The beginning of the age of iron is gone back to 1100 before J. - C. for the Mediterranean regions and of 700 before J. - C. for Jylland. If the archeologists continue to speak in certain cases about a first and a second age of iron, it is less to seize an evolution that to determine the disparities between certain areas, in reference, for example, with the archeological sites of Hallstatt (Austria) and of Tène (Neuchâtel, Switzerland), from which one can define features of culture. Indeed, there exists, according to the places, of the ages of iron at different times.  

The acquisition of the metallurgy of iron is a big step in the history of the companies, in particular by its repercussion on the agricultural techniques and its role in the installation of the powers. It is certain that the increase in the produced quantities of iron, the specialization which could result from it in the organization from the production had to notably influence the evolution of the powers and their distribution. But the methods of the intervention of iron in the political history are difficult to highlight.  

To the XVIII E century before J. - C., to Alalakh (Syrian border turco-), of the Hittite wedge-shaped shelves announce a production of iron weapons. Hittite texts of the XV E and XIV E centuries before J. - C. report that an iron throne would on the spot have been forged, while a letter of Amarna (Egypt) mentions, to the XIV E century, a dagger with iron blade. One also refers very often to the “letter” of Hattousili, in which this Hittite king excuses himself not to be able to send more iron of Kizzouwatna. This letter goes back to 1275 to 1250 before J. - C.  

Among the most quoted sources of Antiquity, Hésiode to the VIII E - VII E century before J. - C. and Homère make many mentions of manufacture and use of metal. The first Chinese texts concerning iron date from the VII E century before J. - C., but they are then very vague.  

With the European Middle Ages, very few texts treat metallurgical activities directly, but one finds descriptions of the use of iron, whether it is for tools or in the construction industry. They are indirect sources like the charters, to the XII E and XIII E centuries, then the accounts and the deed drawn up by a solicitor which provide the most serious data. These documents almost never describe the apparatuses and the tools, the gestures and the techniques. They give localizations, names and statutes of people working metal.

But to the XV E and XVI E centuries appear the specialized treaties, such Of the ceramics of Vannoccio Biringuccio and Re metallica of Georgius Agricola, which bring precise information on the development of metal and the manufacture of the objects.  

Ores

The metallurgy and the first uses of metal appear in the Middle East during the course of the 4th front millenium J. - C. Mésopotamie did not have any ore and imported copper, tin, lead, gold, money, etc copper came from Arabia of the south or of India by the Persian Gulf and it was undoubtedly imported in the form of ore. One also found some in the mountains of the chain of Taurus, like in Cyprus. Tin, necessary to make bronze by alloy with copper, came from the Iranian plate by Elam. Sometimes the texts confuse it with the lead, which was imported same areas as the money (siver-bearing lead): Iran, it Anatolia, but also undoubtedly Spain. Lastly, gold also came by the Arabo-Persian Gulf and from the mountains of north (Taurus).

Egypt was more favoured than Mésopotamie since many vulgar or invaluable metals are there. At the 2nd front millenium J. - C., a Mesopotamian sovereign written to king d' Egypte to ask him noble metal since, he says “gold in your country it is dust: one has only to collect it!”.

Techniques

The techniques of the metallurgy were imported areas which had ore, and more particularly of Anatolia, Arménie or the Caucasus. Copper is the first metal used at “industrial” ends and it is the work of this metal which is at the base of the close relation-Eastern metallurgical technique. The ore was crushed, molten in a furnace or a furnace provided with bellows, then hammered and remelted before being possibly allied with another metal, as copper and tin to produce bronze.

Since the 3rd millenium, one can also purify the noble metals, gold and money, by cupellation, while dissolving the ore in a porous vase, in order to make disappear the impurities. The gold deliveries give sometimes place to complaints as for the quantity: after cupellation, one realizes that the weight decreased since part of the impurities was eliminated! One could also modify qualities or the color of gold or the money by combining them with other metals (copper, tin, lead).

The noble metal or vulgar could be worked by moulding, cast iron with lost wax or hammering. The excavations delivered in particular moulds out of stone or clay presenting the form, hollow, of jewels or tools.

The use of metals

Metals were used to manufacture very many objects, and in particular of the ornaments, tools and weapons. The excavations often deliver pins bronzes some being used to attach clothing or the hair and of the bronze mirrors. The tools most frequently found are nails, shovels, scrapers, axes or saws.

The principal weapons, out of bronze or iron, are swords, daggers, lances and arrowheads. Gold was used only for work of jewelry, or to decorate the divine statues. As for the money, also used for the jewelry, it was used as means of payment, in the form of small pieces which one weighed with each transaction. The other means of payment were the barley, and the exchange rate between the barley and the money was fixed by the administration. One finds relatively little intact objects out of metal in the excavations: one re-used the worn objects, even out of noninvaluable metal, by remelting them to make the new ones.

Bronze with iron

Bronze, alloy of copper and tin, presents many advantages compared to pure copper: it is more resistant if the proportion of tin is correct, it is easier to run than copper and its point melting being lower, it requires less fuel. The proportions of the alloy (ten percent of tin) mentioned in the texts were confirmed by the analyzes. Used during nearly two millenia, bronze will be dethroned by iron, will be known for a long time in meteoric form, but which will be largely used at industrial ends only at the end of the 2nd front millenium J. - C.

The iron ore comes from Taurus, of Arménie and of Iran and it is undoubtedly in these areas that the techniques of its metallurgy developed, with the focusing of the forging mill with bellows and hardening. The resistance and the flexibility of iron made it possible to manufacture tools and weapons much more effective.

Noble metals and goldsmithery

The techniques of goldsmithery in Mésopotamie as in Egypt, arrived to great perfection as of the 3rd front millenium J. - C.: after having refined the noble metal, one can work it by hammering, by transforming it into fine sheets, which one then fixed on a support (bitumen or wood heart for statues or pearls, object out of metal to be plated). One could also melt it to run it in terracotta or stone moulds.

All kinds of techniques made it possible to obtain varied effects of the metal alone or associated with other invaluable or semi-precious elements: welding, filigree, incrustation, setting, hammering, niellage, plating, etc