Editing Iron Age (section)

====West Asia====
In the [[Mesopotamian]] states of [[Sumer]], [[Akkadian Empire|Akkad]] and [[Assyria]], the initial use of iron dates to perhaps 3000&nbsp;BC.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Iron Age}}</ref> One of the earliest smelted iron artifacts known is a dagger with an iron blade found in a [[Hattians|Hattic]] tomb in [[Anatolia]], dating from 2500&nbsp;BC.<ref name=cowen>{{cite web|first =Richard |last =Cowen |title = Chapter 5: The Age of Iron|url = http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH5.html |website = Essays on Geology, History, and People|publisher = UC Davis|url-status=dead|date = April 1999|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180119085111/http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH5.html|archive-date = 19 January 2018}}</ref> The widespread use of iron weapons which replaced bronze weapons rapidly disseminated throughout the [[Near East]] by the beginning of the 1st millennium&nbsp;BC.

The development of iron smelting was once attributed to the [[Hittites]] of Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. As part of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, the [[Bronze Age collapse]] saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working technology in the region. It was long believed that the success of the Hittite Empire during the Late Bronze Age had been based on the advantages entailed by the "monopoly" on ironworking at the time.<ref name="Muhly-2003">{{cite book |last=Muhly |first=James D. |chapter=Metalworking/Mining in the Levant |pages= 174–183 |title=Near Eastern Archaeology |editor=Suzanne Richard |year=2003}}</ref> Accordingly, the invading [[Sea Peoples]] would have been responsible for spreading the knowledge through that region. The idea of such a "Hittite monopoly" has been examined more thoroughly and no longer represents a scholarly consensus.<ref name="Muhly-2003"/> While there are some iron objects from Bronze Age [[Anatolia]], the number is comparable to iron objects found in Egypt and other places of the same time period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waldbaum |first=Jane C. |title=From Bronze to Iron |location=Gothenburg |publisher=Paul Astöms |year=1978 |pages=56–58}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="float:center; margin:0 0 1em 1em; clear:right;"
|+Early examples and distribution of non-precious metal finds<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.wolftree.freeserve.co.uk/Phoenician/Early_Metalworking.html |first=Alex |last=Webb |title=Metalworking in Ancient Greece |work= Wolf tree | via = Freeserve |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071201162453/http://www.wolftree.freeserve.co.uk/Phoenician/Early_Metalworking.html |archive-date=2007-12-01}}</ref>{{self-published source|certain=y|reason=Freeserve is (rather was) merely an ISP, not a "work"|date=October 2023}}
! style="width:130px;" | Date
! style="width:60px;" | Crete
! style="width:60px;" | Aegean
! style="width:60px;" | Greece
! style="width:60px;" | Cyprus
! style="width:80px;" | Sub-totals
! style="width:60px;" | Anatolia
! style="width:60px;" | Totals
|-
| 1300–1200 BC
|5
|2
|9
|0
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|16
|33
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|49
|-style="background:#FFFFDD;"
| {{nowrap|'''Total Bronze Age'''}}
|5
|2
|9
|0
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|16
|33
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|49
|-
| 1200–1100 BC
|1
|2
|8
|26
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|37
|N/A
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|37
|-
| 1100–1000 BC
|13
|3
|31
|33
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|80
|N/A
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|80
|-
| 1000–900 BC
|37+
|30
|115
|29
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|211
|N/A
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|211
|-style="background:#FFFFDD;"
| '''Total Iron Age'''
|51
|35
|163
|88
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|328
|N/A
|style="background:#DDEEFF;"|328
|}

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 from: -1300 till: -600 shift:(0,5) text:[[Ancient Near East]]
 from: -1300 till: -1000 text:Iron Age I
 from: -1292 till: -1070 shift:(0,5) text:[[Ramesside Period|Ramesside Egypt]]
 from: -1000 till: -600 text:Iron Age II
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 from: -600 till: -300 text:[[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]]
 from: -300 till: -50 text:[[Seleucid Empire]]
 from: -50 till: 224 text:[[Parthian Empire]]
 from: 224 till: 500 text:[[Sassanid Empire]]
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Dates are approximate
* {{color box|#f2d97f}}{{color box|#ffd880}} Prehistoric (or [[proto-historic]]) Iron Age {{color box|#cccccc}} Historic Iron Age