Iron age

General

Widespread use of iron marks the beginning of iron age and it usually follows bronze age. The duration and dates vary from place to place. But roughly ranges from 1200 BC till 500 ad.
Only presence of iron - cast or wrought - is not sufficient but widespread production of iron tools weapons superior bronze equivalents is considered advent of iron age.milisauskas 2002.
Techniques. Smelting iron, mining, forging, casting., Hammering.
Artefacts. Iron plough, durable wheels, armour, helmets, potters wheel.
Culture Remind similar to bronze age. Writing. Trade. Empires. Taxation. Administration. Social hierarchy. Productive agriculture. Expansion of agriculture area. Irrigation. Civil administration. Luxury goods. Widespread coinage
Regional variation
Near east 1200 till 500 BC. Anatolia.
Europe 1210 500 BC. Agent, balkans, Britain, Central Europe. Cyprus and Greece.
South Asia 1200 till 200 BC. Painted grey ware culture till the end of Ashoka 300 BC. Ganga Valley.
East Asia 500 BC till 300
Africa. Nok culture Nigeria.
The beginning of historiographical record marks the end of iron age.

India

Second urbanization. Social stratification. Literary record.
Scholars disagree on chronology but thousand BC and 100 is the usual range. Roy & Ghosh disagree.
painted grey ware and northern black polished ware. South India it is megalithic structures.
Variation

800 to 400 BC. Pgw phase. Most common is black and red ware and Red ware.
painted grey ware because firing in reduction absence of oxygen condition and painted with black. Deluxe pottery.
Iron tools for weapons for hunting mainly but very few for agriculture and household tools. Copper continuous for tool use and ornaments. Glass bangles and beads
Wattle daub houses.
Stone bone clay shell ivory tools and crafts. Subsistence practice of cultivating rice domesticating horses cattle buffalo sheep.
2nd phase 600 bc and 300 ad. Early historic phase. Northern black polished ware. material culture like ring well, baked bricks, fortifications, coinage, beads. Empires.
More use of iron as tools. Urbanization. State societies.
Painted grey ware associated with later Vedic society. Reconstruction using literature Buddhist and Vedic to construct social dimensions. May have chiefdom society with some stratification and later period increased stratification with emergence of chief based on territory ritual specialist brahmins and shudra. Varna system. Buddhism emerged Jainism. Ajivika sect Vedic philosophy schools. Trade guild.

located in forests for wastelands. Range from small clusters to large areas like adichanallur
Unusual megalithic structures from Kerala. Umbrella or head stone found made of local letter write material.
Urn burial in Tamil Nadu Madurai.
Sometimes Terracotta sacrophagus is used.
wide diversity in megalithic structures. Pottery is also associated with grave goods and can be black and red ware, black, red where and regional in origin. iron objects are iron bands, arrowheads, sword, spike, cycle, nice, blades. Copper was also used
Stratification. Brahmagiri has few burials with no iron objects and very few pottery. Other side has 33 gold objects copper bangles.
Sangankallu, hallur

Iron age 2-3