Iron Age

The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory and progressing to protohistory. In this usage, it is preceded by the Stone Age and Bronze Age. These concepts originated for describing Iron Age Europe and the ancient Near East. In the archaeology of the Americas, a five-period system is conventionally used instead; indigenous cultures there did not develop an iron-smelting economy in the pre-Columbian era, though some did work copper, bronze, unsmelted iron, and iron from East Asian shipwrecks. Indigenous metalworking arrived in Australia with European contact.