Iron Age

Examples of Iron Age in the following topics:

• The Norse

  • "Norse art" defines the artistic legacies of Scandinavia during the Germanic Iron Age, the Viking Age, and the Nordic Bronze Age.
  • "Norse art" is a blanket term for the artistic styles in Scandinavia during the Germanic Iron Age, the Viking Age, and the Nordic Bronze Age.

• Ceramics and Bronze in the Yayoi Period

  • Artifacts brought to the Japanese islands by the Yayoi people bore Chinese and Korean influences and ushered Japan into the Iron Age.
  • The Yayoi period is an Iron Age era in the history of Japan traditionally dated 300 BCE to 300 CE.
  • Techniques in metallurgy based on the use of bronze and iron were also introduced to Japan in this period.
  • By the 1st century CE, Yayoi farmers began using iron agricultural tools and weapons.

• Vedic and Upanishadic Periods

  • However, after 1000 BCE, the use of iron axes and ploughs enabled the clearing of jungles, and the Vedic kingdoms were able to expand along the Gangetic plains, ushering in the later Vedic age.
  • The black- and red-ware culture (BRW) is an early Iron Age archaeological culture associated with the post-Rigvedic Vedic civilization, dating roughly from the 12th – 9th centuries BCE.
  • It was succeeded by the painted grey-ware culture (PGW), an Iron Age culture corresponding to the later Vedic period and lasting from roughly 1200 BCE to 600 BCE.
  • This is the time of the early Iron Age in north-western India, corresponding to the black- and red-ware (BRW) culture.
  • An example of pottery work from the black- and red-ware culture (BRW), an early Iron Age archaeological culture associated with the post-Rigvedic Vedic civilization.

• The Stone Age

  • Stone Age art illustrates early human creativity through small portable objects, cave paintings, and early sculpture and architecture.
  • The Stone Age is the first of the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
  • The Stone Age lasted roughly 3.4 million years, from 30,000 BCE to about 3,000 BCE, and ended with the advent of metalworking.
  • The art of the Stone Age represents the first accomplishments in human creativity, preceding the invention of writing.
  • By the Iron Age, civilizations with writing had arisen from Ancient Egypt to Ancient China.

• Art of the Bronze Age

  • The Bronze Age saw the birth of civilization and the development of advanced cultures in Europe, the Near East, and East Asia.
  • The Bronze Age is part of the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
  • This period ended with further advancements in metallurgy, such as the ability to smelt iron ore.
  • Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing.
  • In Ancient Egypt, the Bronze Age begins in the Protodynastic period, circa 3,150 BC .

• The Hittites

  • After c. 1180 BCE, the empire came to an end in the Bronze Age collapse, splintering into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until the eighth century BCE.
  • Although they belonged to the Bronze Age, the Hittites were the forerunners of the Iron Age.
  • They developed the manufacture of iron artifacts from as early as the fourteenth century BCE, when letters to foreign rulers reveal the latter's demand for iron goods.
  • The Bronze Age Hittite and Luwian dialects evolved into the sparsely attested Lydian, Lycian and Carian languages.

• Gothic Metalwork and Ivory Carvings

  • Iron work during the Gothic period took on various styles and trends, from large rough wrought-iron works to more delicate items.
  • Ivory became available once again in Europe in the Middle Ages and created a trend for ivory sculptures of various forms.
  • This mirror casing is an example of the ornate ivory work that became part of everyday objects in the Middle Ages.

• Introduction to Ancient Greece

  • Following a Greek Dark Age, Greece once more flourished and developed into the ancient culture that we recognize today .
  • During the Bronze Age, several distinct cultures developed around the Aegean.
  • Many explanations attribute the fall of the Mycenaean civilization and the Bronze Age collapse to climatic or environmental catastrophe, combined with an invasion by Dorians or by the Sea Peoples, or to the widespread availability of edged weapons of iron, but no single explanation fits the available archaeological evidence.
  • This two- to three-century span of history is also known as the Homeric Age.
  • Illustrate a timeline of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.

• Cast-Iron Architecture

  • Cast-iron architecture was a prominent style in the Industrial Revolution era when cast iron was relatively cheap, and modern steel had not yet been developed.
  • In the 1850s the cheapness and availability of cast iron led James Bogardus of New York City to advocate and design buildings using cast iron components.
  • Cast iron has some architectural advantages, as well as some serious weaknesses.
  • Cast iron was also used widely in bridge construction for the new railway system, sometimes with horrific results, especially when cast iron girders were used instead of arches.
  • The weakest parts of the bridge were cast iron lugs holding tie bars in place, and cast iron in new bridges was effectively abandoned after the disaster.

• Illustrated Books in the Early Middle Ages

  • The majority of the surviving illuminated manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, and hence, the majority of these manuscripts are of a religious nature.
  • The lettering is in iron gall ink and the colors used were derived from a wide range of substances, many of which were imported from distant lands.