Technology · c. 1200–1000 BCE
Iron working spreads
Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean
Iron had long been known in small amounts, from meteorites and occasional smelting, but around 1300–1200 BCE smiths in Anatolia and neighbouring regions mastered smelting iron ore, which needs far higher temperatures than bronze. In the 12th and 11th centuries BCE ironworking spread across the eastern Mediterranean, and smiths learned to harden iron into steel by heating it in charcoal and quenching it.
The old idea that the Hittites guarded the secret of iron is no longer accepted.
Why it mattered
Iron ore is far more common than tin, so once smelting was mastered, iron tools and weapons became cheap and widespread, transforming farming and warfare.
Elsewhere
Iron was worked early, and probably independently, elsewhere: in India's Ganges plain from about 1800–1200 BCE, in sub-Saharan Africa (see Nok), and in China, which was making cast iron by the 5th century BCE.
Related
- The world in 1500 BCE: Chariots and Empires chapter
- Late Bronze Age collapse previous moment · c. 1200–1150 BCE
- The Phoenician alphabet next moment · c. 1050 BCE