Iron Age

Iron Technology

While the copper and tin ores that were needed to produce bronze were derived from a small number of ore sources, iron ore was widespread throughout Europe. The ubiquity of iron ores may have encouraged the replacement of bronze with iron. Iron objects do not become common in Greece until about 1000 BCE. Iron objects appear throughout Central Europe at about 800 BCE. Although a small number of small iron objects appear in Late Bronze Age contexts in Central and Eastern Europe, these objects may have been produced as a by-product of bronze working. Iron objects appear at a somewhat later date in Northern and Western Europe. Iron working appears in Ireland around700 BCE and in Scandinavia around 500 BCE. Since iron-making technology was widespread in the eastern Mediterranean by about 1200BCE, it is likely that iron technology spread through Europe as a result of trade and technology transfer.

Archaeological evidence for iron production includes furnaces, forges, slag, iron-working tools, and finished objects. A small number of iron production sites have been excavated in Europe. These sites indicate that smelting, the separation of iron from its ores, and smithing took place in the same locations. Unlike bronze, which was worked by casting in antiquity, ancient iron was worked by forging. In the West, cast iron did not become widespread until the Industrial Revolution. To work the solid iron, the smith reheated it in a forge and then hammered it to remove any remaining slag and to shape the iron into its final form. The iron that was produced in this way was relatively pure and soft. The addition of organic carbon to produce a harder material was difficult to control. Too much carbon produces a brittle steel; not enough produces a soft iron that makes an inferior tool. Early European iron was produced on a relatively small scale and used primarily for weapons and funerary goods.

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