• During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools

tools and
weapons from iron and steel.
• For some societies, including Ancient Greece, the start of the Iron Age was accompanied by a period
of cultural decline.
• The Hittites—who lived during the Bronze Age in what is now Turkey—may have been the first to
make steel.
• Many scholars place the end of the Iron Age in at around 550 BC, when Herodotus, “The Father of
History,” began writing “The Histories,” though the end date varies by region.
• In Scandinavia, it ended closer to 800 AD with the rise of the Vikings.
• In Western and Central Europe, the end of the Iron Age is typically identified as coinciding with the
Roman conquest during the first century BC.
• Major events of Iron age are :

1. Greek Dark Ages

2. Persian Empire
3. Iron Age Hill Forts
4. Bog Bodies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/ironage_intro_01.shtml https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/iron-age
Greek Dark Ages

• Greece had become a major hub of activity and culture on the

Mediterranean during the late Bronze Age.
•
The Mycenaean civilization was rich in material wealth from trade.

• Mycenaean built large palaces and a society with strict class

hierarchy.

• But around 1200 B.C. Mycenaean Greece collapsed. Greece entered a

period of turmoil sometimes called the Greek Dark Ages.

• Archaeologists believe there may have been a period of famine in which

Greece’s population dropped dramatically during this time. Major cities
(with the exception of Athens) were abandoned. As urban societies
splintered, people moved toward smaller, more pastoral groups focused on
raising livestock due to increasing population and limited resources.

• Mycenaean Greece had been a literate society, but the Greeks of the early
Iron Age left no written record, leading some scholars to believe they were
illiterate. Few artifacts or ruins remain from the period, which lasted roughly
300 years.

• By the late Iron Age, the Greek economy had recovered and Greece had
entered its “classical” period. Classical Greece was an era of cultural
achievements including the Parthenon, Greek drama and philosophers
including Socrates.

• The classical period also brought political reform and introduced the world
to a new system of government known as demokratia, or “rule by the
people.”
Persian Empire
During the Iron Age in the Near East, nomadic pastoralists who raised
sheep, goats and cattle on the Iranian plateau began to develop a state
that would become known as Persia.

The Persians established their empire at a time after humans had learned
to make steel. Steel weapons were sharper and stronger than earlier
bronze or stone weapons.

The ancient Persians also fought on horseback. They may have been the
first civilization to develop an armored cavalry in which horses and riders
were completely covered in steel armor.

The First Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 B.C.,
became one of the largest empires in history, stretching from the Balkans
of Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley in India.
Iron Age Hill Forts

People throughout much of Celtic Europe lived in hill forts

during the Iron Age. Walls and ditches surrounded the forts, and
warriors defended hill forts against attacks by rival clans.
Inside the hill forts, families lived in simple, round houses made
of mud and wood with thatched roofs. They grew crops and
kept livestock, including goats, sheep, pigs, cows and geese.

Bog Bodies
Hundreds of bog bodies dating back to the Iron Age have been discovered across Northern
Europe. Bog bodies are corpses that have been naturally mummified or preserved in peat
bogs.
Examples of Iron Age bog bodies include the Tollund Man, found in Denmark, and the
Gallagh Man from Ireland.

The mysterious bog bodies appear to have at least one thing in common: They died brutal deaths. For
instance, Lindow Man, found near Manchester, England, appears to have been hit over the head, had his
throat slit and was whipped with a rope made of animal sinew before being thrown into the watery bog.
The Celtic tribes had no written language at the time, so they left no record of why these people were killed
and thrown in bogs. Some experts believe the bog bodies may have been ritually killed for religious reasons.
Other Iron Age artifacts including swords, cups, and shields have also been found buried in peat bogs. These
too may have served as offerings to pagan gods in religious ceremonies led by Druid priests.
Four oldest civilizations are :

• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• The Indus valley
• China
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
ORIGIN
The word “mesopotamia” is formed from the ancient words “meso,” meaning between or in the middle of, and “potamos,” meaning
river. Situated in the fertile valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the region is now home to modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey
and Syria.

-Each civilization was heavily fortified to resist

the siege of many enemies.

-The stately palace-temple dominated the

city, and the people lived in the dual
shadows of slavery and superstitious religion.

-The Greek historian Herodotus described

the vivid spectacle of the processional
avenues, great walls, monumental gates,
and hanging gardens of Nebuchadnezzar’s
palace of Babylon during the sixth and fifth
centuries B.C.

-Behind the avenues were the narrow

streets lined with the three and four-story
dwellings of the populace. Laid in a regular
pattern at right angles to each other, the
houses of the people were crowded
together.
POLITICAL
Cities and city-states were ruled by kings or by king-priests, and there was virtually no check on their power.
Lacking a centralized government and leader, the ancient region was prone to internal fighting among the kings for land and resources.

SOCIO-ECONOMICAL
• In Mesopotamia, life was uncertain (the rivers were difficult to control
and the land was open to invasion) and the outlook of the people was
pessimistic(hopeless).
• Strict class system was maintained.
• The economic basis was primarily agriculture. Supplementary income was
derived from trading of wool, hair and leather.

• In the area of law, the most notable contribution was made by the Amorite
king Hammurabi, who provided his people with a law code engraved on
steles so all could see it.
• Before Hammurabi laws were generally not public and were the word of the
ruler. Hammurabi’s Code had 282 articles covering wages, divorce, land
transfers, commerce, and crime;
• it was a harsh law code, decreeing that the punishment should fit the crime
(“an eye for an eye”, etc.) and punishment differed depending on the
social class of the offender.

Stele with Hamurabi's Law Code

RELIGIOUS
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, with followers worshipping several main gods and thousands of
minor gods. The three main gods were Ea (Sumerian: Enki), the god of wisdom and magic, Anu (Sumerian:
An), the sky god, and Enlil (Ellil), the god of earth, storms and agriculture and the controller of fates.

Each Mesopotamian City had its own patron god or goddess , and most of what we know of them
has been passed down through clay tablets describing Mesopotamian religious beliefs and practices

ADVANCEMENT IN KNOWLEDGE

The form of writing is called cuneiform. It consisted of several hundred symbols, and scribes
“wrote” by cutting wedge-shaped pictures onto wet clay tablets and then allowing them to dry.
The Mesopotamians used a (base 60) numeral system. This is the source of the current 60-minute
hours and 24-hour days, as well as the 360 degree circle.
The Sumerian calendar also measured weeks of seven days each. This mathematical knowledge was used
in mapmaking.
 The greatest civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia are :

Babylon
City of Ur
Assyria
Sumer

Types of development in the cities :

Temple complexes with Ziggurat

Palaces
Houses
 BABYLON
Babylon means the gate of the GOD, the capital of the kingdom
Babylonia on the banks of the river Euphrates.
Around 2200 B.C., a dynasty (rule by one family) was founded
by a well known king Hammurabi who ruled from 1792 BC to
1750 BC.
He introduced a fair tax system and language reformation.
He gave some rights to slaves by which they could own
property, conduct business, borrow money and even buy their
freedom.
He invented the code of Hammurabi which was engraved on
stone slab. Hammurabi’s Code had 282 articles covering
wages, divorce, land transfers, commerce, and crime;
it was a harsh law code, decreeing that the punishment should
fit the crime (“an eye for an eye”, etc.) and punishment differed
depending on the social class of the offender.

After the death of king Hammurabi, the Babylonian empire lost

most of its territory to the invading Assyrians.

Sennacherib’s son, Esarhaddon, rebuilt Babylon. But later

Babylon military leader Nabopolassur became the king of
Babylon and gained control over Babylon from Assyrians.
 General Architectural Characteristics
Buildings were mainly of mud bricks either sun dried or burnt

Stone and timber were rare so used in prestigious locations

Temples were constructed on Ziggurat and palaces were arranged around courts and rooms were connected by corridors

Rooms were narrow thick walled and roof were of brick barrel vault and sometimes domed but commonly flat outside

Structures were arcuated rather columnar

Towers or flat buttress strips were commonly pannelled and finished in stepped battlements above and stone plinth below
Decoration: Walls were white washed or painted with colour
Colossal winged bull guardian, low relief carving on plinth and walls above painted with bands of continuous friezes
Facing with polychrome brick was another mode of decoration with burnt brick facing

Temples were used as schools. Boys were taught reading, writing and arithmetic and girls were trained in music and dancing.

Trading was done by exchanging goods and silver coin were also used as medium of exchange.

Skilled artisans like carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, weavers, potters and metal workers were encouraged.
• It was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II (605-563 BC)
• Built by burnt brick
• People entered and left the city through 8 bronze gates.
• Had an inner and an outer part, each heavily fortified.
• The inner town was 4350 ft. square with Euphrates river
forming west boundary.
• Few streets at right angles forming the main artery.
• Between the main streets were tiered dwellings, business
houses, temples, chapels and shrines.
• The street terminated at Ishtar gate on north (in the
honor of the Babylonian goddess of love and battle)-50 ft.
The portal was decorated with bright blue glazed bricks
adorned with pictures of bulls, dragons and lions.
• The temples - Located at the central river front site
• The chief temple dedicated to the Marduk, the god of the city
• To the north is

THE TOWER OF BABEL (THE ASSOCIATED ZIGGURAT)

 The plan is square of 295 ft. sides and seven stages

 Upper stages were spiral
 Lower stage is massive with combined triple stairways
 According to the Old Testament story, humans tried to build a tower to reach the
heavens. When God saw this, he destroyed the tower and scattered mankind
across the Earth, making them speak many languages so they could no longer
understand each other.
 Some scholars believe the legendary Tower of Babel may have been inspired by
a real-life ziggurat temple built to honor Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.
THE HANGING GARDEN

Connected with the Nebuchadnezzar’s palace on water side was the

hanging garden of 900 ft. x 600 ft. overall.
According to one legend, the Hanging Gardens were built alongside a
grand palace known as The Marvel of Mankind, by the Neo-
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (who ruled between 605 and 562
BC), for his Median wife Queen Amytis, because she missed the green
hills and valleys of her homeland. This was attested to by the Babylonian
priest Berossus, writing in about 290 BC, a description that was later
quoted by Josephus. The construction of the Hanging Gardens has also
been attributed to the legendary queen Semiramis, who supposedly ruled
Babylon in the 9th century BC,[4] and they have been called the Hanging
Gardens of Semiramis as an alternative name.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a colossal maze of terraced trees,
shrubs, flowers and manmade waterfalls, are one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World.
Some researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests the hanging
gardens existed, but not in Babylon—they may have actually been
located in the city of Nineveh in upper Mesopotamia.

Fall of Babylon

The Neo-Babylonian Empire, like the earlier Babylonia, was short-lived.

In 539 B.C., less than a century after its founding, the legendary Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. The fall of Babylon was
complete when the empire came under Persian control.