The Iron Age spreads

Across the Near East, South Asia and eventually Europe and East Asia, iron smelting displaced bronze as the working metal of tools and weapons.

Why it matters

Iron ore is far more common than the copper and tin needed for bronze, so metalwork stopped being a palace monopoly. Cheaper tools meant deeper forests cleared, more fields farmed, and a broader base for population and trade.

Threads

This event sits on Energy.

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Sources

• Encyclopædia Britannica — Iron Age