Early Iron Age periodization. Scythian relics in Russia
The early Iron Age in archeology is the period following the Bronze Age in the history of mankind, marked by the development of the method of obtaining iron, the beginning of manufacture and the wide distribution of products from it.
The transition from bronze to iron took several centuries and proceeded far from evenly. Some peoples, for example, in India, in the Caucasus, knew iron in the 10th century. BC e., others (in Southern Siberia) - only in the III-II centuries. BC e. But mostly already in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. the peoples who lived on the territory of Russia mastered the new metal.
Chronology of the early Iron Age - VII century BC. e.- V in. n. e. The dates are highly arbitrary. 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: the Scythian of the 7th-3rd centuries. BC e. and Hunno-Sarmatian II c. BC e - V c. n. e.
Why the early Iron Age? This name of the archaeological epoch in the history of Eurasia is not accidental. The fact is that from the 1st millennium BC. e., i.e. from the beginning of the Iron Age, humanity, despite whole line inventions, the development of new materials, especially plastic substitutes, light metals, alloys, continues to live in the Iron Age. Imagine for a moment what the whole of modern civilization would look like if iron disappeared. Suffice it to say that all machines, vehicles, mechanisms, bridge structures, ships and much more are made of iron (steel), they cannot be replaced by anything. This is the civilization of the Iron Age. Another is yet to come. And the early Iron Age is a historical and archaeological concept. This is a period of history marked and reconstructed mainly through archaeology.
Mastering the method of obtaining and manufacturing iron products
Mastering the method of obtaining iron was the greatest achievement of mankind, which caused a rapid growth of productive forces. The first iron objects were apparently forged from meteoric iron with a high nickel content. Almost simultaneously, iron products of earthly origin appear. At present, researchers are inclined to believe that a method for obtaining iron from ores was discovered in Asia Minor. Based on the structural analysis of iron blades from Aladzha-Hyuk, dated to the 2nd millennium BC. e., it is established that they are made of raw iron. However, these are isolated examples. The appearance of iron and the beginning of the Iron Age, i.e., its mass production, do not coincide in time. The fact is that the technology for producing iron is more complex and fundamentally different 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. centuries, creation special furnaces with artificial air supply and mastering the skills of metal forging, its plastic processing.
The reason for the widespread transition to the smelting of iron was, apparently, the fact that iron is found in nature almost everywhere, but in the form of oxide and oxide. This iron in a state of rust was mainly used in antiquity.
The technology for producing iron is complex and time-consuming. It consisted of a series of successive operations aimed at the reduction of iron from oxide. First, it was necessary to prepare concretions in the form of pieces of rust found in sediments on birches of rivers and lakes, dry them, screen them out, then load the mass together with coal and additives into a special oven made of stones and clay.
To obtain iron, as a rule, raw-blast furnaces were used, or forges - domnitsa, into which air was artificially pumped with the help of furs. The first forges about a meter high had a cylindrical shape and were narrowed at the top. AT lower part blast nozzles were inserted into the hearth, with their help, the air necessary for burning coal entered the furnace. A sufficiently high temperature and a reducing atmosphere were created inside the furnace as a result of the formation of carbon monoxide. Under the influence of these conditions, the mass loaded into the furnace, which consisted mainly of iron oxides and waste rock, underwent chemical transformations. One part of the oxides combined with the rock and formed a fusible slag, the other part was reduced to iron. The recovered metal in the form of separate grains was welded into a loose mass (critz), in the voids of which there were always various impurities. To extract the bloom, the front wall of the forge was broken out. Kritsa was a spongy sintered mass of iron Fe203, FeO in the form of metal grains containing slag in their voids. In fact, it was a reducing chemical process that took place under the influence of temperature and carbon monoxide (CO). The purpose of this process is the restoration of iron under the influence chemical reaction and getting cryonic iron. Liquid iron was not obtained in ancient times.
The scream itself is not yet a product. With this technology, it was impossible to obtain liquid metal that could be poured into molds, as in bronze metallurgy. The kritsu in the hot state was subjected to compaction and wrung out, i.e. forged. The metal became homogeneous, dense. Forged chicks were the starting material for the manufacture various items. The piece of iron obtained in this way was cut into pieces, heated already on an open furnace, and with the help of a hammer and an anvil, the necessary objects were forged from a piece of iron. This is the fundamental difference between iron production and bronze foundry metallurgy. Here, the figure of a blacksmith comes to the fore, his ability to forge a product desired shape and quality by heating, forging, cooling. The process of smelting, or rather the smelting of iron, which was established in antiquity, is widely known as the cheese-making method. It got its name later, in the 19th century, when not raw, but hot air was blown into blast furnaces, and with its help they reached a higher temperature and obtained a liquid mass of iron. AT modern times oxygen is used for this purpose.
The manufacture of tools from iron expanded the productive possibilities of people. The beginning of the Iron Age is associated with a revolution in material production. More productive tools - an iron plowshare, a large sickle, a scythe, an iron ax - made it possible to develop agriculture on a large scale, including in the forest zone. With the development of blacksmithing, the processing of wood, bone, and leather received a certain impetus. Finally, the use of iron made it possible to improve the types of offensive weapons - iron daggers, various arrowheads and darts, long swords of chopping action - and the protective equipment of a warrior. The Iron Age had an impact on all subsequent history.
Early Iron Age in the context of world history
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, and the role of exchange is increasing, including over long distances. A significant part of the ancient peoples at the beginning of the Iron Age was at the stage of a primitive communal system, some tribes and unions 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 must be taken into account that the early Iron Age of Eurasia is the period of civilization flourishing. Ancient Greece, This classical greece, Greek colonization, is the formation and expansion of the Persian state in the East. This era Greco-Persian Wars, aggressive campaigns Greco-Macedonian army to the East and era Hellenistic states Front and Central Asia.
In the western part of the Mediterranean, the early Iron Age is the time of the formation of the Etruscan culture on the Apennine Peninsula and the rise of the Roman power, 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.
The Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Iron Age in the archeology of Europe is known as the period of the Hallstatt culture (named after a burial ground in Austria) - approximately the 11th - the end of the 6th century. BC e. There are four chronological stages - A, B, C and D, of which the first two belong to the end of the Bronze Age.
Early Iron Age outside the Greco-Macedonian and Roman world from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. represented in Europe by monuments of the La Tène cultures V-I centuries BC e. The periods of development of the Laten culture - A (500-400 years), B (400-300 years) and C (300-100 years) - this is a whole era in development. It is known as the "Second Iron Age", following the Hallstatt culture. Bronze tools are no longer found in the La Tène culture. Monuments of this culture are usually associated with the Celts. They lived in the basin of the Rhine, Laura, in the upper reaches of the Danube, in the territory of modern France, Germany, England, partly Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
In the middle and second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. there is a uniformity of elements of archaeological cultures (burial ritual, some weapons, art) on large territories: in Central and Western Europe - the Latens, the Balkan-Danube region - the Thracians and Getadaks, in Eastern Europe and North Asia - the Scythian-Siberian world.
By the end of the archaeological period - Hallstatt D - there are archaeological sites associated with well-known ethnic groups in Europe: Germans, Slavs, Finno-Ugric peoples and Balts, further to the east - civilization ancient india and Ancient China the Qin and Han dynasties (with the subjugation of the western and northern territories by China, the formation of the ancient Chinese ethnic group and the state took place within borders close to modern). Thus, the historical world and the archaeological world of Europe and Asia came into contact in the early Iron Age. Why then such a division? Very simply: in some cases, where civilization was developed and written sources allow us to imagine the course of events, we are dealing with history; in the rest of Eurasia, the main source of knowledge is archaeological materials.
This time is characterized by diversity and unevenness in the processes historical development. However, the following main trends can be identified. The main types of civilization were finalized: settled agricultural and pastoral and steppe, pastoral. The relationship between the two types of civilization has acquired a historically stable character. There was such a transcontinental phenomenon as the Great silk road. A significant role in the course of historical development was played by the Great Migration of Peoples, the formation of migrating ethnic groups. It should be noted that the development of productive forms of economy in the north led to economic development almost all areas suitable for these purposes.
In the early Iron Age, two large historical and geographical zones were designated to the north of the most ancient states: the steppes of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia (Kazakhstan, Siberia) and an equally vast forest area. These areas are different natural conditions, economic and cultural development.
In the steppes, even in the previous era, starting from the Eneolithic, cattle breeding and agriculture developed. In the forest area, however, agriculture and forest cattle breeding have always been supplemented by hunting and fishing. In the extreme, subarctic north of Eastern Europe, in North and Northeast Asia, a type of appropriating economy has developed. It developed in the named territories of the Eurasian continent, including the northern part of Scandinavia, Greenland and North America. A so-called circumpolar stable zone of traditional economy and culture was created.
Finally, an important event of the early Iron Age was the formation of proto-ethnoi and ethnic groups, which, to one degree or another, are connected with archaeological complexes and with the modern ethnic situation. Among them are the ancient Germans, Slavs, Balts, Finno-Ugrians of the forest belt, Indo-Iranians in the south of Eurasia, Tungus-Manchus in Far East and Paleoasians of the circumpolar zone.
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archaeological era from which the use of objects made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron-making furnaces dating back to the 1st floor. II millennium BC found in western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early nomadic formations of the Scythian and Saka types (approximately VIII-VII centuries BC). In Africa, it came immediately after the Stone Age ( bronze age is absent). In America, the beginning of the Iron Age is associated with European colonization. In Asia and Europe it began, almost simultaneously. Often, only the first stage of the Iron Age is called the early Iron Age, the boundary of which is the final stages of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples (IV-VI centuries AD). In general, the Iron Age includes the entire Middle Ages, and based on the definition, this era continues to this day.
The discovery of iron and the invention of the metallurgical process were very complex. While copper and tin are found in nature in pure form, iron is found only in chemical compounds, mainly with oxygen, as well as with other elements. No matter how much you keep iron ore in the fire of a fire, it will not melt, and this way of "accidental" discovery, possible for copper, tin and some other metals, is excluded for iron. Brown loose stone, which is iron ore, was not suitable for making tools by upholstering. Finally, even reduced iron melts at a very high temperature - more than 1500 degrees. All this is an almost insurmountable obstacle to a more or less satisfactory hypothesis of the history of the discovery of iron.
There is no doubt that the discovery of iron was prepared by several thousand years of development of copper metallurgy. Especially important was the invention of bellows for blowing air into melting furnaces. Such furs were used in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the flow of oxygen into the hearth, which not only raised the temperature in it, but also created conditions for a successful metal reduction chemical reaction. A metallurgical furnace, even a primitive one, is a kind of chemical retort in which not so much physical as chemical processes. Such a furnace was made of stone and covered with clay (or it was made from clay alone) on a massive clay or stone base. The wall thickness of the furnace reached 20 cm. The height of the furnace shaft was about 1 m. Its diameter was the same. There was a hole in the front wall of the furnace at the bottom level, through which the coal loaded into the mine was set on fire, and through it the cracker was taken out. Archaeologists use old Russian name furnaces for "cooking" iron - "domnitsa". The process itself is called cheese-making. This term emphasizes the importance of blowing air into a blast furnace filled with iron ore and coal.
At cheese process more than half of the iron was lost in the slag, 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 way to obtain iron.
Unlike bronze objects, iron objects could not be made by casting, they were forged. By the time iron metallurgy was discovered, the forging process had a thousand-year history. Forged on a metal stand - an anvil. A piece of iron was first heated in a forge, and then the blacksmith, holding it with tongs on an anvil, hit the place with a small hammer-handbrake, where his assistant would then strike, hitting the iron with a heavy hammer-sledgehammer.
Iron is first mentioned in correspondence Egyptian pharaoh with the Hittite king, preserved in the archive of the XIV century. BC e. 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 parade weapons. In particular, a gold bracelet with iron inlay and a whole series of iron items were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Iron inlays are also known elsewhere.
On the territory of the USSR, iron first appeared in Transcaucasia.
Iron things began to quickly replace bronze ones, since iron, unlike copper and tin, is found almost everywhere. Iron ores occur both in mountainous regions and in swamps, not only deep underground, but also on its surface. At present, swamp ore is not of industrial interest, but in ancient times it was of great importance. Thus, the countries that occupied a monopoly position 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 countries that were advanced in the Bronze Age.
The abundance of secrets is hidden in world history, and until now, researchers do not give up hope to discover something new in the known facts. The moments seem exciting and unusual when you realize that once on the same lands that we now walk on, dinosaurs lived, knights fought, set up camps. World history he lays down two principles that are relevant for the formation of the human race as the basis of his periodization - the material for the production of tools and manufacturing technology. In accordance with these principles, the concepts of "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", "Iron Age" appeared. Each of these periodizations has become a step in the development of mankind, the next round of evolution and knowledge of human capabilities. Naturally, there were no absolutely passive moments in history. From time immemorial to today there is a regular replenishment of knowledge and the development of new ways to obtain useful materials.
World history and the first methods of dating time periods
The natural sciences have become a tool for dating time spans. In particular, one can cite the radiocarbon method, geological dating, and dendrochronology. Rapid development ancient man made it possible to improve existing technologies. Approximately 5 thousand years ago, when the written period began, other prerequisites for dating arose, which were based on the time of existence of various states and civilizations. It is tentatively believed that the period of separation of man from the animal world began about two million years ago, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which happened in 476 AD, there was a period of Antiquity. Before the Renaissance, there were the Middle Ages. Until the end of the First World War, the period of New History lasted, and now the time of the Newest has come. Historians of different times put their "anchors" of reference, for example, Herodotus paid special attention to the struggle of Asia with Europe. Scientists over late period considered the main event in the development of civilization, the establishment of the Roman Republic. Many historians agree in their assumption that for the Iron Age, culture and art were not of great importance, since the tools of war and labor came to the fore.
Metal era background
AT primitive history the Stone Age is distinguished, including the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Each of the periods is marked by the development of man and his innovations in stone processing. At first, the most of the guns wide use got a hand axe. Later, tools appeared from the elements of the stone, and not the whole nodule. During this period, the development of fire, the creation of the first clothes from skins, the first religious cults and housing arrangements took place. During the period of a semi-nomadic lifestyle of a person and hunting for large animals, more advanced weapons were required. A further round of development of stone processing technologies occurred at the turn of the millennium and the end of the Stone Age, when agriculture and cattle breeding spread, and ceramic production appeared. In the era of metal, copper and its processing technologies were mastered. The beginning of the Iron Age laid the foundation for work for the future. The study of the properties of metals consistently led to the discovery of bronze and its spread. The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages are a single harmonious process of human development based on mass movements of peoples.
Era Length Evidence
The distribution of iron belongs to the primitive and early class history of mankind. Trends in metallurgy and the production of tools become characteristic features of the period. Also in ancient world an idea was formed about the classification of centuries according to the material. The early Iron Age was studied and continues to be studied by scientists in various fields. In Western Europe, voluminous works were published
Görnes, Montelius, Tischler, Reinecke, Kostshevsky, etc. In Eastern Europe, Gorodtsov, Spitsyn, Gauthier, Tretyakov, Smirnov, Artamonov, Grakov published the corresponding textbooks, monographs, and maps. Often consider the spread of iron as a characteristic feature of tribes that lived outside civilizations. In fact, all countries at one time survived the Iron Age. The Bronze Age was only a prerequisite for this. It has not occupied such a vast amount of time in history. Chronologically, the Iron Age spans from the 9th to the 7th century BC. At this time, many tribes of Europe and Asia received an impetus to the development of their own iron metallurgy. Since this metal remains the most important material of production, modernity is also part of this century.
period culture
The development of the production and distribution of iron quite logically led to the modernization of culture and the whole public life. There were economic prerequisites for working relationships and the collapse of the tribal way of life. Ancient history marks the accumulation of values, the growth of wealth inequality and the mutually beneficial exchange of parties. Fortifications spread widely, the formation of a class society and state began. More funds became the private property of a select minority, slavery arose and the stratification of society progressed.
How did the age of metal manifest itself in the USSR?
At the end of the second millennium BC, iron appeared on the territory of the Union. Among the most ancient places of development, one can note Western Georgia and Transcaucasia. Monuments of the early Iron Age have been preserved in the southern European part of the USSR. But metallurgy gained mass fame here in the first millennium BC, which is confirmed by a number of archaeological artifacts made of bronze in Transcaucasia, cultural relics of the North Caucasus and the Black Sea region, etc. During excavations of Scythian settlements, priceless monuments of the early Iron Age were discovered. The finds were made at the Kamenskoye settlement near Nikopol.
History of materials in Kazakhstan
Historically, the Iron Age is divided into two periods. This is the early, which lasted from the 8th to the 3rd century BC, and the late, which lasted from the 3rd century BC to the 6th century AD. Each country has a period of iron distribution in its history, but the features of this process are highly dependent on the region. Thus, the Iron Age on the territory of Kazakhstan was marked by events in three main regions. Cattle breeding and irrigated agriculture are widespread in South Kazakhstan. Climatic conditions did not imply farming. And Northern, Eastern and Central Kazakhstan was inhabited by people adapted to the harsh winter. These three regions, radically different in living conditions, became the basis for the creation of three Kazakh zhuzes. Southern Kazakhstan became the place of formation of the Senior Zhuz. The lands of Northern, Eastern and Central Kazakhstan have become a haven. Western Kazakhstan is represented by the Younger Zhuz.
Iron Age in Central Kazakhstan
Endless steppes Central Asia have long been a place of residence for nomads. Here ancient history It is represented by burial mounds, which are priceless monuments of the Iron Age. Especially often in the region there were mounds with paintings or "whiskers", which, according to scientists, perform the functions of a lighthouse and a compass in the steppe. The attention of historians is attracted by the Tasmolin culture, named after the area in the Pavlodar region, where the first excavations of a man and a horse were recorded in a large and small mound. Archaeologists of Kazakhstan consider the burial mounds of the Tasmolin culture to be the most common monuments of the Early Iron Age.
Features of the culture of Northern Kazakhstan
This region is distinguished by the presence of cattle. The locals moved from farming to sedentary and the Tasmolin culture is revered in this region as well. Birlik, Alypkash, Bekteniz mounds and three settlements: Karlyga, Borki and Kenotkel attract the attention of researchers of early Iron Age monuments. On the right bank of the Esil River, a fortification of the early Iron Age has been preserved. The art of melting and processing of non-ferrous metals was developed here. Produced metal products were transported to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Kazakhstan was several centuries ahead of its neighbors in the development of ancient metallurgy and therefore became a communicator between the metallurgical centers of its country, Siberia and Eastern Europe.
"Guarding the Gold"
The majestic mounds of East Kazakhstan mainly accumulated in the Shilikty valley. There are more than fifty of them here. In 1960, a study was made of the largest of the barrows, which is called the Golden. This peculiar monument to the Iron Age was erected in the 8th-9th century BC. The Zaisan region of East Kazakhstan allows you to explore more than two hundred largest mounds, of which 50 are called Tsar's and may contain gold. In the Shilikty valley there is the oldest royal burial in the land of Kazakhstan dating back to the 8th century BC, which was discovered by Professor Toleubaev. Among archaeologists, this discovery made a noise, just like the third "golden man" of Kazakhstan. The buried person was wearing clothes decorated with 4325 golden figurative plates. Most interesting find is a pentagonal star with lapis lazuli rays. Such an object symbolizes power and greatness. This became another proof that Shilikty, Besshatyr, Issyk, Berel, Boraldai are sacred places for performing ritual rites, sacrifices and prayers.
Early Iron Age in the culture of nomads
Not much documentary evidence of the ancient culture of Kazakhstan has been preserved. Mostly information is obtained from and excavations. Much has been said about the nomads regarding song and dance art. Separately, it is worth noting the skill in the manufacture of ceramic vessels and painting on silver bowls. The spread of iron in everyday life and production was the impetus for the improvement of a unique heating system: a chimney, which was laid horizontally along the wall, evenly warmed the whole house. Nomads invented many things that are familiar today, both for domestic use and for use in war time. They came up with trousers, stirrups, a yurt and a curved saber. Metal armor was developed to protect horses. The protection of the warrior himself was provided by iron armor.
Achievements and discoveries of the period
The Iron Age was third in line behind the Stone and Bronze Ages. But by value, no doubt, it is considered the first. Until modern times, iron has remained the material basis of all inventions of mankind. All important discoveries in the field of production are associated with its application. This metal has a higher melting point than copper. In its pure form, natural iron does not exist, and it is very difficult to carry out the process of smelting from ore because of its infusibility. This metal caused global changes in the life of the steppe tribes. Compared with previous archaeological epochs, the Iron Age is the shortest, but the most productive. Initially, mankind recognized meteoric iron. Some original products and decorations from it were found in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Chronologically, these relics can be attributed to the first half of the third millennium BC. In the second millennium BC, a technology for producing iron from ore was developed, but for quite a long time this metal was considered rare and expensive.
Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia and India began to engage in a wide production of weapons and tools from iron. The spread of this metal, as well as steel, provoked a technical revolution that expands the power of man over nature. Now the clearing of large forest areas for crops has been simplified. Modernization of labor tools and improvement of land cultivation were carried out promptly. Accordingly, new crafts were quickly learned, especially blacksmithing and weapons. Shoemakers, who received more advanced tools, did not stand aside. Stonemasons and miners began to work more efficiently.
Summarizing the results of the Iron Age, it can be noted that by the beginning of our era, all the main varieties of hand tools were already in use (with the exception of screws and hinged scissors). Thanks to the use of iron in production, the construction of roads became much simpler, the military equipment, and a metal coin came into circulation. The Iron Age accelerated and provoked the collapse of the primitive communal system, as well as the formation of a class society and statehood. Many communities during this period adhered to the so-called
Possible ways of development
It is worth noting that it existed in small quantities even in Egypt, but the spread of the metal became possible with the start of ore smelting. Initially, iron was smelted only when such a need arose. So, fragments of metal inclusions were found in the monuments of Syria and Iraq, which were erected no later than 2700 BC. But after the 11th century BC, the blacksmiths of Eastern Anatolia learned the science of systematically making objects from iron. The secrets and subtleties of the new science were kept secret and passed down from generation to generation. The first historical finds confirming the widespread use of metal for the manufacture of tools were recorded in Israel, namely in Gerar near Gaza. A huge number of hoes, sickles and coulters made of iron dating back to the period after 1200 BC have been found here. Smelting furnaces were also found at the excavation sites.
Special metal processing technologies belong to the masters of Western Asia, from whom they were borrowed by the masters of Greece, Italy and the rest of Europe. The British technological revolution can be attributed to the period after 700 BC, and there it began and developed very smoothly. Egypt and North Africa showed interest in mastering the metal around the same time, with further transfer of skill to the south side. Chinese craftsmen almost completely abandoned bronze, preferring turned iron. European colonists brought their knowledge of metalworking technology to Australia and the New World. After the invention of blower bellows, iron casting became widespread on a massive scale. Cast iron became an indispensable material for creating all kinds of household utensils and military equipment, which was a productive impetus for the development of metallurgy.
Archaeological era from which the use of objects made from iron ore begins. The earliest iron-making furnaces dating back to the 1st floor. II millennium BC found in western Georgia. In Eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe, the beginning of the era coincides with the time of the formation of early nomadic formations of the Scythian and Saka types (approximately VIII-VII centuries BC). In Africa, it began 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 it began, almost simultaneously. Often, only the first stage of the Iron Age is called the early Iron Age, the boundary of which is the final stages of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples (IV-VI centuries AD). In general, the Iron Age includes the entire Middle Ages, and based on the definition, this era continues to this day.
The discovery of iron and the invention of the metallurgical process were very complex. While copper and tin occur in nature in their pure form, iron occurs only in chemical compounds, mainly with oxygen, but also with other elements. No matter how long you keep iron ore in the fire, it will not melt, and this way of "accidental" discovery, possible for copper, tin and some other metals, is excluded for iron. Brown loose stone, which is iron ore, was not suitable for making tools by upholstering. Finally, even reduced iron melts at a very high temperature - more than 1500 degrees. All this is an almost insurmountable obstacle to a more or less satisfactory hypothesis of the history of the discovery of iron.
There is no doubt that the discovery of iron was prepared by several thousand years of development of copper metallurgy. Especially important was the invention of bellows for blowing air into melting furnaces. Such furs were used in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the flow of oxygen into the hearth, which not only raised the temperature in it, but also created conditions for a successful metal reduction chemical reaction. 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 furnace was made of stone and covered with clay (or it was made from clay alone) on a massive clay or stone base. The wall thickness of the furnace reached 20 cm. The height of the furnace shaft was about 1 m. Its diameter was the same. There was a hole in the front wall of the furnace at the bottom level, through which the coal loaded into the mine was set on fire, and through it the cracker was taken out. Archaeologists use the old Russian name for a furnace for "cooking" iron - "domnitsa". The process itself is called cheese-making. This term emphasizes the importance of blowing air into a blast furnace filled with iron ore and coal.
At cheese process more than half of the iron was lost in the slag, 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 way to obtain iron.
Unlike bronze objects, iron objects could not be made by casting, they were forged. By the time iron metallurgy was discovered, the forging process had a thousand-year history. Forged on a metal stand - an anvil. A piece of iron was first heated in a forge, and then the blacksmith, holding it with tongs on an anvil, hit the place with a small hammer-handbrake, where his assistant would then strike, hitting the iron with a heavy hammer-sledgehammer.
Iron was first mentioned in the correspondence of the Egyptian pharaoh with the Hittite king, preserved in the archives of the 14th century. BC e. in Amarna (Egypt). From this time, small iron products have 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, a gold bracelet with iron inlay and a whole series of iron items were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Iron inlays are also known elsewhere.
On the territory of the USSR, iron first appeared in Transcaucasia.
Iron things began to quickly replace bronze ones, since iron, unlike copper and tin, is found almost everywhere. Iron ores occur both in mountainous regions and in swamps, not only deep underground, but also on its surface. At present, swamp ore is not of industrial interest, but in ancient times it was of great importance. Thus, the countries that occupied a monopoly position 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 countries that were advanced in the Bronze Age.
Scythians
Scythians - exoethnonym 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 occupied the territories of Ukraine, Moldavia, Southern Russia, Kazakhstan and parts of Siberia. This does not exclude other ethnicity some of the tribes, which ancient authors also called the Scythians.
Information about the Scythians comes mainly from the writings of ancient authors (especially the "History" of Herodotus) and archaeological excavations in the lands from the lower reaches of the Danube to Siberia and Altai. The Scytho-Sarmatian language, as well as the Alanian language derived from it, were part of the northeastern branch of the Iranian languages and was probably the ancestor of the modern Ossetian language, which is indicated by hundreds of Scythian personal names, names of tribes, 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 of completely different origin who inhabited the Eurasian steppes and the northern Black Sea region: in the sources of the 3rd-4th centuries AD, "Scythians" are often called and the German-speaking Goths, in later Byzantine sources, the Eastern Slavs were called Scythians - Russia, the Turkic-speaking Khazars and Pechenegs, as well as the Alans, related to the most ancient Iranian-speaking Scythians.
Emergence. The supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis are actively studying the underlying basis of the early Indo-European, including the Scythian, culture. The formation of a relatively generally recognized Scythian culture, archaeologists date back to the 7th century BC. e. (Arzhan burial mounds). There are two main approaches to the interpretation of its occurrence. According to one, based on the so-called “third tale” of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east, expelling what can be interpreted archaeologically 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 be based on the legends recorded by Herodotus, suggests that the Scythians by that time lived in the territory Northern Black Sea for at least several centuries, having stood out from the environment of the successors of the Srubna culture.
Maria Gimbutas and scientists of her circle attribute the appearance of the ancestors of the Scythians (horse domestication cultures) to 5-4 thousand BC. e. According to other versions, these ancestors are associated with other cultures. They also appear to be the descendants of the bearers of the Srubnaya culture of the Bronze Age, who advanced from the 14th century. BC e. from the Volga region to the west. Others believe that the main core of the Scythians came thousands of years ago from Central Asia or Siberia and mixed with the population of the Northern Black Sea region (including the territory of Ukraine). The ideas of Marija Gimbutas extend in the direction of further research into the origins of the origin of the Scythians.
Grain farming was of considerable importance. The Scythians produced grain for export, in particular to the Greek cities, and through them - to the Greek metropolis. Grain production required the use slave labor. The bones of murdered slaves often accompany the burials of Scythian slave owners. The custom of killing people at the burial of gentlemen is known in all countries and is characteristic of the era of the emergence of slave economy. There are known cases of blinding slaves, which is not consistent with the assumption of patriarchal slavery among the Scythians. On the Scythian settlements they find agricultural tools, in particular sickles, but arable tools are extremely rare, probably all of them were wooden and did not have iron parts. The fact that the agriculture of the Scythians was arable 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 was 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 the Sauromatians along the Don, also occupied the steppe Crimea. To the west of them lived Scythian nomads, and even to the west, on the left bank of the Dnieper - 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 Alazons, and even to the north - the Scythians-plowmen, and Herodotus points to agriculture as differences from the Scythians the last three tribes and specifies that if the Kallipids and Alazons grow and eat bread, then the Scythian plowmen grow bread for sale.
The Scythians already fully owned the production of ferrous metal. Other types of production are also presented: bone carving, pottery, weaving. But so far only metallurgy has reached the level of craft.
There are two lines of fortifications on the Kamensky settlement: external and internal. Archaeologists call the inner part the acropolis by analogy with the corresponding division of Greek cities. On the acropolis traced the remains of stone dwellings of the Scythian nobility. Ordinary dwellings were mainly ground houses. Their walls sometimes consisted of pillars, the bases of which were dug into specially dug grooves along the contour of the dwelling. There are also semi-dugout dwellings.
The oldest Scythian arrows are flat, often with a spike on the sleeve. They are all socketed, that is, they have a special tube where the arrow shaft is inserted. Classical Scythian arrows are also socketed, they resemble a trihedral pyramid, or three-bladed - the edges of the pyramid seem to have developed into blades. The arrows are made of bronze, which has finally won its place in the production of arrows.
Scythian ceramics was made without the help of a potter's wheel, although in neighboring Scythians Greek colonies circle was widely used. Scythian vessels are flat-bottomed and varied in shape. Scythian bronze cauldrons up to a meter high, which had a long and thin leg and two vertical handles, were widely used.
Scythian art is well known mainly from objects from burials. It is characterized by the depiction of animals in certain poses and with exaggeratedly noticeable paws, eyes, claws, horns, ears, etc. Ungulates (deer, goat) were depicted with bent legs, predators of cat breeds curled up into a ring. In Scythian art, strong or fast and sensitive animals are represented, which corresponds to the desire of the Scythian to overtake, to strike, to be always ready. It is noted that some images are associated with certain Scythian deities. The figures of these animals, as it were, protected their owner from trouble. But the style was not only sacred, but also decorative. The claws, tails and shoulder blades of predators were often shaped like the head of a bird of prey; sometimes full images of animals were placed on these places. This artistic style was called the animal style in archeology. AT early time in the Trans-Volga region, animal ornamentation is evenly distributed between representatives of the nobility and privates. In IV-III centuries. BC e. the animal style is degenerating, and objects with similar ornaments are presented mainly in the graves. Scythian burials are the most famous and best studied. The Scythians buried the dead in pits or in catacombs, under mounds. lol know. The famous Scythian mounds are located in the area of the Dnieper rapids. In the royal burial mounds of the Scythians, gold vessels, artistic items made of gold, and expensive weapons are found. Thus, a new phenomenon is observed in the Scythian burial mounds - a strong property stratification. There are mounds small and huge, some burials without things, others - with a huge amount of gold.
The Iron Age is a new stage in the development of mankind.
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. Replaced the Bronze Age mainly at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. 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 Car). The term "Iron Age" was introduced into science around the middle of the 19th century. Danish archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen. Key Research, the initial classification and dating of monuments by the Iron Age in Western Europe was made by the Austrian scientist M. Görnes, Swedish - O. Montelius and O. Oberg, German - O. Tischler and P. Reinecke, French - J. Dechelet, Czech - I. Pich and Polish - Yu. Kostshevsky; in Eastern Europe - Russian and Soviet scientists V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, Yu. V. Gotye, P. N. Tretyakov, A. P. Smirnov, H. A. Moora, M. I. Artamonov, B. N. Grakov and others; in Siberia, by S. A. Teploukhov, S. V. Kiselev, S. I. Rudenko, and others; in the Caucasus, by 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 in different time However, the Iron Age usually refers only to the cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of ancient slave-owning civilizations that arose back in the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China, etc.). The Iron Age is very short compared to previous archaeological epochs (Stone and Bronze Ages). Its chronological boundaries: from the 9th-7th centuries. BC e., when many primitive tribes of Europe and Asia developed their own iron metallurgy, and until the time when a class society and state arose among these tribes.
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 the Zh. Western Europe to the 1st century. BC e., when Roman written sources appear containing information about Western European tribes. Since to this day iron remains the most important metal, from the alloys of which tools are made, the term “early Iron Age” is also used for the archaeological periodization of primitive history. On the territory of Western Europe, only its beginning (the so-called Hallstatt culture) is called the Early Iron Age.
Initially, meteoric iron became known to mankind. Separate items made of iron (mainly jewelry) 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. found in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. A method for obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the 2nd millennium BC. e. According to one of the most probable assumptions, the cheese-making process (see below) was first used by the tribes subordinate to the Hittites living in the mountains of Armenia (Antitaur) in the 15th century. BC e. However, for a long time, iron remained a rare and very valuable metal. Only after the 11th c. BC e. rather extensive production of iron weapons and tools began in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and India. At the same time iron becomes known in the south of Europe. 
In the 11th-10th centuries. BC e. individual iron objects penetrate the area north of the Alps, are found in the steppes of the south of the European part modern territory USSR, but iron tools begin to predominate in these areas only from the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. In the 8th c. BC e. iron products are widely distributed in Mesopotamia, Iran and somewhat later in Central Asia. The first news about iron in China dates back to the 8th century. BC e., but it spreads only from the 5th c. BC e. In Indochina and Indonesia, iron prevails at the turn of our era. Apparently, from ancient times iron metallurgy was known to various African tribes. Undoubtedly, already in the 6th c. BC e. iron was produced in Nubia, Sudan, Libya. In the 2nd century BC e. the Iron Age began in the central region of Africa. Some African tribes moved 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 meteoric iron) became known only in the 16th and 17th centuries. n. e. 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 ore), are found almost everywhere. But getting iron from ores is much more difficult than copper. The smelting of iron was beyond the reach of ancient metallurgists. Iron was obtained in a doughy state using a 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 blown by bellows through a nozzle. At the bottom of the furnace, a cry was formed - a lump of porous iron weighing 1-5 kg, which had to be forged for compaction, as well as removal of slag from it.
Raw iron is a very soft metal; tools and weapons made of pure iron had low mechanical qualities. Only with the discovery in the 9th-7th centuries. BC e. methods of manufacturing steel from iron and its heat treatment, the wide distribution of the new material begins. The higher mechanical qualities 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. It didn't happen right away. In Europe, only in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. e. iron and steel began to play a really significant role as a material for the manufacture of tools and weapons. 
The technological revolution caused by the spread of iron and steel greatly expanded man's power over nature: it became possible to clear large forest areas for crops, expand and improve irrigation and reclamation facilities, and improve land cultivation in general. The development of crafts, especially blacksmithing and weapons, is accelerating. Wood processing is being improved for the purposes of house-building, the production of vehicles (ships, chariots, etc.), and the manufacture of various utensils. Artisans, from shoemakers and masons to miners, also received better tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of handicraft and agricultural hand tools (except screws and hinged scissors) used in the Middle Ages, and partly in modern times, were already in use. The construction of roads was facilitated, military equipment was improved, exchange expanded, and the metal coin spread as a means of circulation.
The development of productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time, led to the transformation of the entire social life. As a result of the growth of labor productivity, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of the 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 exchange that expanded during the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment through exploitation gave rise to wars for the purpose of robbery and enslavement. At the beginning of the Iron Age, fortifications spread widely. In the era of the Iron Age, the tribes of Europe and Asia were going through the stage of disintegration of the primitive communal system, were on the eve of the emergence of a class society and state. The transition of certain means of production into the private ownership of the ruling minority, the emergence of slave ownership, the increased stratification of society, and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already features typical of early class societies. Many tribes social order this transitional period took the political form of the so-called. military democracy. 
Iron Age in the USSR. On the modern territory of the USSR, iron first appeared at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. 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 Mossinois and Khalibs, who lived next to the Colchians, were famous as metallurgists. However, the widespread use of iron metallurgy on the territory of the USSR dates back to the 1st millennium BC. e. In Transcaucasia, a number of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age are known, 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: the Koban culture, the Kayakent-Khorochoev culture and the Kuban culture.
In the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region in the 7th century. BC e. - the first centuries A.D. e. the tribes of the Scythians lived, who created the most developed culture of the early Iron Age on the territory of the USSR. Iron products were found in abundance in the settlements and mounds of the Scythian period. Signs of metallurgical production were found during excavations of a number of Scythian settlements. The largest number of remains of iron-working and blacksmithing was found at the Kamensky 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 wide development of various crafts and the spread of plowed agriculture among the local tribes of the Scythian time.
The next after the Scythian period of the Early Iron Age in the steppes of the Black Sea region is represented by the Sarmatian culture, which dominated here from the 2nd century BC. BC e. up to 4 c. n. e. In the previous period from the 7th c. BC e. Sarmatians (or Savromats) lived between the Don and the Urals. In the first centuries A.D. e. 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 cultures of the “burial fields” (Zarubinetskaya culture, Chernyakhovskaya culture, etc.) spread in the western regions of the Northern Black Sea region, the Upper and Middle Dnieper and Transnistria belong. 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 living in the central and northern forest regions of the European part of the USSR were familiar with iron metallurgy from the 6th-5th centuries. BC e. In the 8-3 centuries. BC e. in the Kama region, the Ananyino culture was widespread, which is characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools, with the undoubted superiority of the latter at the end of it. The Ananyino culture on the Kama was replaced by the Pyanobor 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 (the middle of the 1st millennium BC - the middle of the 1st millennium AD) belong to the Iron Age, and in the territory to the south from the middle currents of the Oka, to the west of the Volga, in the basin of the river. Tsna and Moksha are 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 BC are known in the region of the Upper Dnieper. BC e. - 7th c. n. e., which belonged 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 also the remains of a 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 time (Altai; 7th century BC), iron was widely distributed only in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. (Tagar culture on the Yenisei, Pazyryk mounds in Altai, etc.). Iron Age cultures are also present in other parts of Siberia and the Far East. On the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan until the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. tools and weapons were also made of bronze. The appearance of iron products both in agricultural oases and in the cattle-breeding steppe can be attributed to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. Throughout the 1st millennium BC. e. and in the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD. e. 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. e. In the agricultural oases, the time of the appearance of iron coincides with the emergence of the first slave-owning states (Bactria, Sogd, Khorezm). 
The Iron Age in Western Europe is usually divided into 2 periods - the Hallstatt (900-400 BC), which was also called the early, or the first Iron Age, and the La Tène (400 BC - early AD) , which is called late, or second. The Hallstatt culture was spread on the territory of modern Austria, Yugoslavia, Northern Italy, partly in 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. By the same time belong those close to the Hallstatt culture: the Thracian tribes in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, the Etruscan, Ligurian, Italic and other tribes on the Apennine Peninsula, the culture of the beginning of the Iron Age of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Turdetans, Lusitans, etc.) and late Lusatian culture in the river basins. Oder and Vistula. The early Hallstatt period is 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 collapse of tribal relations. In the north of modern Germany, in Scandinavia, Western France and England, the Bronze Age still existed at that time. From the beginning of the 5th c. the La Tène culture is spreading, characterized by a genuine flourishing of the iron industry. The La Tène culture existed before the conquest of Gaul by the Romans (1st century BC), the area of distribution of the La Tène culture - the land west of the Rhine to Atlantic Ocean along the middle course of the Danube and to the north of it. La Tène culture is associated with the tribes of the Celts, who had large fortified cities, which were the centers of tribes and places of concentration of various crafts. In this era, the Celts gradually created a class slave society. Bronze tools are no longer found, but most widespread receives iron 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. By the end of the Iron Age, the culture of the Germanic tribes, who lived in the territory between North Sea and rr. 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 dominance of iron came only at the beginning of our era.
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