Editing Iron Age (section)

===Earliest evidence===
The earliest tentative evidence for iron-making is a small number of iron fragments with the appropriate amounts of carbon admixture found in the Proto-Hittite layers at [[Kaman-Kalehöyük]] in modern-day [[Turkey]], dated to 2200–2000&nbsp;BC. Akanuma (2008) concludes that "The combination of carbon dating, archaeological context, and [[Archaeometallurgy|archaeometallurgical]] examination indicates that it is likely that the use of ironware made of steel had already begun in the third millennium&nbsp;BC in Central Anatolia."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Akanuma |first=Hideo |title=The Significance of Early Bronze Age Iron Objects from Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey |journal=Anatolian Archaeological Studies |volume=17 |pages=313–320 |year=2008 |url=http://www.jiaa-kaman.org/pdfs/aas_17/AAS_17_Akanuma_H_pp_313_320.pdf |publisher=Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology |place=Tokyo |archive-date=26 March 2023 |access-date=4 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326030515/http://www.jiaa-kaman.org/pdfs/aas_17/AAS_17_Akanuma_H_pp_313_320.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Souckova-Siegolová (2001) shows that iron implements were made in Central Anatolia in very limited quantities about 1800&nbsp;BC and were in general use by elites, though not by commoners, during the Neo-Hittite Empire ({{circa|1400–1200&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Souckova-Siegolová |first=J.|title=Treatment and usage of iron in the Hittite empire in the 2nd millennium BC|journal=Mediterranean Archaeology |volume=14 |pages=189–193 |year=2001}}</ref>

Similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron-working in the [[Ganges]] Valley in India have been dated tentatively to 1800&nbsp;BC. Tewari (2003) concludes that "knowledge of iron smelting and manufacturing of iron artifacts was well known in the Eastern Vindhyas and iron had been in use in the Central Ganga Plain, at least from the early second millennium&nbsp;BC".<ref name= "Tewari" /> By the [[Middle Bronze Age]] increasing numbers of smelted iron objects (distinguishable from meteoric iron by the lack of [[nickel]] in the product) appeared in the [[Middle East]], [[Southeast Asia]] and [[South Asia]].

African sites are revealing dates as early as 2000–1200&nbsp;BC.<ref name="millermintz" /><ref>{{cite web | title=How Old is the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa? | website=homestead.com | date=2007-02-19 | url=http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/ironage.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013215324/http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/ironage.html | archive-date=2007-10-13 | url-status=unfit}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Alpern | first=Stanley B. | title=Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa | journal=History in Africa | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=32 | year=2005 | issn=0361-5413 | doi=10.1353/hia.2005.0003 | pages=41–94 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/53/article/187874/pdf}}</ref><ref name=Eze-Uzomaka>{{cite journal|last1=Eze–Uzomaka|first1= Pamela|title=Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja |url=https://www.academia.edu/4103707|website=Academia |publisher= University of Nigeria, Nsukka |access-date=12 December 2014}}</ref>  However, some recent studies date the inception of iron metallurgy in Africa between 3000 and 2500&nbsp;BC, with evidence existing for early iron metallurgy in parts of Nigeria, [[Cameroon]], and Central Africa, from as early as around 2000&nbsp;BC.&nbsp;The Nok culture of Nigeria may have practiced iron smelting from as early as 1000 BC, while the nearby Djenné-Djenno culture of the [[Niger Valley]] in Mali shows evidence of iron production from c.&nbsp;250 BC. Iron technology across much of sub-Saharan Africa has an African origin dating to before 2000 BC. These findings confirm the independent invention of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alpern |first=Stanley B. |date=January 2005 |title=Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/did-they-or-didnt-they-invent-it-iron-in-subsaharan-africa/DB40377A90535C7041DC10159B43C50F?utm_source=chatgpt.com |journal=History in Africa |language=en |volume=32 |pages=41–94 |doi=10.1353/hia.2005.0003 |issn=0361-5413}}</ref>