronze, as well as stone, which remained an important material for the production of tools in the Bronze Age. This did not happen immediately. In Europe, only in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. NS. iron and steel began to play a really significant role as materials for the manufacture of tools and weapons. The technical revolution caused by the spread of iron and steel greatly expanded the power of man over nature: it became possible to clear large forest areas for sowing, expand and improve irrigation and reclamation facilities, and improve the land cultivation in general. The development of handicrafts, especially blacksmiths and weapons, is accelerating. The processing of wood for the purposes of house building, the production of vehicles (ships, chariots, etc.), and the manufacture of various utensils is being improved. Craftsmen, from shoemakers and bricklayers to miners, also received better tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of handicraft and agricultural. hand tools (except for screws and hinged scissors), used in the Middle Ages, and partially in modern times, were already in use. The construction of roads became easier, military equipment improved, exchange expanded, and metal coins became a medium of circulation.

The development of the productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time, led to the transformation of all social life. As a result of the growth in labor productivity, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of exploitation of man by man, the collapse of the tribal primitive communal system. One of the sources of the accumulation of values ​​and the growth of property inequality was the expanding economy in the era of the Zh. Century. exchange. The possibility of enrichment through exploitation gave rise to wars with the aim of plunder and enslavement. At the beginning of the Zh. Century. fortifications are widespread. In the era of Zh. Century. the tribes of Europe and Asia were going through a stage of disintegration of the primitive communal system, were on the eve of the emergence of a class society and state. The transfer of certain means of production to the private ownership of the dominant minority, the emergence of slavery, the increased stratification of society and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already typical features of early class societies. For many tribes, the social structure of this transitional period took the political form of the so-called. military democracy (See Military Democracy).

Zh. In. on the territory of the USSR. On the modern territory of the USSR, iron first appeared at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. in Transcaucasia (Samtavr burial ground) and in the south of the European part of the USSR. The development of iron in Racha (Western Georgia) dates back to ancient times. The Mossinoiks and Khalibs who lived in the neighborhood of the Kolkhs were famous as metallurgists. However, the widespread use of iron metallurgy in the USSR dates back to the 1st millennium BC. NS. In Transcaucasia, a number of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age are known, the flowering of which dates back to the early life of the West: the Central Transcaucasian culture with local foci in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the Kyzyl-Vank culture (see Kyzyl-Vank), Colchis culture , Urartian culture (see Urartu). In the North Caucasus: Koban culture, Kayakent-Khorochoev culture and the Kuban culture. In the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region in the 7th century. BC NS. - the first centuries A.D. NS. Inhabited by tribes of the Scythians, who created the most developed culture of the early Zh. century. on the territory of the USSR. Iron products are found in abundance in settlements and in barrows of the Scythian time. Signs of metallurgical production were found during excavations of a number of Scythian settlements. The largest amount of remains of iron-making and blacksmiths was found at the Kamenskoye settlement (see Kamenskoye settlement) (5-3 centuries BC) near Nikopol, which was apparently the center of a specialized metallurgical region of ancient Scythia (see Scythians). Iron tools contributed to the widespread development of all kinds of crafts and the spread of arable farming among the local tribes of the Scythian time. The period following the Scythian period of the early Zh. Century. in the steppes of the Black Sea region is represented by the Sarmatian culture (see Sarmatians), which prevailed here from the 2nd century. BC NS. up to 4 c. n. NS. In the preceding time, from the 7th century. BC NS. Sarmatians (or Savromats) lived between the Don and the Urals. In the first centuries A.D. NS. one of the Sarmatian tribes - Alans - began to play a significant historical role and gradually the very name of the Sarmatians was supplanted by the name of the Alans. By the same time, when the Sarmatian tribes dominated the Northern Black Sea region, the culture of “burial fields” that spread in the western regions of the Northern Black Sea region, the Upper and Middle Dnieper and Transnistria (Zarubinets culture, Chernyakhovsk culture, etc.). These cultures belonged to agricultural tribes who knew the metallurgy of iron, among which, according to some scientists, were the ancestors of the Slavs. The tribes inhabiting the central and northern forest regions of the European part of the USSR were familiar with iron metallurgy from the 6th-5th centuries. BC NS. In the 8-3 centuries. BC NS. In the Kama region, the Anan'insk culture was widespread, which is characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools, with the latter's undoubted superiority at the end. The Ananyin culture on the Kama was replaced by the Pianobor culture (late 1st millennium BC - 1st half of the 1st millennium AD).

In the Upper Volga region and in the regions of the Volga-Oka interfluve to the Zh. Century. the settlements of the Dyakovskaya culture belong to (See.Dyakovskaya culture) (mid-1st millennium BC - mid-1st millennium AD), Volga, in the river basin. Tsna and Moksha are ancient settlements of the Gorodets culture (see Gorodets culture) (7th century BC - 5th century AD), which belonged to the ancient Finno - Ugric tribes. Numerous settlements of the 6th century are known in the Upper Dnieper region. BC NS. - 7th century n. e., belonging to the ancient East Baltic tribes, later absorbed by the Slavs. The settlements of the same tribes are known in the southeastern Baltic, where along with them there are remnants of culture that belonged to the ancestors of the ancient Estonian (Chud) tribes.

In southern Siberia and Altai, due to the abundance of copper and tin, the bronze industry developed strongly, successfully competing with iron for a long time. Although iron products apparently appeared already in the early Mayemir period (Altai; 7th century BC), iron was widely spread only in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. (Tagar culture on the Yenisei, Pazyryk burial mounds in Altai, etc.). Cultures of Zh. In. are represented in other parts of Siberia and the Far East. On the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan up to 8-7 centuries. BC NS. tools and weapons were also made of bronze. The appearance of iron products both in agricultural oases and in the pastoral steppe can be attributed to the 7-6 centuries. BC NS. Throughout the 1st millennium BC. NS. and in the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD. NS. The steppes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan were inhabited by numerous Sako-Usun tribes, in whose culture iron became widespread from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. In agricultural oases, the time of the appearance of iron coincides with the emergence of the first slave states (Bactria, Sogd, Khorezm).

Zh. In. in Western Europe, it is usually divided into 2 periods - Hallstatt (900-400 BC), which was also called the early, or first Zh. century, and Laten (400 BC - early AD) , which is called late, or the second. Hallstatt culture was spread on the territory of modern Austria, Yugoslavia, Northern Italy, partly Czechoslovakia, where it was created by the ancient Illyrians, and on the territory of modern Germany and the Rhine departments of France, where Celtic tribes lived. The culture close to Hallstatt dates back to this time: the Thracian tribes in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, Etruscan, Ligurian, Italic, and other tribes on the Apennine Peninsula, and the culture of the beginning of the Zh. Century. Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Turdetans, Lusitanians, etc.) and the late Luzhitsk culture in the basins of the river. Oder and Vistula. The early Hallstatt time was characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools and weapons and the gradual displacement of bronze. Economically, this era is characterized by the growth of agriculture, socially - by the disintegration of clan relations. The Bronze Age still existed in the north of the present-day GDR and the FRG, in Scandinavia, Western France, and England. From the beginning of the 5th century. the La Tene culture spreads, characterized by a genuine flourishing of the iron industry. The La Tene culture existed before the Roman conquest of Gaul (1st century BC), the area of ​​distribution of the La Tene culture - land west of the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean along the middle Danube and north of it. The La Tene culture is associated with the Celtic tribes, who had large fortified cities, which were the centers of the tribes and places of concentration of various crafts. In this era, the Celts gradually created a class slave-owning society. Bronze tools are no longer found, but iron is most widespread in Europe during the period of the Roman conquests. At the beginning of our era, in the areas conquered by Rome, the La Tene culture was replaced by the so-called. provincial Roman culture. In northern Europe, iron spread almost 300 years later than in the south. By the end of the Zh. Century. refers to the culture of the Germanic tribes who lived in the area between the North Sea and the river. Rhine, Danube and Elbe, as well as in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and archaeological cultures, the carriers of which are considered the ancestors of the Slavs. In the northern countries, the complete domination of iron came only at the beginning of our era.

Lit .: Engels F., The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., Vol. 21; Avdusin DA, Archeology of the USSR, [M.], 1967; Artsikhovsky A. V., Introduction to archeology, 3rd ed., M., 1947; World history, t. 1-2, M., 1955-56; Gautier Yu. V., The Iron Age in Eastern Europe, M. - L., 1930; Grakov BN, The oldest finds of iron things in the European part of the territory of the USSR, "Soviet archeology", 1958, No. 4; Zagorulsky E. M., Archeology of Belarus, Minsk, 1965; History of the USSR from ancient times to the present day, vol. 1, M., 1966; Kiselev S. V., Ancient history of Southern Siberia, M., 1951; Clarke D.G.D., Prehistoric Europe. Economic essay, trans. from English, M., 1953; Krupnov EI, Ancient history of the North Caucasus, M., 1960; Mongayt A. L., Archeology in the USSR, M., 1955; Niederle L., Slavic antiquities, trans. from Czech., M., 1956; Piotrovsky B. B., Archeology of Transcaucasia from ancient times to 1 millennium BC. e., L., 1949; Tolstov S. P., On the ancient deltas of the Oks and Yaksart, M., 1962; Shovkoplyas I. G., Archaeological Precepts in Ukraine (1917-1957), K., 1957; Aitchison L., A history of metals, t. 1-2, L., 1960; CLark G., World prehistory, Camb., 1961; Forbes R. J., Studies in ancient technology, v. 8, Leiden, 1964; Johannsen O., Geschichte des Eisens, Düsseldorf, 1953; Laet S. J. de, La préhistoire de l'Europe, P.-Brux. 1967; Moora H., Die Eisenzeit in Lettland bis etwa 500 n. Chr. 1-2, Tartu (Dorpat), 1929-38; Piggott S., Ancient Europe, Edinburgh, 1965; Pleiner R., Staré europské kovářství, Praha, 1962; Tulecote R. F., Metallurgy in archeology, L., 1962.

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See what the "Iron Age" is in other dictionaries:

IRON AGE, a period in the development of mankind, associated with the development of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. Changed the Bronze Age, and in a number of regions the Stone Age. In the North Caucasus, iron tools were created from the 9th to 6th centuries. BC NS. under ... ... Russian history

IRON AGE, a historical period that began with the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools and weapons. Changed the Bronze Age at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC ... Modern encyclopedia

The Iron Age is a new stage in the development of mankind.
The Iron Age, an era in the primitive and early class history of mankind, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. Changed the Bronze Age mainly at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. NS. The use of iron gave a powerful stimulus to the development of production and accelerated social development. In the Iron Age, the majority of the peoples of Eurasia experienced the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the transition to a class society. The idea of ​​three centuries: stone, bronze and iron - arose in the ancient world (Titus Lucretius Carus). The term "Iron Age" was introduced into science around the middle of the 19th century. by the Danish archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen. The most important studies, the initial classification and dating of monuments to the Iron Age in Western Europe were made by the Austrian scientist M. Görnes, the Swedish scientist O. Montelius and O. Oberg, the German one O. Tischler and P. Reinecke, the French one J. Deschelet, the Czech one I. Peach and Polish - Y. Kostrzewski; in Eastern Europe - Russian and Soviet scientists V.A.Gorodtsov, A.A. Spitsyn, Yu.V. Gauthier, P.N. BN Grakov and others; in Siberia - S. A. Teploukhov, S. V. Kiselev, S. I. Rudenko and others; in the Caucasus - B. A. Kuftin, A. A. Jessen, B. B. Piotrovsky, E. I. Krupnov and others; in Central Asia - S.P. Tolstov, A.N.Bernshtam, A.I. Terenozhkin and others.
The period of the initial spread of the iron industry was experienced by all countries at different times, however, only the cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of ancient slave-owning civilizations that arose in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China, etc.) are usually referred to the Iron Age. ). The Iron Age is very short in comparison with the previous archaeological eras (Stone and Bronze Ages). Its chronological boundaries: from the 9th-7th centuries. BC BC, when many of the primitive tribes of Europe and Asia developed their own iron metallurgy, and until the time when these tribes developed a class society and state.
Some modern foreign scholars, who consider the time of the appearance of written sources to be the end of primitive history, attribute the end of life to the era. Western Europe to the 1st century. BC e., when there are Roman written sources containing information about Western European tribes. Since to this day iron remains the most important metal, from the alloys of which tools of labor are made, the term "early Iron Age" is also used for archaeological periodization of primitive history. On the territory of Western Europe, only its beginning is called the Early Iron Age (the so-called Hallstatt culture).
Initially, meteorite iron became known to mankind. Selected iron items (mainly ornaments) of the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC NS. found in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The method of obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the 2nd millennium BC. NS. According to one of the most probable assumptions, the raw-blown process (see below) was first used by tribes subordinate to the Hittites who lived in the mountains of Armenia (Antitavr) in the 15th century. BC NS. However, for a long time, iron remained a rare and very valuable metal. Only after the 11th century. BC NS. a fairly widespread manufacture of iron weapons and tools began in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and India. At the same time, iron became famous in southern Europe.
In the 11-10th centuries. BC NS. some iron objects penetrate into the region lying north of the Alps, are found in the steppes of the south of the European part of the modern territory of the USSR, but iron tools begin to prevail in these areas only from the 8th-7th centuries. BC NS. In the 8th century. BC NS. iron products are widely distributed in Mesopotamia, Iran, and somewhat later in Central Asia. The first news of iron in China dates back to the 8th century. BC e., but it spreads only from the 5th century. BC NS. In Indochina and Indonesia, iron predominates at the turn of our era. Apparently, from ancient times, iron metallurgy was known to various tribes in Africa. Undoubtedly, already in the 6th century. BC NS. iron was made in Nubia, Sudan, Libya. In the 2nd century. BC NS. the Iron Age began in the central region of Africa. Some African tribes passed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, bypassing the Bronze Age. In America, Australia and most of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, iron (except for meteorite) became known only in the 16th and 17th centuries. n. NS. with the advent of Europeans in these areas.
In contrast to the relatively rare deposits of copper and especially tin, iron ores, however, most often low-grade (brown iron ores) are found almost everywhere. But getting iron from ores is much more difficult than copper. Iron smelting was inaccessible for the ancient metallurgists. Iron was obtained in a dough-like state using a raw-blown process, which consisted in the reduction of iron ore at a temperature of about 900-1350 ° C in special furnaces - forges with air blowing with bellows through a nozzle. At the bottom of the furnace, a crumb formed - a lump of porous iron weighing 1-5 kg, which had to be hammered for compaction, as well as for removing slag from it.
Raw iron is a very soft metal; tools and weapons made of pure iron had poor mechanical qualities. Only with the opening in the 9-7 centuries. BC NS. Methods of making steel from iron and its heat treatment, the widespread dissemination of the new material begins. The higher mechanical properties of iron and steel, as well as the general availability of iron ores and the cheapness of the new metal, ensured the displacement of bronze, as well as stone, which remained an important material for the production of tools in the Bronze Age. This did not happen immediately. In Europe, only in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. NS. iron and steel began to play a really significant role as materials for the manufacture of tools and weapons.
The technical revolution caused by the spread of iron and steel greatly expanded the power of man over nature: it became possible to clear large forest areas for sowing, expand and improve irrigation and reclamation facilities, and improve the land cultivation in general. The development of handicrafts, especially blacksmiths and weapons, is accelerating. The processing of wood for the purposes of house building, the production of vehicles (ships, chariots, etc.), and the manufacture of various utensils is being improved. Craftsmen, from shoemakers and bricklayers to miners, also received better tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of handicraft and agricultural hand tools (except for screws and hinged scissors), used in the Middle Ages, and partially in modern times, were already in use. The construction of roads became easier, military equipment improved, exchange expanded, and metal coins became a medium of circulation.
The development of the productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time, led to the transformation of all social life. As a result of the growth in labor productivity, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of exploitation of man by man, the collapse of the tribal primitive communal system. One of the sources of the accumulation of values ​​and the growth of inequality in property was the expansion of exchange during the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment through exploitation gave rise to wars with the aim of plunder and enslavement. At the beginning of the Iron Age, fortifications were widespread. In the era of the Iron Age, the tribes of Europe and Asia experienced a stage of disintegration of the primitive communal system, were on the eve of the emergence of a class society and state. The transfer of certain means of production to the private ownership of the dominant minority, the emergence of slavery, the increased stratification of society and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already typical features of early class societies. For many tribes, the social structure of this transitional period took the political form of the so-called. military democracy.
The Iron Age on the territory of the USSR. On the modern territory of the USSR, iron first appeared at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. in Transcaucasia (Samtavr burial ground) and in the south of the European part of the USSR. The development of iron in Racha (Western Georgia) dates back to ancient times. The Mossinoiks and Khalibs who lived in the neighborhood of the Kolkhs were famous as metallurgists. However, the widespread use of iron metallurgy in the USSR dates back to the 1st millennium BC. NS. A number of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age are known in Transcaucasia, the flowering of which dates back to the early Iron Age: the Central Transcaucasian culture with local centers in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Kyzyl-Vank culture, the Colchis culture, the Urartian culture. In the North Caucasus: Koban culture, Kayakent-Khorochoev culture and Kuban culture.
In the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region in the 7th century. BC NS. - the first centuries A.D. NS. Inhabited by the Scythian tribes, who created the most developed culture of the early Iron Age on the territory of the USSR. Iron products are found in abundance in settlements and in barrows of the Scythian time. Signs of metallurgical production were found during excavations of a number of Scythian settlements. The largest amount of remains of iron-making and blacksmiths was found at the Kamensk settlement (5-3 centuries BC) near Nikopol, which was, apparently, the center of a specialized metallurgical region of ancient Scythia. Iron tools contributed to the widespread development of all kinds of crafts and the spread of arable farming among the local tribes of the Scythian time.
The period following the Scythian Early Iron Age in the steppes of the Black Sea region is represented by the Sarmatian culture, which prevailed here since the 2nd century. BC NS. up to 4 c. n. NS. In the preceding time, from the 7th century. BC NS. Sarmatians (or Savromats) lived between the Don and the Urals. In the first centuries A.D. NS. one of the Sarmatian tribes - the Alans - began to play a significant historical role and gradually the very name of the Sarmatians was supplanted by the name of the Alans. By the same time when the Sarmatian tribes dominated the Northern Black Sea region, the culture of “burial fields” (Zarubinets culture, Chernyakhov culture, etc.) that spread in the western regions of the Northern Black Sea region, the Upper and Middle Dnieper regions and Transnistria. These cultures belonged to agricultural tribes who knew the metallurgy of iron, among which, according to some scientists, were the ancestors of the Slavs. The tribes inhabiting the central and northern forest regions of the European part of the USSR were familiar with iron metallurgy from the 6th-5th centuries. BC NS. In the 8-3 centuries. BC NS. In the Kama region, the Ananyin culture was widespread, which is characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools, with the latter's undoubted superiority at the end. The Ananyin culture on the Kama was replaced by the Pianoborsk culture (late 1st millennium BC - 1st half of the 1st millennium AD).
In the Upper Volga region and in the regions of the Volga-Oka interfluve, the settlements of the Dyakovo culture (mid-1st millennium BC - mid-1st millennium AD) belong to the Iron Age, and in the territory to the south of the middle the course of the Oka, to the west of the Volga, in the basin of the river. Tsna and Moksha are ancient settlements of the Gorodets culture (7th century BC - 5th century AD), which belonged to the ancient Finno - Ugric tribes. Numerous settlements of the 6th century are known in the Upper Dnieper region. BC NS. - 7th century n. e., belonging to the ancient East Baltic tribes, later absorbed by the Slavs. The settlements of the same tribes are known in the southeastern Baltic, where along with them there are remnants of culture that belonged to the ancestors of the ancient Estonian (Chud) tribes.
In southern Siberia and Altai, due to the abundance of copper and tin, the bronze industry developed strongly, successfully competing with iron for a long time. Although iron products apparently appeared already in the early Mayemir period (Altai; 7th century BC), iron was widely spread only in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. (Tagar culture on the Yenisei, Pazyryk burial mounds in Altai, etc.). Iron Age cultures are also represented in other parts of Siberia and the Far East. On the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan up to 8-7 centuries. BC NS. tools and weapons were also made of bronze. The appearance of iron products both in agricultural oases and in the pastoral steppe can be attributed to the 7-6 centuries. BC NS. Throughout the 1st millennium BC. NS. and in the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD. NS. The steppes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan were inhabited by numerous Sako-Usun tribes, in whose culture iron became widespread from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. In agricultural oases, the time of the appearance of iron coincides with the emergence of the first slave states (Bactria, Sogd, Khorezm).
The Iron Age in Western Europe is usually divided into 2 periods - Hallstatt (900-400 BC), which was also called the early, or first Iron Age, and Laten (400 BC - early AD) , which is called late, or the second. Hallstatt culture was spread on the territory of modern Austria, Yugoslavia, Northern Italy, partly Czechoslovakia, where it was created by the ancient Illyrians, and on the territory of modern Germany and the Rhine departments of France, where the Celtic tribes lived. The culture close to Hallstatt dates back to this time: Thracian tribes in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, Etruscan, Ligurian, Italic and other tribes on the Apennine Peninsula, cultures of the early Iron Age of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Turdetans, Lusitanians, etc.) and the late Lusatian culture in the basins of the river. Oder and Vistula. The early Hallstatt time was characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools and weapons and the gradual displacement of bronze. Economically, this era is characterized by the growth of agriculture, socially - by the disintegration of clan relations. In the north of modern Germany, in Scandinavia, Western France and England, the Bronze Age still existed at this time. From the beginning of the 5th century. La Tene culture spreads, characterized by a genuine flourishing of the iron industry. The La Tene culture existed before the Romans conquered Gaul (1st century BC), the area of ​​the La Tene culture spread - the land west of the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean along the middle Danube and north of it. The La Tene culture is associated with the Celtic tribes, who had large fortified cities, which were the centers of the tribes and places of concentration of various crafts. In this era, the Celts gradually created a class slave-owning society. Bronze tools are no longer found, but iron is most widespread in Europe during the period of the Roman conquests. At the beginning of our era, in the areas conquered by Rome, the La Tene culture was replaced by the so-called. provincial Roman culture. In the north of Europe, iron spread almost 300 years later than in the south. The culture of the Germanic tribes inhabiting the territory between the North Sea and the river belongs to the end of the Iron Age. Rhine, Danube and Elbe, as well as in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and archaeological cultures, the carriers of which are considered the ancestors of the Slavs. In the northern countries, the complete domination of iron came only at the beginning of our era.

Major events and inventions:

• o mastering the methods of obtaining iron;
• o the development of blacksmithing, a revolution in the Iron Age technique: blacksmithing and construction, transport;
• o iron tools in agriculture, iron weapons;
• o education in the steppe and mountain-valley Eurasia of cultural and historical unity;
• o the formation of large cultural and historical formations in Eurasia.

Patterns and features of the archeology of the early Iron Age

The Early Iron Age in archeology is called the period of human history following the Bronze Age, marked by the development of methods for obtaining iron and the widespread distribution of products from pego.

The transition from bronze to iron took several centuries and was far from uniform. Some peoples, for example in India, in the Caucasus, recognized iron in the 10th century. BC, in Greece - in the XII century. BC, in Western Asia - at the turn of the 3rd -2nd millennia BC. The peoples inhabiting the territory of Russia mastered the new metal in the 7th-6th centuries. BC, and some later - only in the III-II centuries. BC.

The chronology of the early Iron Age accepted in science - the 7th century BC - V century. AD These dates are very conditional. The first is associated with classical Greece, the second - with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages. In Eastern Europe and North Asia, the early Iron Age is represented by two archaeological periods: Scythian (VII-III centuries BC) and Hunno-Sarmatian (II century BC - V century AD).

The name "Early Iron Age" given to this archaeological era in the history of Eurasia and all mankind is not accidental. The fact is that from the 1st millennium BC, i.e. since the beginning of the Iron Age, mankind, despite a number of subsequent inventions and the development of new materials, plastic substitutes, light metals, alloys, still continues to live in the Iron Age. Without iron, modern civilization could not exist, therefore it is the civilization of the Iron Age. The early Iron Age is a historical and archaeological concept. This is a period of history, largely reconstructed with the help of archeology, when a person mastered iron and its iron-carbon alloys (steel and cast iron), revealed their technological and physical properties.

The mastering of the method of obtaining iron was the greatest achievement of mankind, a kind of revolution that caused a rapid growth of the productive forces, which led to fundamental changes in the material and spiritual culture of mankind. The first iron objects were apparently forged from meteoric iron with a high nickel content. Articles made of iron of terrestrial origin appeared almost at the same time. At present, researchers are inclined to believe that the method of obtaining iron from ores was discovered in Asia Minor by the Hittites. Based on the data of the structural analysis of the iron blades from Aladzha-Huyuk, dated 2100 BC, it was established that the products were made of raw iron. The appearance of iron and the beginning of the Iron Age as epochs in the history of mankind do not coincide in time. The fact is that the technology for producing iron is more complex than the method for producing bronze. The transition from bronze to iron would have been impossible without certain prerequisites that appeared at the end of the Bronze Age - the creation of special furnaces with artificial air supply with the help of furs, mastering the skills of forging metal, its plastic processing.

The reason for the widespread transition to iron smelting was, apparently, the fact that iron is found in nature almost everywhere, in the form of natural mineral formations (iron ores). This iron in a state of rust was mainly used in antiquity.

The technology for producing iron was complex and time consuming. It consisted of a series of successive operations aimed at reducing iron oxide from oxide at high temperatures. The main component in iron metallurgy was the reduction process in a cold-blown forge made of stones and clay. In the lower part of the hearth, blowing nozzles were inserted, with the help of which the air necessary for burning coal was supplied to the furnace. A sufficiently high temperature and a reducing atmosphere were created inside the hearth as a result of the formation of carbon monoxide. Under the influence of these conditions, the mass loaded into the furnace, consisting mainly of iron oxides, waste rock and burning coal, underwent chemical transformations. One part of the oxides combined with the rock and formed a low-melting slag, the other was reduced to iron. The recovered metal in the form of individual grains was welded into a porous mass - a crust. In fact, it was a reducing chemical process that took place under the influence of temperature and carbon monoxide (CO). His goal was to reduce iron through a chemical reaction. As a result, there was a flashy iron. Liquid iron was not obtained in ancient times.

The kritsa itself was not yet a product. In the hot state, it was subjected to compaction, the so-called squeezing, i.e. forged. The metal became homogeneous, dense. Forged krytsi were the starting material for the manufacture of various items in the future. It was impossible to cast iron products as previously done from bronze. The resulting piece of iron was cut into pieces, heated (already on the open hearth) and with the help of a hammer and anvil, the necessary items were forged. This was the fundamental difference between the iron-making industry and the bronze-casting metallurgy. It is clear that with such a technology, the figure of the blacksmith comes to the fore, his ability to forge a product of the desired shape and quality by heating, forging, cooling. The process of iron cooking, established in antiquity, is widely known as cheese-blowing. It got its name later, in the 19th century, when hot air was blown into the blast furnaces, and with its help they reached a higher temperature and obtained a liquid mass of iron. In modern times, oxygen is used for this purpose.

The manufacture of tools from iron expanded the productive capabilities of people. A revolution in material production is associated with the beginning of the Iron Age. More advanced tools appeared - iron arrowheads, plowshares, large sickles, scythes, iron axes. They made it possible to develop agriculture on a large scale, including in the forest zone. With the development of blacksmithing, a whole complex of tools and devices for the blacksmith's craft appeared: anvils, various pincers, hammers, punch holes. The processing of wood, bone, leather was developed. In the construction business, progress was ensured by iron tools (saws, chisels, drills, planes), iron staples, wrought iron nails. The development of transport received a new impetus. Iron rims and bushings on wheels appeared, as well as the possibility of building large ships. Finally, the use of iron made it possible to improve offensive weapons - iron daggers, arrowheads and darts, long swords with a cutting action. The warrior's protective equipment has become more perfect. The Iron Age influenced the entire subsequent history of mankind.

In the early Iron Age, most tribes and peoples developed a productive economy based on agriculture and cattle breeding. In a number of places, population growth is noted, economic ties are being established, the role of exchange, including over long distances, is increasing, which is confirmed by archaeological materials. A significant part of the ancient peoples at the beginning of the Iron Age was at the stage of the primitive communal system, some were in the process of class formation. In a number of territories (Transcaucasia, Central Asia, steppe Eurasia), early states arose.

Studying archeology in the context of world history, it is necessary to take into account that the early Iron Age of Eurasia coincided with the heyday of the civilization of Ancient Greece, the formation and expansion of the Persian state in the East, with the era of the Greco-Persian wars, the conquest campaigns of the Greco-Macedonian army in the East and the era of the Hellenistic states Front and Central Asia.

In the western part of the Mediterranean, the early Iron Age is noted as the time of the formation of the Etruscan culture on the Apennine Peninsula and the rise of the Roman state, the time of the struggle between Rome and Carthage and the expansion of the territory of the Roman Empire to the north and east - to Gaul, Britain, Spain, Thrace and Denmark.

Early Iron Age outside the Greco-Macedonian and Roman world from the middle of the 1st millennium BC represented in Europe by monuments of La Tene culture of the 5th-1st centuries. BC. It is known as the "second iron age" and followed the Hallstatt culture. Bronze tools are no longer found in La Tene culture. The monuments of this culture are usually associated with the Celts. They lived in the basin of the Rhine, Loire, in the upper Danube, on the territory of modern France, Germany, England, partly Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

In the middle and second half of the 1st millennium BC. the uniformity of elements of archaeological cultures (burial rites, some weapons, art) in large territories is noted: in Central and Western Europe - La Tene, in the Balkan-Danube region - Thracian and Getodak, in Eastern Europe and North Asia - culture of the Scythian-Siberian world.

The end of the Hallstatt culture includes archaeological sites that can be associated with ethnic groups known in Europe: the ancient Germans, Slavs, Finno-Ugric and Balts. In the east, the Indo-Aryan civilization of Ancient India and Ancient China of the late Qin and Han dynasties date back to the early Iron Age. Thus, in the early Iron Age, the historical world came into contact with the world discovered by archaeologists in Europe and Asia. Where written sources have been preserved that allow us to represent the course of events, we can talk about historical data. But the development of the rest of the territories can be judged by archaeological materials.

The early Iron Age was characterized by a variety and unevenness of the processes of historical development. At the same time, the following main trends can be distinguished in them. Two main types of civilizational development were finalized in Eurasia: sedentary agricultural and pastoralism and steppe pastoralism. The relationship between these two types of civilization development has acquired a historically stable character in Eurasia.

At the same time, in the early Iron Age, the transcontinental Great Silk Road was formed for the first time, which played a significant role in the civilizational development of Eurasia and Asia. Great influence on the course of historical development was played by the Great Migration of Peoples, the formation of migrating ethnic groups of pastoralists. It should be noted that in the early Iron Age, the economic development of almost all suitable territories of Eurasia took place.

To the north of the most ancient states, two large historical and geographical zones are designated: the steppes of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia (Kazakhstan, Siberia) and an equally vast forest area. These zones were distinguished by natural conditions, economic and cultural development.

In the steppes, even starting from the Eneolithic, cattle breeding and partially agriculture developed. In the forest area, agriculture and forest cattle breeding have always been supplemented by hunting and fishing. In the extreme, subarctic north of Eastern Europe, in Northern Asia, the appropriating economy has traditionally developed as the most rational for these territories of the Eurasian continent. It also developed in the northern part of Scandinavia, Greenland and North America. The so-called circumpolar (circular) stable zone of traditional economy and culture was created.

Finally, an important event of the early Iron Age was the formation of proto-ethnic groups and ethnic groups, which are in one way or another connected with archaeological complexes and with the modern ethnic situation. Among them are the ancient Germans, Slavs, Balts, the Finno-Ugrians of the forest belt, the Indo-Iranians of the south of Eurasia, the Tungus-Manchus of the Far East and the Paleoasians of the polar zone.

There are many secrets in world history. But every study by archaeologists leaves no hope of learning something new in the facts that have been discovered. Those moments seem exciting and extraordinary when you realize that a long time ago on the lands on which we walk today, there lived huge dinosaurs, crusaders fought, ancient people smashed the parking lot.

Introduction

World history has laid down in its periodization two approaches that are in demand for determining the human race: 1) materials for the manufacture of tools and 2) technology. Thanks to these approaches, the concepts of "stone", "iron", "bronze" age arose. Each of these eras has become a separate step in the development of human history, the next cycle of evolution and knowledge of human capabilities. It is noteworthy that in this process there was no stagnation, so-called stagnation. From ancient times to the present day, there has been a regular acquisition of knowledge and the acquisition of the latest methods for the extraction of useful materials. In our article, you will learn about the Iron Age and its general characteristics.

Methods for dating time periods in world history

The natural sciences have become an excellent tool in the hands of archaeologists for determining dates over time. Today historians and researchers can make geological dating, they have the right to use the radiocarbon method, as well as dendrochronology. The active development of the earliest man makes it possible to improve existing technologies.

Five thousand years ago, the so-called written period began in the history of mankind. Therefore, other prerequisites arose for determining the time frame. Historians suggest that the era of the separation of ancient man from the world of fauna began two million years ago and extended until the fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire, which happened in 476 AD.

It was a period of antiquity, then the Middle Ages lasted until the Renaissance. The New History period lasted until the end of the First World War. And we live in the era of the Newest time. Outstanding personalities of the time set their benchmarks. For example, Herodotus was actively interested in the struggle between Asia and Europe. Thinkers of a later time considered the formation of the Roman Republic to be the most important event in the development of civilization. However, a huge number of historians agreed on a single assumption - in the era of the Iron Age, art and culture were not of great importance. After all, at that time the tools of labor and war came to the fore.

Preconditions for the emergence of the era of metal

Primitive history is divided into several important eras. For example, the Stone Age includes the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and also the Neolithic. The time period from these periods is characterized by human development and the latest methods of stone processing.

At first, the hand ax was widely used from tools of labor. At the same time, man mastered fire. Made the first clothes from animal skins. The ideas of religion appeared, and also at this time the ancient people began to equip their homes. During the time when man led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, he hunted large and strong animals, so he needed a weapon better than what he had.

The next most important stage in the development of stone processing methods falls on the junction of the millennia and the end of the Stone Age. Then there is agriculture and cattle breeding. And then ceramic production appears. So in the early Iron Age, ancient man mastered copper and the methods of its processing. The beginning of the era of metalworking formed the front of the activity in advance. The study of the characteristics and properties of metals gradually led to the fact that man discovered bronze, and also spread it. The Stone Age, the Iron Age, including the Bronze Age, is all a single and harmonious process of man's striving for civilization, which is based on the massive movements of ethnic groups.

Researchers who studied the iron era and its duration

Since the spread of metal is usually attributed to the primitive, as well as early class history of mankind, therefore, the characteristic features of this period are interests in metallurgy and the manufacture of tools.

Even in antiquity, the idea of ​​the division of the ages was formed on the basis of materials, but it has been described more fully in our days. So the early Iron Age was studied, and also continue to be studied by scientists in various fields. For example, in Western Europe, the fundamental works on this era were written by Gernes, Tischler, Kostrzewski and other scholars.

However, in Eastern Europe, similar works and monographs, maps and textbooks were written by Gauthier, Spitsyn, Krakow, Smirnov, Artamonov and Tretyakov. They all believe that a characteristic feature of the culture of primitive times is the spread of iron. However, each state in its own way survived the Bronze and Iron Age.

The first of them is considered a prerequisite for the emergence of the second. The Bronze Age was not so extensive in the development of mankind. As for the chronological framework of the Iron Age, this period took only two centuries from the ninth to the seventh centuries BC. During this period of time, many tribes of Asia and Europe received a powerful impetus in the advancement of metallurgy. Indeed, at that time, metal remained one of the most important materials for the manufacture of tools and household items, therefore, it influenced the development of modernity and is part of that time.

Cultural background of this era

Despite the fact that the period of the Iron Age did not imply the active development of culture, modernization nevertheless slightly affected this area of ​​the life of ancient people. It should be noted:

• First, the first economic prerequisites for the establishment of working relations and discord in the tribal system appeared.
• Secondly, the most ancient history is marked by the accumulation of certain values, increased property inequality, as well as a mutually beneficial exchange of parties.
• Thirdly, the formation of classes in society and the state has become widespread and strengthened.
• Fourthly, a huge part of the funds passed into the private property of selected minorities, and slavery and progressive stratification of society also emerge.

Iron Age. Russia

On the lands of modern Russia, iron was first found in the Transcaucasus. Objects made of this metal began to actively displace bronze ones. This is evidenced by the fact that iron was found everywhere, in contrast to tin or copper. Iron ore was located not only deep in the bowels of the earth, but also on its surface.

Today the ore found in the swamp is of no interest to the modern metal industry. However, in ancient times it meant a lot. Thus, the state, which had income from the production of bronze, lost it in the production of metal. It is noteworthy that the countries that needed copper ore, with the advent of iron, quickly caught up with those kingdoms that were advanced in the Bronze Age.

It should be noted that during the excavations of Scythian settlements, priceless relics of the early Iron Age were found.

Who are the Scythians? Simply put, these are Iranian-speaking nomads who moved through the territories of modern Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Siberia and southern Russia. Once upon a time, Herodotus also wrote about them.

Scythian relics on the territory of Russia

It is worth noting that these nomads cultivated grain. They brought it for export to Greek cities. Grain production was based on slave labor. Very often the bones of dead slaves accompanied the burial of the Scythians. The tradition of killing slaves at the burial of a master is known in many countries. The Scythians did not ignore these customs. At the sites of their former settlements, archaeologists still find agricultural tools, including sickles. It is worth noting that few arable tools were found. Perhaps they were made of wood and did not have iron elements.

It is known that the Scythians knew how to work black metal. They produced flat arrows that consisted of spikes, bushings, and other elements. The Scythians began to make tools and other household items of better quality than before. This testifies to global changes not only in the life of these nomads, but also in other steppe ethnic groups.

Iron Age. Kazakhstan

This period in the Kazakh steppes fell on the eighth-seventh centuries BC. This era coincided with the movement of agricultural and pastoralist tribes from Mongolia to mobile forms of economy. They are based on the system of seasonal regulation of pastures and water sources. These forms of cattle breeding in the steppe have received the name "nomadic" and "semi-nomadic" in science. New forms of cattle breeding laid the foundation for the development of the economy of the tribes who lived in the special conditions of the ecosystem of the steppes. The basis of this form of economy was formed in the Begazy-Dandybaev era.

Tasmalian culture

Nomads lived on the endless steppes of Kazakhstan. In these lands, history is presented in the form of burial mounds and burial grounds, which are considered priceless monuments of the Iron Age. In this region, graves with paintings are often found, which, according to archaeologists, served as beacons or compasses in the steppe.

Historians are interested in the Tasmola culture, which was named after the area of ​​Pavlodar. In this area, the very first excavations were carried out, where the skeletons of a man and a horse were found in large and small mounds. Kazakh scientists consider these mounds to be the most common relics of the Stone, Iron, centuries.

Cultural features of Northern Kazakhstan

This region differs from other regions of Kazakhstan in that farmers, that is, local residents, have switched to either a sedentary or nomadic way of life. The culture described above is also appreciated in these regions. Archaeological researchers are still attracted by the monuments of the Iron Age. Much research was carried out on the mounds of Birlik, Bekteniz, etc. The right bank of the Esil River has preserved the fortifications of this era.

Another "iron" round in the history of mankind

Historians say that the 19th century is an iron one. The thing is that it went down in history as an era of revolutions and changes. The architecture is fundamentally changing. At this time, concrete is being intensively introduced into the construction business. Railroad tracks are being laid everywhere. In other words, the age of railways began. Rails are being laid en masse, connecting cities and countries. This is how the roads appeared in France, Germany, Belgium and Russia.

In 1837, railroad workers connected St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. The length of these tracks was 26.7 km. The railway began to actively expand in Russia in the 19th century. It was then that the domestic government began to think about the issues of laying tracks. Oddly enough, but the starting point for the development of this direction was the Department of Water Communications, which was created at the end of the 18th century by Paul the First.

The organization under the leadership of N.P. Rumyantsev was more than successful. The new institution was actively developing and expanding. On its base, created by Rumyantsev in 1809, the Military Institute of Railways was opened. After the victory in 1812, domestic engineers improved the communications system. It was this institute that produced modern and competent specialists for the construction and operation of domestic railways. Historians recorded the maximum point closer to the end of the 19th century. This is the highest growth rate in the rail network. In just 10 years, the global length of the railway has increased by 245 thousand kilometers. Thus, the total length of the world network began to be 617 thousand kilometers.

The first Russian train

As already mentioned above, the flight "St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo", which departed in 1837 on October 30 at 12:30, became the debut in the national railway. On this route, a lot of artificial structures were built, including bridges. The largest of them ran through the Obvodny Canal, which was more than 25 meters long.

In general, in the New Iron Age, a huge number of bridges were built, built of metal structures. Seven locomotives and various crews were purchased abroad. And a year later, namely in 1838, a domestic steam locomotive called "Provorny" was constructed at the Tsarskoye Selo Institute of Railways.

Over 5 years, more than 2 million passengers have been transported on this route. At the same time, this road brought a profit to the treasury of about 360 thousand rubles. The significance of this railway was that the idea of ​​uninterrupted operation of this kind of transport in the climatic conditions of our homeland all year round was proved on this experience of construction and operation.

The financial exploitation of the track also proved the profitability and feasibility of a new method of delivering passengers and cargo. It is worth noting that the first experience in organizing railways in Russia gave a powerful impetus to the development and laying of railway tracks throughout the country.

Conclusion

If we return to the question of the era of the Iron Age, we can trace its influence on the development of all mankind.

So, the era of metal is a part of history that stood out on the basis of data obtained by archaeologists, and is also characterized by the predominance of objects made of iron, cast iron and steel at excavation sites.

It is generally accepted that this century replaced the bronze one. Its beginning in different areas and regions refers to different time periods. The markers of the beginning of the Iron Age are considered to be the regular manufacture of weapons and tools, the spread of not only blacksmithing, but also ferrous metallurgy, as well as the widespread use of iron products.

The end of this era is attributed to the onset of the technological era, which is associated with the industrial revolution. And some historians extend it to modern days.

The widespread introduction of this metal determines many possibilities for the production of a series of tools. This phenomenon is reflected in the improvement and spread of agriculture in forested areas or on soils that are difficult to cultivate.

Progress is also observed in the construction business, as well as in crafts. The first tools appear in the form of a saw, a file, and even articulated tools. The mining of metals made it possible to manufacture wheeled vehicles. It was the latter that became the impetus for the expansion of trade.

Then coins appear. Iron processing has had a positive impact on military affairs as well. The listed facts in many regions contributed to the decomposition of the primitive system, as well as the formation of statehood.

Remember that the Iron Age is divided into early and late. This era is used in the study of primitive societies. In the Chinese lands, progress in ferrous metallurgy was carried out in isolation. The production of bronze and casting from the Chinese was at the highest level. However, iron ore was known for them for a long time than in other countries. They were the first to produce cast iron, noticing its fusibility. The craftsmen produced many items not by forging, but by casting.

Successful centers for metal processing were in the territories of the former USSR Transcaucasia, the Dnieper region, the Volga-Kama region. It is noteworthy that social inequality has increased in pre-class societies. This was a general characteristic of the Iron Age, which represented the most significant changes in the history of mankind associated with the development of iron.