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The Iron Age

According to popular belief, the Iron Age spanned from 800 BC to the first century A.D.

Yet, unlike the Roman conquest, which occurred over three generations and only affected a

specific region of Britain, the transition from the Late Bronze Age is not bounded by a single

archaeological horizon (Ralston et al.). Many aspects previously associated with the Iron Age,

such as the construction of hilltop enclosures and the introduction of a new repertory of

household pottery, can now be attributed to the Late Bronze Age (Ralston et al.). Due to a dearth

of pertinent data in the early phases, it was challenging to track the uptake of iron technology.

Even though certain areas began using iron as early as the ninth-century B.C., its first effects

were small, and significant social and economic developments did not happen until the later Iron

Age.

From the early Iron Age through the start of the Industrial Revolution in the early 20th

century, there was no change in the design or production of iron tools (Ralston et al.). Since it

was such a crucial part of the machinery in the new factories, iron nearly single-handedly

propelled Britain, which had abundant supplies of the mineral, to the top of the list of industrial

superpowers (Ralston et al.). Smart industrialists rapidly realized, however, that the intense

abrasion and wear that its byproducts were putting themselves through, such as the constant

clickety-clack of trains over its rails, could not be sustained by inexpensive wrought iron. The

solution was steel, an alloy primarily made of iron with a small amount of carbon or other
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elements (Ralston et al.). Three thousand years after the first curious person scooped iron ore out

of the ground, in the late 1800s, mass production of iron ore began. Today, iron ore is the most

significant building material on the planet.

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Work Cited

Ralston, Ian, et al. The Archaeology of Britain: An Introduction from Earliest Times to the

Twenty-First Century. Routledge, 2010.