2561 AM · 1200 BCE · world history
The Beginning of the Iron Age
Iron replaces bronze, transforming farming, warfare and the shape of society.
Bronze required tin hauled across thousands of kilometres, so tools and weapons stayed a luxury. Iron ore is nearly everywhere. Once smiths mastered high temperatures and carburisation, ploughs, axes and swords reached ordinary households — cheaper farming, bigger harvests, and armies that no palace elite could monopolise.