iron age

The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic) and the Bronze Age. The concept has been mostly applied to Europe and the Ancient Near East, and, by analogy, also to other parts of the Old World. The duration of the Iron Age varies depending on the region under consideration. It is defined by archaeological convention, and the mere presence of some cast or wrought ironis not sufficient to represent an Iron Age culture; rather, the "Iron Age" begins locally when the production of iron or steel has been brought to the point where iron tools and weapons superior to their bronze equivalents become widespread.^[1] For example, Tutankhamun's meteoric iron dagger comes from the Bronze Age. In the Ancient Near East, this transition takes place in the wake of the so-called Bronze Age collapse, in the 12th century BC. The technology soon spread throughout the Mediterranean Basin region and to South Asia. Its further spread to Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe is somewhat delayed, and Northern Europe is reached still later, by about 500 BC.The Iron Age is taken to end, also by convention, with the beginning of the historiographical record. This usually does not represent a clear break in the archaeological record; for the Ancient Near East the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire c. 550 BC (considered historical by virtue of the record by Herodotus) is usually taken as a cut-off date, and in Central and Western Europe the Roman conquests of the 1st century BC serve as marking for the end of the Iron Age. The Germanic Iron Age of Scandinavia is taken to end c. 800 AD, with the beginning of the Viking Age.In South Asia, the Iron Age is taken to begin with the ironworking Painted Gray Ware culture and to end with the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BC). The use of the term "Iron Age" in the archaeology of South, East and Southeast Asia is more recent, and less common, than for western Eurasia; at least in China prehistory had ended before iron-working arrived, so the term is infrequently used. The Sahel (Sudan region) and Sub-Saharan Africa are outside of the three-age system, there being no Bronze Age, but the term "Iron Age" is sometimes used in reference to early cultures practicing ironworking such as the Nok culture of Nigeria.不同地區進入鐵器時代的時間有所不同，即使同在歐洲，日耳曼地區和羅馬進入鐵器時代的時間亦有所不同。世界上最早進入鐵器時代的是西臺王國，大約在公元前十四世紀年左右。中國在春秋(公元前五世紀)末年，大部分地區已使用鐵器。雖然各地區進入鐵器時代的時間不盡相同，亦難以準確的年份標示，但鐵器時代與之前時代的區別仍是十分明顯的。鐵器時代是指已經能運用很複雜的金屬加工來生產鐵器。鐵的硬度，高熔點與鐵礦的高蘊含量，使得鐵相對青銅來得便宜及可在各方面運用，所以其需求很快便遠超青銅。在美洲及大洋洲的鐵器時代並不是發展自青銅器時代，因為鐵的運用是由歐洲探險家傳入的。最先出現鐵器使用的是古埃及與蘇美，在公元前4000年已出現極少量的使用，但大多是在隕石中得到鐵，而非由鐵礦中提取。在公元前3000年至公元前2000年，在小亞細亞，埃及與美索不達米亞越來越多地由隕石礦中提練鐵。1972年於中國河北省石家莊市藁城附近台西遺址，和1979年北京市平谷縣劉家河商墓，也出土了公元前14世紀時商朝的5件鐵刃銅鉞，中國古人將鐵稱為「天石」。有些考古證據指出鐵在當時是在提練銅時生成的副產品，稱為海綿鐵，在當時的冶練技術來說是不可進行大量生產的，鐵是比金更昂貴的金屬。在那些時代，鐵器大多用在禮儀上，青銅器仍然是主要的生產用具。最早大量生產鐵並將其應用的是西臺帝國，其於公元前1400年已掌握了冶鐵技術。而到了公元前1200年，鐵已在中東各地廣泛運用，但在當時並未取代青銅在應用上的主要地位。

cyprus

- The Cypriot or Cypriote syllabary is a syllabic script used in Iron Age Cyprus, from about the 11th to the 4th centuries BCE, when it was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A pioneer of that change was King Evagoras of Salamis. It is descended from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, in turn a variant or derivative of Linear A. Most texts using the script are in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek, but also one bilingual (Greek and Eteocypriot) inscription was found in Amathus.

• ********note the symbols for 0, a, p, ph, b, s