Editing Three-age system (section)

== End of the Iron Age ==
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The three-age system is a way of dividing prehistory, and the Iron Age is therefore considered to end in a particular culture with either the start of its [[protohistory]], when it begins to be written about by outsiders, or when its own [[historiography]] begins. Although iron is still the major hard material in use in modern civilization, and steel is a vital and indispensable modern industry, as far as archaeologists are concerned the Iron Age has therefore now ended for all cultures in the world.

The date when it is taken to end varies greatly between cultures, and in many parts of the world there was no Iron Age at all, for example in [[Pre-Columbian America]] and the [[prehistory of Australia]]. For these regions the three-age system is uncommon. By convention among archaeologists:

* In the [[Ancient Near East]], the Iron Age is taken to end with the start of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] in the 6th century BC.
* In [[South Asia]] the start of the [[Maurya Empire]] about 320&nbsp;BC is usually taken as the endpoint.
* In [[Greece]], the Iron Age begins with the [[Greek Dark Ages]] and ends with the [[Greek Classical Age]].
* In [[Western Europe]], the Iron Age ends with the Roman conquest.
* In [[Scandinavia]] and other parts of [[northern Europe]] that the Romans did not reach, the Iron Age continues until the start of the [[Viking Age]] in about 800&nbsp;AD.
* In [[China]], the "Iron Age" ends with the start of the [[Qin dynasty]] and the beginning of the [[Imperial China|Imperial Era]].