Natalya Adnoral

Why is our age called the Iron Age? Is it related to the physical properties of the metal? Perhaps acquaintance with the history of the development of iron, with its nature and symbolism, will facilitate the understanding of our time and our place in it.

iron age
(started around II - I millennium BC)

In archeology: the historical period of the widespread distribution of iron as a material for the manufacture of weapons and tools. Follows stone and bronze.

In Indian philosophy - Kali Yuga: the age of darkness, the fourth and last period in the cycle of the manifested world. Follows Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Plato in The Republic also talks about the four ages of mankind.

"Portrait" of an iron age man (according to Plato's Republic) “From day to day, such a person lives, catering to the first desire that has flown over him: either he gets drunk to the sound of flutes, then he suddenly drinks only water and exhausts himself, then he is fond of bodily exercises; but it happens that laziness attacks him, and then he has no desire for anything. Sometimes he spends time in activities that seem philosophical. He is often occupied with public affairs: suddenly he jumps up and says and does what he has to. He will be carried away by military people - he will carry him there, and if businessmen, then in this direction. There is no order in his life, there is no necessity in it; he calls this life pleasant, free and blissful, and as such he uses it all the time. Equality and freedom lead people to the fact that “everything that is coercive arouses indignation in them, as something unacceptable, and they will end up by ceasing to reckon even with the laws - written and unwritten - so that in general no one and nothing has any power over them."

Iron age. This is an era of change, action and duality. Where there is war, there is both cruelty and heroism. Where there is a personality, it is both a cult of the ego and a bright individuality. Where freedom is both a complete rejection of the law and absolute responsibility. Where power is both the desire to capture and subjugate others, and the ability to "rule oneself." Where the search is both a thirst for new pleasures and a love of wisdom. Where life is both survival and the Way. The Iron Age is a stage of movement from the past to the future, from the old to the new. This is the age in which each of us lives.

Part one,
archaeological and etymological

Iron is called the metal of the power of civilizations. Historically, the onset of the Iron Age is directly associated with the discovery of a method for obtaining iron from ores found in the bowels of the Earth. But along with “earthly” iron, there is also its “heavenly” counterpart - iron of meteoric origin. Meteoritic iron is chemically pure (does not contain impurities), and therefore does not require labor-intensive technologies for their removal. Iron in the composition of ores, on the contrary, needs several stages of purification. Archeology, etymology, and myths about gods or demons who dropped iron objects and tools from the sky speak of the fact that the first person to know was the “heavenly” iron.

In ancient Egypt, iron was called bi-ni-pet, which literally means "heavenly ore" or "heavenly metal". The oldest samples of processed iron found in Egypt are made of meteoric iron (they date back to the 4th millennium BC). In Mesopotamia, iron was called an-bar - "heavenly iron", in ancient Armenia - yerkat, "dropped (fell) from the sky." The ancient Greek and North Caucasian names for iron come from the word sidereus, "starry".

The first iron - a gift of the gods, clean, easy to process - was used exclusively for the manufacture of "pure" ritual objects: amulets, talismans, sacred images (beads, bracelets, rings, hearths). Iron meteorites were worshiped, religious buildings were created at the place of their fall, they were ground into powder and drunk as a cure for many ailments, carried with them as amulets. The first meteoritic iron weapons were decorated with gold and precious stones and used in burials.

Some peoples were not familiar with meteoric iron. For them, the development of metal began with ore deposits of "terrestrial" iron, from which they made objects for applied purposes. Among such peoples (for example, among the Slavs), iron was called according to a “functional” attribute. So Russian iron (South Slavic zalizo) has the root "lez" (from "lezo" - "blade"). Some philologists derive the German name for the metal Eisen from the Celtic isara, meaning "strong, strong." The now international Latin name Ferrum, adopted among the Romance peoples, is probably related to the Greek-Latin fars ("to be hard"), which is derived from the Sanskrit bhars ("to harden").

Part two,
practical-mystical

The "applied" duality of objects made of iron is obvious: it is both a tool of creation and a weapon of destruction. Even the same iron object can be used for diametrically opposed purposes. According to legends, the blacksmiths of antiquity were able to endow iron objects with the power of one direction or another. That is why they treated blacksmiths with reverence and fear.

Mythological and mystical interpretations of the properties of iron in different cultures are also sometimes opposite. In some cases, iron was associated with a destructive, enslaving force, in others - with protection from such forces. So, in Islam, iron is a symbol of evil, among the Teutons - a symbol of slavery. Bans on the use of iron were widespread in Ireland, Scotland, Finland, China, Korea, and India. Altars were built without iron, with the help of iron tools it was forbidden to collect medicinal herbs. Hindus believed that the iron in the houses contributed to the spread of epidemics.

On the other hand, iron is an essential attribute of protective rituals: during plague epidemics, nails were hammered into the walls of houses; a pin was pinned to clothes as a talisman from the evil eye; iron horseshoes were nailed to the doors of houses and churches, attached to the masts of ships. In antiquity, iron rings and other amulets were common to scare away demons and evil spirits. In ancient China, iron served as a symbol of justice, strength and chastity; figurines made from it were buried in the ground to protect against dragons. Iron as a warrior metal was sung in Scandinavia, where the military cult reached unprecedented development. In addition, some peoples revered iron for its ability to awaken mental strength and cause dramatic changes in life.

part three,
natural science

Iron is a metal, one of the most common elements in the Universe, an active participant in the processes taking place in the depths of stars. The core of the Sun - the main source of energy for our planet (according to the modern hypothesis) - consists of iron. On Earth, iron is ubiquitous: both in the core (the main element), and in the earth's crust (in second place after aluminum), and in all living organisms without exception - from bacteria to humans.

The main properties of iron-metal, strength and conductivity, are due to its crystal structure. Positively charged ions “rest” at the nodes of the metal lattice, and negatively charged “free” electrons continuously “scurry” between them. The strength of the metallic bond is due to the force of attraction between the "nodal pluses" and "moving minuses", the conduction potential is due to the chaotic movement of electrons. A metal becomes a “real” conductor when, under the action of the poles applied to the metal, this electronic chaos turns into a directed ordered flow (actually, an electric current).

Man, like metal, with a sufficiently rigid external organization internally - the very movement. On the physical level, this is expressed in the continuous movements and interconversions of billions of atoms and molecules, in the exchange of matter and energy in cells, in the blood flow, etc. On the psychic level, in the constant change of emotions and thoughts. Stopping movement on all planes means death. It is noteworthy that it is iron that is an invariable participant in the processes that provide energy to our bodies. The failure of at least one iron-containing system threatens the body with irreparable disaster. Even a decrease in iron content significantly impairs energy metabolism. In humans, this is expressed in chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, sensitivity to cold, apathy, weakening of attention, decreased mental and cognitive abilities, increased susceptibility to stress and infections. In fairness, it should be said that an excess of iron does not lead to anything good either: iron poisoning is expressed in fatigue, damage to the liver, spleen, increased inflammatory processes in the body, deficiency of other vital trace elements (copper, zinc, chromium and calcium).

Any movement requires energy. Our body receives it in the process of chemical transformation of substances received with food. The driving force behind this process is atmospheric oxygen. This way of obtaining energy is called breathing. Iron is its most important component. First, as part of a complex molecule - blood hemoglobin - it directly binds oxygen (structures in which iron is replaced by manganese, nickel or copper are not capable of binding oxygen). Secondly, as part of myoglobin, muscles store this oxygen in reserve. Thirdly, it serves as a conductor of energy in complex systems, which, in fact, carry out the chemical transformation of substances.

In bacteria and plants, iron is also involved in the transformation of matter and energy (photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation). With a lack of iron in the soil, plants no longer capture sunlight and lose their green color.

Iron not only helps the transformation of matter and energy in living organisms, it also serves as an indicator of the changes that took place on Earth in the distant past. According to the depth of iron oxide deposition at the bottom of the oceans, scientists are making assumptions about the timing of the appearance of the first photosynthetic organisms and the appearance of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. According to the orientation of iron-bearing inclusions in the composition of lavas that erupted during ancient cataclysms - about the position of the planet's magnetic poles at that ancient time.

Part four
symbolic (astrological-alchemical)

So what kind of energy that feeds the activity of our bodies does iron conduct? In the old days, it was assumed that the energies of celestial bodies are transmitted to the inhabitants of the Earth with the help of the conductive force of metals. Each specific metal (of the seven mentioned in alchemy and astrology) contributes to the distribution of a very specific type of energy in the body. Iron was considered a piece of celestial power, which is given to the Earth by its nearest neighbor - the planet Mars. Other names for this planet are Ares, Yar, Yarius. Russian word"fury" of the same root with them. In ancient times, the energy of Mars was said to "hot the blood and the mind" and favorable for "work, war and love." Mars and iron were often mentioned in connection with the astral, the plane of emotions. It was said that the power of Mars not only "kindles" our physical activity, but also provokes the "exit" of our instincts, passions and emotions - active, mobile, changeable and, of course, sometimes diametrically opposed. After all, it is not for nothing that they say that there is only one step from love to hate.

Philosophers of the past considered these manifestations of "energetic and restless elements" as a necessary stage of growth, development, improvement. It is no coincidence that in alchemy the path of evolution, the transformation of metals, culminating in inert, integral, perfect gold, begins precisely with iron - a symbol of action.

The Iron Age is a historical era of iron mining and processing, an era of destructive wars and creative discoveries.

Iron in itself can be neither good nor bad, "neither great nor insignificant." Its internal properties are manifested as envisaged by Nature. In human hands, iron is transformed into a product. Is it good or evil? Obviously not. Only the result of the action taken can be constructive or destructive. Only a person chooses the goal, method and direction of action and is responsible for its result.

History reference The earliest finds of iron objects from meteoric iron were noted in Iran (VI-IV millennium BC), Iraq (V millennium BC), Egypt (IV millennium BC) and Mesopotamia ( III millennium BC). Products made of meteoric iron are known in various cultures of Eurasia: in the Yamnaya (III millennium BC) in the Southern Urals and in Afanasievskaya (III millennium BC) in Southern Siberia. He was known by the Eskimos, the Indians of the northwest of North America and the population of Zhou China. There are iron finds dated to the 2nd millennium BC. in Cyprus and Crete, in Assyria and Babylon. The most ancient iron-smelting furnaces (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC) belonged to the Hittites. Historically, the beginning of the Iron Age in Europe dates back to the end of the 2nd millennium BC; in Egypt - about 1300 BC. In Greece, the spread of iron coincided in time with the era of the Homeric epic (IX - VI centuries BC). Among the Slavs, Svarog was the god of heaven, the father of all things. The name of the god comes from the Vedic svargas - "sky"; the root var means burning, heat. The legend says that Svarog, representing heavenly fire, gave people the first plow and blacksmith tongs and taught them how to smelt iron. In the Chinese "Book of History" (Shu-jing), which, according to legend, was compiled by Confucius in the 6th century BC, the metal element is said to manifest its nature in submission (to external influence) and in change. It is iron that gives blood its characteristic red color (the color of duality, action, energy and life). In the Old Russian language, metal deposits and blood were designated by one word - ore. According to the generally accepted theory, our Sun is a hot ball of hydrogen and helium. But now there is a new hypothesis about its composition. Its author is Oliver Manuel, professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Missouri Roll. He argues that the hydrogen fusion reaction, which gives part of the solar heat, occurs near the surface of the Sun. And the main heat is released from the core, which consists mainly of iron. The professor believes that the entire solar system was formed after a supernova explosion about 5 billion years ago. From the compressed core of the supernova, the Sun was formed, and from the matter ejected into space, the planets. The planets closest to the Sun (including the Earth) were formed from internal parts- heavier elements (iron, sulfur and silicon); distant ones (for example, Jupiter) - from the matter of the outer layers of that star (from hydrogen, helium and other light elements).

The original article is on the website of the magazine "New Acropolis": www.newacropolis.ru

to the magazine "Man Without Borders"

Many secrets exist in world history. But each study by archaeologists leaves no hope of learning something new in the facts that have been discovered. Exciting and extraordinary are those moments when you realize that a long time ago on the lands that we walk today, huge dinosaurs lived, crusaders fought, ancient people set up camp.

Introduction

World history laid down in its periodization two approaches that are in demand for determining the human race: 1) materials for the manufacture of tools and 2) technologies. Thanks to these approaches, the concepts of "stone", "iron", "bronze" ages arose. Each of these eras has become a separate step in the development of human history, the next cycle of evolution and the knowledge of human capabilities. It is noteworthy that in this process there was no stagnation, the so-called stagnation. From ancient times to the present day, there has been a regular acquisition of knowledge and the latest methods of extracting useful materials. In our article you will learn about iron age and its general characteristics.

Methods for dating time periods in world history

Natural Sciences have become an excellent tool in the hands of archaeologists to determine the date in time periods. Today, historians and researchers can make geological dating, they have the right to use the radiocarbon method, as well as dendrochronology. The active development of the most ancient man makes it possible to improve existing technologies.

Five thousand years ago, the so-called written period began in the history of mankind. Therefore, there were other prerequisites for determining the time frame. Historians suggest that the era of the isolation of ancient man from the world of fauna began two million years ago and lasted until the fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire, which happened in 476 AD.

This was the period of antiquity, then the Middle Ages lasted until the Renaissance. The period of modern history lasted until the end of the First World War. And we live in the era of modern times. Outstanding figures of the time set their reference points. For example, Herodotus was actively interested in the struggle of Asia with Europe. Later thinkers believed major event in the development of civilization the formation of the Roman Republic. However, a huge number of historians agreed on a single assumption - in the Iron Age, art and culture were not of great importance. After all, tools of labor and war came to the fore at that time.

Prerequisites for the emergence of the era of metal

Primitive history is divided into several important eras. For example, the Stone Age includes the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. The time span from these periods is characterized by the development of man and the latest methods of stone processing.

At first, the hand ax was widely spread from the tools of labor. At the same time, man mastered fire. He made the first clothes from the skin of an animal. Ideas about religion appeared, and also at this time, ancient people began to equip their homes. At a time when man led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, he hunted large and strong animals, so he needed a weapon better than what he had.

The next most important stage in the development of stone processing methods falls at the turn of the millennium and the end of the Stone Age. Then there is agriculture and animal husbandry. And then there is also ceramic production. So in the early Iron Age, ancient man mastered copper and the methods of its processing. The beginning of the era of manufacturing metal products formed the front of activity in advance. The study of the characteristics and properties of metals gradually led to the fact that man discovered bronze and also spread it. The Stone Age, the Iron Age, including the Bronze Age, is all a single and harmonious process of a person's striving for civilization, which is based on mass movements of ethnic groups.

Researchers who studied the era of iron and its duration

Since the spread of metal is usually attributed to the primitive, as well as the early class history of mankind, therefore, the characteristic features of this period are interests in metallurgy and the manufacture of tools.

Even in antiquity, the idea of ​​the division of centuries on the basis of materials was formed, but it has been described more fully in our days. So the early Iron Age was studied, and scientists in various fields continue to study. For example, in Western Europe, the fundamental works about this era were written by Gernes, Tischler, Kostszewski and other scientists.

However, in Eastern Europe similar works and monographs, maps and textbooks were written by Gauthier, Spitsyn, Krakov, Smirnov, Artamonov and Tretyakov. They all think that feature culture of primitive times is the spread of iron. However, each state survived the Bronze and Iron Ages in its own way.

The first of them is considered a prerequisite for the emergence of the second. The Bronze Age was not so extensive within the framework of the development of mankind. As for the chronological framework of the Iron Age, this period took only two centuries from the ninth to the seventh century BC. During this period of time, many tribes of Asia and Europe received a powerful impetus in the promotion of metallurgy. Indeed, at that time, metal remained one of the most important materials for the manufacture of tools and household items, therefore, it influenced the development of modernity and is part of that time.

Cultural background of this era

Despite the fact that the period of the Iron Age did not imply the active development of culture, modernization nevertheless slightly affected this sphere of life of an ancient person. It should be noted:

• First, there were the first economic preconditions for the establishment of working relations and discord in the tribal way of life.
• Secondly, ancient history marked by the accumulation of certain values, increased inequality of property, as well as a mutually beneficial exchange of parties.
• Thirdly, the formation of classes in society and the state became widespread and strengthened.
• Fourthly, a huge part of the funds has passed into the private ownership of selected minorities, as well as slavery and progressive stratification of society.

Iron age. Russia

On the lands of modern Russia, iron was first found in the Transcaucasus. Items made of this metal began to actively replace bronze ones. This is evidenced by the fact that iron was found everywhere, unlike tin or copper. Iron ore was located not only deep in the bowels of the earth, but also on its surface too.

Today, the ore found in the swamp is of no interest to the modern metal industry. However, in the ancient era, it meant a lot. Thus, the state, which had an income in the production of bronze, lost it in the production of metal. It is noteworthy that the countries that needed copper ore, with the advent of iron, quickly caught up with those kingdoms that were advanced in bronze age.

It should be noted that during the excavations of the Scythian settlements, priceless relics of the beginning of the Iron Age were found.

Who are the Scythians? Simply put, these are Iranian-speaking nomads who moved through the territories of modern Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Siberia and southern Russia. Once upon a time Herodotus wrote about them.

Scythian relics in Russia

It is worth noting that these nomads grew grain. They brought it for export to Greek cities. Grain production was based on slave labor. Very often the bones of the dead slaves accompanied the burial of the Scythians. The tradition of killing slaves at the burial of the master is known in many countries. The Scythians did not ignore these customs. On the sites of their former settlements, archaeologists still find agricultural tools, including sickles. It should be noted that few arable implements were found. Perhaps they were wooden and did not have iron elements.

It is known that the Scythians knew how to process ferrous metal. They produced flat arrows, which consisted of spikes, bushings and other elements. The Scythians began to make tools and other household items best quality than before. This indicates global changes not only in the life of these nomads, but also in other steppe ethnic groups.

Iron age. Kazakhstan

This period in the Kazakh steppes fell on the eighth-seventh centuries BC. This era coincided with the movement of agricultural and pastoral tribes from Mongolia to mobile forms of economy. They were based on the system of seasonal regulation of pastures, as well as water sources. These forms of pastoral farming in the steppe are called "nomadic" and "semi-nomadic farms" in science. New forms of cattle breeding laid the foundation for the development of the economy of the tribes that lived in the special conditions of the steppe ecosystem. The basis of this form of economy was formed in the Begazy-Dandybaev era.

Tasmalan culture

Nomads lived on the endless steppes of Kazakhstan. On these lands, history is presented in the form of burial mounds and burial grounds, which are considered priceless monuments of the Iron Age. In this region, burials with paintings are often found, which, according to archaeologists, served as lighthouses or compasses in the steppe.

Historians are interested in the Tasmolin culture, which was named after the area of ​​Pavlodar. The very first excavations were carried out in this area, where the skeletons of a man and a horse were found in large and small barrows. Scientists-Kazakhstanologists consider these mounds the most common relics of the Stone Age, Iron Age.

Cultural features of Northern Kazakhstan

This region differs from other regions of Kazakhstan in that farmers, that is, local residents, have switched to either a settled or nomadic way of life. The culture described above is also valued in these regions. Archaeological researchers are still attracted by the monuments of the Iron Age. A lot of research was carried out on the burial mounds of Birlik, Bekteniz, etc. The right bank of the Yesil River preserved the fortifications of this era.

Another "iron" turn in the history of mankind

Historians say that the 19th century is the Iron Age. The thing is that it went down in history as an era of revolutions and changes. The architecture is changing radically. At this time, concrete is being intensively introduced into the construction business. Railway tracks are laid everywhere. In other words, the age of the railroad began. Rails are laid en masse, connecting cities and countries. So there were ways in France, Germany, Belgium and Russia.

In 1837, railway workers connected St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. The length of these routes was 26.7 km. The railway began to actively expand in Russia in the 19th century. It was then that the domestic government thought about laying the tracks. Oddly enough, but the starting point for the development of this direction was the Department of Water Communications, which was created at the end of the 18th century by Paul the First.

The organization under the leadership of N. P. Rumyantsev acted more than successfully. The new institution was actively developed and expanded. On its base, created by Rumyantsev in 1809, the Military Institute of Communications was opened. After the victory in 1812, domestic engineers improved the communications system. It was this institute that produced modern and competent specialists for the construction and operation of domestic railways. Historians recorded the maximum point towards the end of the 19th century. This is the highest level of growth of the railway network. In just 10 years, the world length of the railway has increased by 245 thousand kilometers. Thus, the total length of the global network has become 617 thousand kilometers.

The first Russian train

As mentioned above, the flight "St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo", which departed in 1837 on October 30 at 12:30, became the debut in the domestic railway. A lot of artificial structures were built along this route, including bridges. The largest of them ran through the Obvodny Canal, the length of which was more than 25 meters.

In general, a huge number of bridges built from metal structures were built in the New Iron Age. 7 locomotives and various crews were purchased abroad. And a year later, namely in 1838, a domestic steam locomotive called "Agile" was designed at the Tsarskoye Selo Institute of Communications.

For 5 years, more than 2 million passengers have been transported on this route. At the same time, this road brought a profit to the treasury of about 360 thousand rubles. The significance of this railway lay in the fact that this experience of construction and operation proved the idea of ​​uninterrupted operation of this kind of transport in the climatic conditions of our homeland all year round.

The financial exploitation of the canvas also proved the profitability and expediency of a new method of delivering passengers and goods. It is worth noting that the first experience in the organization of railways in Russia gave a powerful impetus to the development and laying of railway tracks across the country.

Conclusion

If we return to the question of the Iron Age, we can trace its influence on the development of all mankind.

So, the era of metal is a part of history that stood out on the basis of data obtained by archaeologists, and is also characterized by the predominant predominance of objects made of iron, cast iron and steel at excavation sites.

It is generally accepted that this age replaced the Bronze Age. Its beginning in different areas and regions refers to different time periods. Markers of the beginning of the Iron Age are the regular production of weapons and tools, the spread of not only blacksmithing, but also ferrous metallurgy, as well as the widespread use of iron products.

The end of this era is attributed to the advent of the technological era, which is associated with the industrial revolution. And some historians extend it to the days of modern times.

The widespread introduction of this metal causes many opportunities for the production of a series of tools. This phenomenon is reflected in the improvement and spread of agriculture in forest areas or on soils that are difficult to cultivate.

Progress is observed in the construction business, as well as in crafts. The first tools appear in the form of saws, files and even articulated tools. Metal mining made it possible to manufacture wheeled vehicles. It was the latter that became the impetus for the expansion of trade.

Then coins appear. Iron processing rendered positive influence and for the military. These facts in many regions contributed to the decomposition of the primitive system, as well as the formation of statehood.

Remember that the Iron Age is divided into early and late. This era is used in the study of primitive societies. On Chinese lands, progress in ferrous metallurgy proceeded separately. The production of bronze and casting among the Chinese was at the highest level. However, ore iron for them was known for a long time than in other countries. They were the first to produce cast iron, having noticed its fusibility. Masters produced many items not by forging, but by casting.

Successful metal processing centers were in the territories of the former USSR Transcaucasia, the Dnieper region, the Volga-Kama region. It is noteworthy that social inequality intensified in pre-class societies. This was a general description of the Iron Age, which represents the most significant changes in the history of mankind associated with the development of iron.

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 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 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 furnace, which not only raised the temperature in it, but also created the conditions for a successful chemical reaction of metal reduction. 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.

Reconstruction of the appearance of a representative of the Ananyino culture and some archaeological finds

iron age

Iron Age - a period of development humanity which occurred in connection with the manufacture and use of iron tools labor and weapons. Changed bronze age in AD I millennium BC In contrast to the relatively rare deposits of copper and especially tin, low-quality iron ores (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 approx.

Carthage. Spanish weapons IV-II centuries. BC 1 - saunion - a heavy iron dart with a serrated edge. From Almedinilla. 2 - tip of a pilum-type dart from Arkobriga. 3 - spearhead from Almedinilla (Cordoba). 4 - falcata (falcata) from Almedinilla. 5 - straight piercing-chopping sword (gladius hispaniensis) from Aguila de Angwita. 6 - dagger from Almedinilla. 7 - Spanish dagger from Numantsia. 8 and 9 - spears. 10 - a knife of this type was attached to the falcata scabbard. All weapons are shown on a scale of 1: 8.11 - a tombstone of a Spanish mercenary discovered in Tunisia, which depicts his shield, helmet, sword and two spears. 12-15 - reliefs from Osuna in southern Spain. 12 - a swordsman with a Celtic-type shield and a headdress made of veins. 13 - a headdress of the same type. 14 - a warrior with a Spanish shield, a falcata and a cap made of veins .15 - a cap of the same type. 16 - a warrior depicted on a vase from Liria. 17 - a bronze figurine of a Spanish horseman of the 3rd century. BC. in a headdress made of veins. He is armed with a round shield and falcata. Museum of Valencia de don Juan. Madrid. 18 - front view of the figurine, allowing you to see how such a shield was held, as well as a wide belt of a warrior. 19 - a sculptural image of a horse, on which a bit and sweatshirt are visible. From El Cigarrelejo. 4th century BC. Meeting Wed. E. Cuadrado, Madrid.20 - reconstruction of the appearance of the Spanish horseman of the time of Hannibal. He wears a veined headdress and a white tunic trimmed with a crimson stripe. He is armed with a round shield with a handle located in the center, a spear and a falcata.21 - a reconstruction of the appearance of a Spanish infantryman from the time of Hannibal. At the beginning of his campaign, the Carthaginian commander collected more than 70,000 of them, they served as the main "expendable material". The infantryman wears a vein cap adorned with a horsehair crest and a white tunic trimmed with dark red. He has a Celtiberian oval shield with a vertical rib, a spear, a saunion, and a falcata. Instead of the latter, he could be armed with a double-edged straight Spanish sword. 22 and 23 are two types of Spanish bits found in Agvila de Anguita in southern Spain

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 IX-VII centuries. BC. 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. In Europe, in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. iron and steel began to play really significant role as a material for the manufacture of tools and weapons.

Artifacts of the Ananyino culture. 1 - stone pseudoanthropomorphic tombstone depicting a battle ax and a dagger; 2 - bronze belt with pendant plaques and a stone whetstone (reconstruction); 3, 4 - iron and bronze spearheads; 5, 6, 8 - bronze arrowheads; 7 - iron arrowhead; 9 - bone arrowhead; 10 - bronze ax - "Celt"; 11 - bimetallic dagger; 12 - bronze pick with a zoomorphic rim; 13 - iron dagger; 14 - ceramic vessel; 15 - bronze bracelet; 16 - a bronze ax with a zoomorphic bushing and butt; 17 - bronze bridle plaque in the form of a coiled predator

The technological revolution caused by the spread of iron and steel greatly expanded power man 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. Development accelerates crafts, especially blacksmith and weapons. The processing of wood for the purposes of house-building, the production of vehicles, and the manufacture of various utensils is being improved. Artisans, from shoemakers and masons to miners, also received better tools. K n. 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, improved military technology, exchange expanded, metal coins spread as a means of circulation. Development productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time led to the transformation of the entire public life.

Artifacts of the Dyakovo culture. 1-4 - bone arrowheads; 5, 6 - iron arrowheads; 7, 8 - iron knives; 9, 10 - iron sickles; 11 - iron ax - "Celt"; 12 - iron bits; 13 - iron fishing hook; 14, 15 - bronze ornaments-threads; 16 - bronze noisy pendant; 17-20 - ceramic objects ("Dyakov type weights"); 21-25 - ceramic vessels

As a result of the growth of labor productivity, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served economic prerequisite for the emergence exploitation man man, decay tribal primitive communal building. One of the sources of accumulation values and growth wealth inequality there was an 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 were widespread. 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 class society and states. The transfer of certain means of production to private property the ruling minority, the emergence of slavery, the intensified stratification of society and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already features typical of early class societies.

Ancient Greece. 1 - part of a drawing from a Greek vase, which shows two different types ridge bases.2 - Greek raised ridge base. From Olympia.3 - Italian raised crest base. Both the first and second types were fixed with double pins. 4-7 - evolution of the Greek sword. 4,5 - two late Mycenaean (type II) bronze swords from Kallithea. OK. 1200 BC 5a - sword hilt of the same type from Italy. 6 - early Greek iron sword from Ceramics. OK. 820 BC 6a - a bronze hilt of a sword of the same type. 7 - an iron sword and a Greek-type scabbard for it, trimmed with bone, from the Campovalano di Campi necropolis. OK. 500 BC Cheti Museum.8 - Greek type iron spearhead from the Campovalano necropolis. Cheti Museum.9 - Greek bronze spearhead from the British Museum

In many tribes, the social structure of this transitional period took political the form of the so-called. military democracy. The spread of iron metallurgy in the territory Russia refers to the 1st millennium BC. V steppes Northern Black Sea region in the 7th century BC - the first centuries. AD tribes lived Scythians who created the most developed culture early Iron Age. Iron products were found in abundance in the settlements and mounds of the Scythian period. Signs of metallurgical production were discovered during excavations of a number of Scythian settlements. The largest number of remains of iron-working and blacksmithing was found in the Kamensky settlement (V-III centuries BC) near Nikopol on Ukraine, 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 Sarmatian culture that dominated here from the II century. BC. until the 4th century AD In the previous period from the 7th c. BC. Sarmatians (or Sauromatians) lived in the Don and the Urals.

Ancient Rome. 1 - bronze sword with "antennas" from Fermo. 2 - antenna-type sword with bronze scabbard from Fermo. 3 - antenna-type bronze saber sword from Bologna. 4, 6, 7 - bronze tips of antenna-type sword scabbards. 5 - fragments of wooden scabbards sword antenna type. The scabbard is wrapped with bronze wire and has a bronze tip. 8 - an iron dagger with a bone handle and a bronze scabbard with a bone mouth from Veyev. 9, 9a - a bronze dagger and scabbard from Tarquinia. 10 - a bronze spear tip and a wire that fastened it to the shaft. Veii.11, 12 - bronze tip and spearhead from Tarquinia.13 - giant bronze tip from Tarquinia.14 - bronze darthead found in Latium15 - bronze ax from Tarquinia.Scale 1:5

In the first centuries AD. one of the Sarmatian tribes - 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, there are cultures of "burial fields" that spread in the western regions of the Northern Black Sea region, the Upper and Middle Dnieper and Transnistria Chernyakhiv culture and etc.). These cultures belonged to agricultural tribes who knew the metallurgy of iron, among which, according to some scientists, were the ancestors Slavs. The tribes living in the central and northern forest regions of the European part of Russia were familiar with iron metallurgy from the 6th-5th centuries. BC. In the VIII-III centuries. BC. in the Kama region was distributed Ananyino a culture that was 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 - first 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 (from the 1st millennium BC - from the 1st millennium AD) belong to the Iron Age, and in the territory south of the middle reaches of the Oka, west of the Volga, in the basin of the river. Tsna and Moksha, settlements of the Gorodets culture (VII century BC-V century AD), which belonged to the ancient Finno-Ugric tribes.

Celtic artifacts. 1-17 - the evolution of the Celtic helmet. It is impossible to clearly trace the evolution due to the fact that all these helmets come from very distant places from each other. However, in some cases (for example, 2-6-12) the path of development is quite obvious. 1 - bronze helmet from the Somme peat bogs, France. Museum Saint-Germain, 2 - bronze helmet from Dürnberg an der Hallen, Austria. Salzburg Museum. 3 - iron helmet from Hallstatt. Austria, Vienna Museum. 4 - bronze helmet from Montpellier. France. 5 - bronze helmet from the Senon burial. Italy. Museum of Ancona. 6 - helmet made of bronze and iron from the Senonian necropolis in Montefortino. Museum of Ancona. 7 - iron helmet from Umbria. Berlin Museum. 8 - Etruscan bronze helmet of Montefortino type. Villa Giulia Museum. 9 - bronze helmet, possibly of Italian work, from Montefortino. Museum of Ancona. 10 - bronze helmet from Waden (Marne). France, Museum Saint-Germain. 11 - Kenoman bronze "cap-shaped" helmet. Museum of Cremona. 12 - iron helmet from Castelrotto in the Italian Alps. Innsbruck Museum. 13 - iron helmet from Batina, Yugoslavia. Museum of Vienna. 14 - iron helmet from Sanzeno in the Italian Alps. Museum of Trento. 15 - bronze helmet, which was found near Siel (department of Saone and Loire). Museum of Chalon-on-Son. 16 - iron helmet from Port-on-Nidau, Switzerland. Zurich Museum. 17 - iron helmet from Giubiasco, Ticino, Swiss Alps. Zurich Museum. 18 - bronze horned helmet, which was found in the Thames. British museum. 19 - bronze cheek-pieces from Carniola. Yugoslavia, Ljubljana Museum. 20 - iron cheek-pieces from Alesia. Museum of Saint Germain. 21 - two horned helmets depicted on an arch in Orange, southern France. 22 - in the IV century. BC. the Gallic Zante wore such finely decorated gold and bronze ceremonial helmets

The Age of Iron, or the Iron Age, is the third of the technological macro-epochs in the history of mankind (following the Stone Age and the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages). The term "Early Iron Age" is used to denote the first stage of the Iron Age, approximately dated within the boundaries of the II-I millennium BC. - the middle of the 1st millennium AD (with certain chronological variations for different regions).

The use of the term "Iron Age" has a long history. For the first time, the idea of ​​the existence of the Iron Age in human history was clearly formulated at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 7th century. BC. ancient Greek poet Hesiod. According to his periodization of the historical process (see the Introduction), the Iron Age modern to Hesiod turns out to be the last and worst stage of human history, in which people have “no respite night or day from work and grief” and “only the most cruel, serious misfortunes will remain for people in life ”(“ Works and Days ”, str. 175-201. Per. V.V. Veresaev). Ovid at the beginning of the 1st century. AD the ethical imperfection of the Iron Age is even more accentuated. The ancient Roman poet calls iron “the worst ore”, in the era of the domination of which “shame fled, and truth, and fidelity; and deceptions, deceit immediately appeared in their place; intrigues, violence came and the damned greed. The moral degeneration of people is punished by a global flood that destroys everyone, except for Deucalion and Pyrrha, who revive humanity ("Metamorphoses", ch. I, str. 127-150, 163-415. Translated by S.V. Shervinsky).

As we can see, in the assessment of the Iron Age by these ancient authors, the interrelation of the cultural and technological aspect with the philosophical and ethical, in particular eschatological, was especially strong. The Iron Age was conceived as a kind of eve of the end of the world. This is quite natural, because the primary concepts of historical periodization finally took shape and were imprinted in written sources precisely at the beginning of the real Iron Age. Consequently, for the first authors who created the periodization of history, the cultural and technological epochs preceding the Iron Age (whether mythical, like the Age of Gold and the Age of Heroes, or real, like the Age of Copper) were the distant or recent past, while the Iron Age itself was modernity, shortcomings which are always seen more clearly and more tangibly. Therefore, the beginning of the Iron Age was perceived as a kind of crisis frontier in human history. In addition, iron, which defeated bronze primarily in weapons, inevitably became for the witnesses of this process a symbol of weapons, violence, and destruction. It is no coincidence that in the same Hesiod, Gaia-Earth, wanting to punish Uranus-Sky for his villainy, specially creates a “rock of gray iron”, from which he makes a punishing sickle (“Theogony”, str. 154-166. Per. V.V. Veresaev).

Thus, in ancient times, the term "Iron Age" was initially accompanied by an eschatological-tragic interpretation, and this ancient tradition found a continuation in the newest fiction(See, for example, A. Blok's poem "Retribution").

However, another compatriot of Ovid Lucretius in the first half of the 1st century. BC. substantiated in the poem "On the Nature of Things" a qualitatively new, exclusively production-technological characteristic of historical epochs, including the iron epoch. This idea eventually formed the basis of K.Yu. Thomsen (1836). Following this, the problem of the chronological framework of the Iron Age and its internal division arose, about which in the 19th century. there were long discussions. The final point in this dispute was put by the founder of the typological method O. Montelius. He noted that it is impossible to indicate a single absolute date for the change of the Bronze Age to the Iron Age throughout the entire territory of the ecumene; The beginning of the Iron Age for each region should be counted from the moment of the predominance of iron and alloys based on it (primarily steel) over other materials as raw materials for weapons and tools.

Montelius's position was confirmed in subsequent archaeological developments, which showed that at first iron was used as a rare raw material for jewelry (sometimes in combination with gold), then more and more often for the production of tools and weapons, gradually displacing copper and bronze into the background. Thus, in modern science an indicator of the onset of the Iron Age in the history of each particular region is the use of iron of an ore nature for the manufacture of the main forms of tools and weapons and the widespread use of iron metallurgy and blacksmithing.

The advent of the Iron Age is preceded by a long preparatory period related to the previous technological eras.

Even in the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages, people sometimes used iron to produce certain ornaments and the simplest tools. However, initially it was meteoric iron, constantly coming from space. Mankind came to the production of iron from ores much later.

Products made from meteorite iron differ from products made from metallurgical iron (i.e., obtained from ores) primarily in that the former do not contain any slag inclusions, while such inclusions, at least in small proportions, are inevitable in the composition of metallurgical iron. are present as a result of the operation of recovering iron from ores. In addition, meteoric iron usually has a much higher nickel content, which accounts for the much greater hardness of such iron. However, this figure in itself is not absolute, and in modern science there is a serious and as yet unresolved problem of distinguishing between ancient meteorite and ore iron products. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the nickel content in products made from meteorite raw materials could significantly decrease with time as a result of long-term corrosion. On the other hand, iron ores with a high nickel content are found on our planet.

Theoretically, it was possible to use terrestrial native iron - the so-called telluric (its appearance, mainly in basalt rocks, is explained by the interaction of iron oxides with organic minerals). However, it occurs only in the smallest grains and veinlets (with the exception of Greenland, where large accumulations are known), so that the practical use of telluric iron in antiquity was impossible.

Due to the high content of nickel (from 5 to 20%, on average 8%), which increases brittleness, meteorite raw materials were processed mainly by cold forging - by analogy with stone. At the same time, some items made of meteoric iron were obtained as a result of hot forging.

The earliest iron products date back to the 6th millennium BC. and come from the burial of the Eneolithic culture of Samarra in northern Iraq. These are 14 small beads or balls, undoubtedly made of meteoric iron, as well as a tetrahedral tool that could be made of ore iron (this, of course, is an exceptional case).

A much larger number of meteoritic items (mainly for ritual and ceremonial purposes) date back to the Bronze Age.

The most famous items are ancient Egyptian beads of the late 4th - early 3rd millennium BC. from Hertz and Meduma (monuments of the pre-dynastic period); a dagger with a hilt overlaid with gold from the royal burial ground of Ur in Sumer (the tomb of Meskalamdug, dated to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC); mace from Troy I (2600-2400 BC); pins with golden heads, a pendant and some other items from the Aladzha-Kheyuk burial ground (2400-2100 BC); handle of a dagger produced in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. in Asia Minor and brought to the region of present-day Slovakia (Ganovce) - finally, things from the tomb of Tutankhamen (about 1375 BC), including: a dagger with an iron blade and a golden handle, an iron "eye of Horus" attached to a gold bracelet, an amulet in the form of a head stand and 16 thin magic-surgical iron instruments (lancets, incisors, chisels) inserted into wooden base. On the territory of the former USSR, the first products made of meteoric iron appear first of all in the Southern Urals and in the Sayano-Altai Highlands. These are dated to the end of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. all-iron and bimetallic (bronze-iron) tools and ornaments made by metallurgists of the Pit (see Section II, Ch. 4) and Afanasiev cultures using cold and hot forging.

Obviously, the previous experience of using meteoric iron had no effect on the discovery of the effect of obtaining iron from ores. Meanwhile, it is the latest discovery, i.e. the actual birth of ferrous metallurgy, which took place as early as the Bronze Age, predetermined the change of technological eras, although it did not mean the immediate end of the Bronze Age and the transition to the Iron Age.

The oldest iron products dating back to 111-11 thousand BC:
1,3 - iron daggers with a hilt overlaid with gold (from the tomb of Meskalamdug in Ur and from the burial ground of Aladzha-Kheyuk in Asia Minor); 2, 4 - an iron adze with a copper grip for the handle and an iron chisel from the burial of the ancient pit culture (Southern Urals); 5, 6 - a dagger with an iron blade and a golden handle and iron blades inserted into a wooden base (Tutankhamun's tomb), 7 - a knife with a copper handle and an iron blade from a burial of the Catacomb culture (Russia, Belgorod region, village of Gerasimovka); 8 - iron dagger handle (Slovakia)

Reconstruction of the cheese-making process in the early Iron Age:
initial and final phases of the cheese-making process; 2 - obtaining iron from ore in an open in an ancient semi-dugout workshop (Mshetsk Zhechrovice, Czech Republic); 3 - the main types of ancient
cheese-blowing ovens (in section)

There are two most important stages in the development of ore iron:
1st stage - discovery and improvement of a method for the recovery of iron from ores - the so-called cheese-making process.
2nd stage - the discovery of methods for the deliberate production of steel (carburation technology), and subsequently methods for its heat treatment in order to increase the hardness and strength of products.

The cheese-making process was carried out in special furnaces, where iron ore and charcoal were loaded, ignited by the supply of unheated, “raw” air (hence the name of the process). Coal itself could be obtained by pre-burning firewood, stacked in pyramids and covered with sod. First, coal was kindled, poured onto the bottom of a hearth or furnace, then layers of ore and the same coal were alternately loaded from above. As a result of burning coal, gas was released - carbon monoxide, which, passing through the thickness of the ore, reduced iron oxides. The cheese-making process, as a rule, did not ensure the achievement of the iron melting temperature (1528-1535 degrees Celsius), but reached a maximum of 1200 degrees, which was quite enough to recover iron from ores. It was a kind of "cooking" of iron.

Initially, the cheese-making process was carried out in pits lined with refractory clay or stones, then they began to build small ovens from stone or brick, sometimes using clay. Cheese kilns could operate on natural draft (especially if they were built on hillsides), but with the development of metallurgy, air was increasingly pumped with bellows through ceramic nozzles. This air entered the open pit from above, into the furnace through an opening in the lower part of the structure.

The reduced iron was concentrated in a paste-like form at the very bottom of the furnace, forming the so-called furnace furnace - an iron spongy mass with inclusions of unburned charcoal and an admixture of slag. In more advanced versions of cheese-blast furnaces, liquid slag was released from the hearth along a chute.

It was possible to make products from the furnace krytsa, which was removed from the furnace in a red-hot form, only after the preliminary removal of this slag impurity and elimination of porosity. Therefore, a direct continuation of the cheese-making process was the hot forging of a forge, which consisted in its periodic heating to a “bright white heat” (1400-1450 degrees) and in forging with a percussion tool. As a result, a denser mass of metal was obtained - the crown itself, from which, through further forging, semi-finished products and blanks of the corresponding blacksmith products were made. Even before being processed into a semi-finished product, kritz could become a unit of exchange, for which it was given a standard size, weight, and a form convenient for storage and transportation - flatbread, spindle-shaped, bipyramidal, striped. For the same purpose, the semi-finished products themselves could be shaped into tools and weapons.

The opening of the raw-blast process could have occurred as a result of the fact that in the smelting of copper or lead from ores, in addition to copper ore and charcoal, iron-bearing rocks, primarily hematite, were loaded into the smelting furnace (as materials for removing “waste rock”, primarily hematite. In this regard, already in As a result of the copper-smelting process, the first particles of iron could accidentally appear.It is possible that the corresponding furnaces could serve as a prototype for cheese-making.

Tools and products of the cheese-blowing and forging process:
1-9 - kritz 10-13 - semi-finished products in the form of an adze, axes and a knife; 14 - stone pestle for crushing ore; 15 - ceramic nozzle for supplying air to a cheese-blast furnace.

Findings of the earliest cheese kilns are associated with the territories of Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is no coincidence that the most ancient products made of ore iron come from these regions.

This is a dagger blade from Tell Ashmar (2800 BC) and a dagger with a gold-lined hilt from the aforementioned tomb of the Alaja-Kheyuk burial ground (2400-2100 BC), the iron blade of which, for a long time considered meteorite, spectrographic analysis revealed an extremely low nickel content, which speaks in favor of its ore or mixed nature (combination of meteorite and ore raw materials).

On the territory of the former USSR, experiments on the development of bloomery iron proceeded most intensively in the Transcaucasus, in the North Caucasus and in the Northern Black Sea region.

Such early ore-based iron products as a knife from the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC have come down to us. from the burial of the Catacomb culture near the village. Gerasimovka (Belgorod region), knife and awl of the third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC from the settlements of the Srubna culture Lyubovka (Kharkov region) and Tatshgyk (Nikolaev region). The discovery of the cheese-making process is an important step in the development of iron by mankind, because if meteoritic iron is relatively rare, then iron ores are much more widespread than copper and tin. At the same time, iron ores often lie very shallow; in a number of areas, as, for example, in the Forest of Dean region in Great Britain or near Krivoy Rog in the Ukraine, iron ore could be mined by surface mining. Marsh iron ores are widespread, especially in the northern regions of the temperate zone, as well as soddy, meadow ores, etc.

The cheese blowing process was constantly developing: the volume of furnaces increased, blasting was improved, etc. However, objects made of bloomery iron were not hard enough until a method for producing steel (an alloy of iron with carbon) was discovered and until the hardness and strength of steel products were increased through special heat treatment.

Initially, cementation was mastered - the intentional carburization of iron. As such, carburization, but accidental, unintentional, leading to the appearance of the so-called green steel, could have occurred earlier in the raw blowing process. But then this process became regulated and was carried out separately from the cheese-making process. At first, cementation was carried out by heating an iron product or workpiece for many hours to a “red heat” (750-900 degrees) in a wood or bone medium; then other organic substances containing carbon began to be used. In this case, the depth of carburization was directly proportional to the temperature height and the duration of iron heating. With an increase in the carbon content, the hardness of the metal increased.

The method of hardening was also aimed at increasing hardness, which consisted in a sharp cooling of a steel thing preheated to a “red heat” in water, snow, olive oil or some other liquid.

Most likely, the hardening process, like carburization, was discovered by accident, and its physical essence, of course, remained a mystery to the ancient blacksmiths, which is why we often come across in written sources with very fantastic explanations for the reasons for the increase in the hardness of iron products during hardening. For example, the chronicle of the 9th century. BC. from the temple of Balgala in Asia Minor prescribes the following method of hardening: “It is necessary to heat the dagger until it shines like the sun rising in the desert, then cool it to the color of royal purple, immersing it in the body of a muscular slave ... The strength of the slave, passing into the dagger ... gives the metal hardness". The famous fragment from the Odyssey, probably created in the 8th century, belongs to the same ancient time. BC: here the burning out of the eye of a Cyclops with a “hot point” of an olive stake (“Odyssey”, canto IX, str. 375-395. Translated by V.A. Zhukovsky) is compared with a blacksmith’s immersion of a red-hot steel ax or ax into cold water , and it is not by chance that Homer uses the same verb to describe the process of hardening, which denoted medical and magical actions - obviously, the mechanisms of these phenomena were equally mysterious for the Greeks of that time

However, hardened steel had a certain brittleness. In this regard, the ancient masters, seeking to increase the strength of the steel product, improved heat treatment; in a number of cases, they used an operation opposite to hardening - thermal tempering, i.e. heating the product only to the lower threshold of "red heat", at which the structure is transformed, - to a temperature not exceeding 727 degrees. As a result, the hardness somewhat decreased, but the strength of the product increased.

In general, the development of carburizing and heat treatment operations is a long and very complex process. Most researchers believe that the region where these operations were first discovered (as well as the cheese-making process itself) and where their improvement was the fastest was Asia Minor, and above all the area of ​​​​residence of the Hittites and related tribes, especially the mountains of Antitaurus, where already in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. made high quality steel products.

It was the improvement of the technology for processing bloomery iron and the production of steel that finally solved the problem of competition between iron and bronze. Along with this, in the replacement of the Bronze Age by the Iron Age, a significant role was played by the widespread and comparative ease of mining of iron ores.

In addition, for some areas of the ecumene, devoid of deposits of non-ferrous metal ores, an additional factor in the development of ferrous metallurgy was the fact that, for various reasons, the traditional connections of these regions with ore sources that provided non-ferrous metallurgy were broken.

THE COMING OF THE IRON AGE: THE CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROCESS, THE MAIN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONSEQUENCES

The advanced region in the development of iron, where the Iron Age began in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC, was, as already mentioned, Asia Minor (a region of the Hittite kingdom), as well as the Eastern Mediterranean and Transcaucasia closely related to it.

It is no coincidence that the first indisputable written evidence of the production and use of bloomery iron and steel has come down to us precisely from texts that are somehow connected with the Hittites.

From the texts translated by the Hittites of their predecessors, the Hattians, it follows that the Hattians already knew iron well, which for them was more of a cult-ritual than everyday value. However, in these Hattian and ancient Hittite texts (“Anitta's text” of the 18th century BC), we can talk about products made of meteorite, and not ore iron.

The earliest undoubted written references to items made of ore ("bloom") iron appear in the Hittite cuneiform tablets of the 15th-13th centuries. BC, in particular in the message of the Hittite king to Pharaoh Ramses II (late XIV - early XIII v. BC) with a message about sending the last ship loaded with iron. These are also cuneiform tablets from the kingdom of Mitanni, neighboring the Hittites, addressed to the Egyptians and therefore found their way into the famous "Amarna Archive" of the second half of the 15th - early 14th centuries. BC. - Correspondence of the pharaohs of the XVIII dynasty with the rulers of the countries of Western Asia. It is noteworthy that in the Hittite message to the Assyrian king of the XIII century. BC. the term "good iron", denoting steel, appears. All this is confirmed by the finds of a significant number of ore-based iron products at the sites of the New Hittite kingdom of the 14th-12th centuries. BC, as well as steel products in Palestine already in the XII century. BC. and in Cyprus in the 10th century. BC.

Under the influence of Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of II - beginning of I millennium BC. the Iron Age begins in Mesopotamia and Iran.

Thus, during the excavations of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II in Khorsabad (the last quarter of the 8th century BC), about 160 tons of iron were found, mainly in the form of bipyramidal and spindle-shaped goods, probably offerings from subject territories.

Ferrous metallurgy spreads from Iran to India, where the era of iron is counted from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. There is a sufficient amount of written evidence of the development of iron in India (both Indian proper, starting with the Rigveda, and later non-Indian, in particular ancient Greek).

Under the influence of Iran and India in the VIII century. BC. the Iron Age begins in Central Asia. To the north, in the steppes of Asia, the Iron Age begins no earlier than the 6th-5th centuries. BC.
In China, the development of ferrous metallurgy proceeded quite separately. Due to the highest level of local bronze foundry production, which provided China with quality metal products, epoch
iron begins here no earlier than the middle of the 1st millennium BC. At the same time, written sources (“Shijing” of the 8th century BC, comments on Confucius of the 6th century BC) record an earlier acquaintance of the Chinese with iron. And yet, for the first half of the 1st millennium BC. excavations revealed only a small number of objects made of ore iron of Chinese production proper. A significant increase in the quantity, assortment and range of local iron and steel products began here precisely from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. At the same time, already in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. Chinese craftsmen were the first in the world to purposefully produce cast iron (an iron-based alloy with a higher carbon content than steel) and, using its fusibility, produce most products not by forging, but by casting.

Researchers admit that cast iron, like iron, could initially be formed by chance during the smelting of copper from ores in melting furnace under certain conditions. And although this phenomenon probably did not occur only in China, only this ancient civilization, on the basis of relevant observations, came to the deliberate production of pig iron. Following this, according to a number of scientists, in ancient China for the first time, the practice of producing malleable iron and steel arose by reducing the carbon content in cast iron, heated and left to outdoors. At the same time, steel in China was also obtained by carburizing iron.

In Korea, the Iron Age begins in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, and in Japan in the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC. In Indochina and Indonesia, the Iron Age begins at the turn of the eras.

Turning to Europe, we note that iron-making skills spread through the Greek cities of Asia Minor at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. to the Aegean Islands and to European Greece, where the Iron Age begins around the 10th century. BC. Starting from that time, commodity cries - spindle-shaped and in the form of rods - spread in Greece, and the dead are buried, as a rule, with iron swords. By the end of the VI century. BC. Ancient Greek craftsmen already used such important iron tools as articulated tongs, bow saws, and by the end of the 4th century. BC. - iron spring scissors and articulated compasses. The development of iron is also clearly reflected in ancient Greek texts: for example, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer mentions various iron products and the operation of hardening steel; Hesiod in Theogony metaphorically characterizes the simplest way to produce iron from ores in a pit; Aristotle in the Meteorologica briefly describes the cheese-making process and the intentional production of steel.

In the rest of Europe, outside the Greek civilization, the Iron Age comes later: in Western and Central Europe - in the VIII-VII centuries. BC, in Southwestern Europe - in the 7th-6th centuries. BC, in Britain - in the V-IV centuries. BC, in Northern Europe- at the turn of the era.

Turning to Eastern Europe, it should be noted that in those regions that were leaders in metallurgical terms - in the Northern Black Sea region, in the North Caucasus and in the Volga-Kama region - the period of primary development of iron ended in the 9th-8th centuries. BC, which was manifested in the spread of bimetallic objects, in particular daggers and swords, the handles of which were cast from bronze according to individual models and the blades were made of iron. They became the prototypes for subsequent all-iron daggers and swords. In the same period, along with the Eastern European tradition based on the use of iron and raw steel, products made in the framework of the Transcaucasian tradition, which provides for the deliberate production of steel (cementation of an iron product or billet), penetrate into these regions.

And yet, a significant quantitative increase in iron products in Eastern Europe is associated with the VIII-VII centuries. BC, when the Iron Age actually begins here. The manufacturing technology of the first ore-based iron products, which was previously limited to primitive hot forging and simple forge welding, has now been enriched with the skills of forming forging (using special crimps and dies) and forge welding of several overlapped or stacked plates.

The advanced areas of iron processing in this period on the territory of the former USSR were the Ciscaucasia and Transcaucasia, the forest-steppe Dnieper region and the Volga-Kama region. The gradual beginning of the Iron Age in the forest-steppe and forest zones can also be attributed to this time. of Eastern Europe, excluding deep taiga and tundra territories.

On the territory of the Urals and Siberia, the Iron Age begins first of all in the steppe, forest-steppe and mountain-forest regions - within the framework of the so-called Scythian-Siberian cultural and historical region and in the zone of the Itkul culture. In the taiga regions of Siberia and the Far East in the middle - the second half of the 1st millennium BC. the Bronze Age is actually still going on, but the corresponding monuments are closely interconnected with the cultures of the early Iron Age (excluding the northern part of the taiga and the tundra).

In Africa, the Iron Age was first established in the area of ​​the Mediterranean coast (in the 6th century BC), and above all in Egypt - during the 26th dynasty (663-525 BC); however, there is an opinion that the era of iron in Egypt began in the 9th century. BC. In addition, in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. the Iron Age begins in Nubia and Sudan (the Meroitic, or Kushite, kingdom), as well as in a number of areas of West and Central Africa (in particular, in the zone of the so-called Nok culture in Nigeria), at the turn of the eras - in East Africa, closer to the middle of the 1st millennium AD. - in South Africa.

Finally, not earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD, with the advent of Europeans, the Iron Age began in most of the rest of Africa, as well as in America, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

This is the approximate chronology of the onset of the Iron Age in various parts of the ecumene. The final turn of the Early Iron Age and, accordingly, the beginning of the Late Iron Age are usually conditionally associated with the collapse of ancient civilization and the onset of the Middle Ages.

There are other versions of this. So, in Western European and Russian archeology back in the 19th and early 20th centuries. there was a concept of the Middle Iron Age as a transitional period from early to late, and the line between the early and middle Iron Ages was synchronized with the turn of the eras and was largely determined by the spread of provincial-Roman culture in Western Europe. Although the term "Middle Iron Age" has since fallen into disuse, there is still a tradition in Western European scholarship to leave the Early Iron Age outside of our era.

There are different opinions regarding the end of the Iron Age. It is assumed that this era lasted until the industrial revolution or even lasts to this day, because even now iron-based alloys - steel and cast iron - are one of the main structural materials.

With the onset of the Iron Age, agriculture improved, because the use of iron tools facilitated the cultivation of the land, made it possible to clear large forest areas for crops, and develop an irrigation system. The processing of wood and stone is improving, as a result of which the construction business is developing; the extraction of copper ore is also facilitated. The use of iron leads to the improvement of offensive and defensive weapons, horse equipment, and wheeled vehicles. The development of production and transport leads to the expansion of trade relations, as a result, there is a monetary business. In many pre-class societies, social inequality is increasing, resulting in the emergence of new centers of statehood. These are the most significant changes in the world historical and cultural situation associated with the development of iron.