The Iron Age was the age of alternatives and innovations. Some countries slipped from the Stone Age to the Iron Age without the intermediary Bronze Age. Some were surrounded by Iron Age progress, yet remained at various levels of the Stone Age. Some countries utilized both bronze and iron. Some replaced bronze with iron. Villages spread across countrysides, towns, cities and empires emerged and new farming techniques were developed. And a new world of thought opened.
And it all seemed to begin in Africa. Kush (or Nubia) is thought to be both the gold and the iron capital of the ancient world. The Egyptians utilised iron in the Great Pyramids, (it has been found in the Black Pyramid of about 3,000B.C.) By 1400 B.C, East Africans began producing steel in carbon furnaces.
Some theorise that the Egyptians viewed iron with a healthy dose of suspicion. Most Egyptian relics are from tombs. No funerary relics are made of iron because the Egyptians believed iron was connected with Seth, the spirit of evil connected with the central African deserts. Iron was impure or “bad magic”. In short, while other parts of the world selected iron as an alternative metal. Egypt valued iron for its practical applications but, on spiritual grounds, questioned its place in symbols of the after life.
But there was more to iron in Africa than Kush. In the west of Africa, in areas around modern Nigeria, iron technologies may have existed as early as the 6th century B.C. Iron was used for agricultural tools and weapons. There was even a god of iron known as Ogun. The anvil was often used for taking an oath. Ironworkers were nomadic, often travelling with armies into battle. Some blacksmiths were held in high social esteem, advising tribal chiefs. Iron, in the west of Africa was a symbol of political and spiritual power.
Bantu speaking peoples, the largest linguistic group in Africa, are credited with spreading the knowledge of working with iron from the east African highlands to the Congo forests. They spread iron smelting techniques and spread an interest in high yielding crops such as bananas, yams and plaintains. Villages burst onto the African landscape.
Iron in Africa significantly predates the use of iron on the European continent. It seems the reason why the Iron Age has so varied a time span is that iron technology slowly infiltrated European countries from the south, from Africa. Denmark, Russia and Siberia did not begin their Iron Age till the 1st century A.D.
About 600B.C., the Celts probably introduced iron to Britain from the continent. As with Africa, the spread of the use of iron initiated the growth of villages. And other technological innovation seemed to follow. The potter’s wheel appeared and new farming techniques were adopted using iron-tipped ploughshares. Coinage and the practice of cremations were introduced. Huge, fortified hillforts appeared during the 5th and 6th centuries B.C.
While it is tempting to trace all the new uses of iron in the Iron Age, it is also important to notice other events. Using the main beginning of iron usage throughout Europe as a starting date, about 1200B.C., to the close of Emperor Augustus’ Roman Empire in 14A.D., the Iron Age marked a significant period of “other world” changes.
This era began with the legendary Trojan War. Hesiod, the epic poet told the story of the war in his “Iliad” about 800B.C. The first Olympic Games are recorded as 776B.C. In the 6th century, the Buddha was born and it was the era of Confucius and Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism. Mathematician Pythagoras lived in these times. The Greek states and the Persian Empire clashed in the intermittent Persian Wars; the Greeks also suffered in the Pelopponesian Wars. Alexander the Great (356-323B.C.) dazzled the world with his daring conquests. This was the time of philosophers Socrates and Sophocles. Aeschylus “the father of tragedy”, Hippocrates “the father of medicine”, Cicero “the father of oratory” and Heroditus, “the father of history” left their mark for eternity. Hellenistic Empire gave way to the widespread Roman Empire. The Great Wall of China became a world wonder.
The emergence of iron (and its associated technologies) was only a sign of the new times. More sophisticated tools, utensils and weapons seemed to generate more sophisticated war strategies and more interaction between larger groups of people. The Iron Age meant a time when new lifestyles were experienced and new depths of thinking were tested. And it all seemed to begin in Africa.
Sources
www.wsu.edu.com
www.channel4.com
www.wesleyjohnston.co
www.1911encyclopedia.org
www.metmuseum.org
