Final technological and cultural stage in the StoneBronzeIron-Age sequence (or Three-Age System) in which iron largely replaced bronze in implements and weapons.
The start of the Iron Age varied geographically, beginning in the Middle East and southeastern Europe 0441; 1200 BC but in China not until 0441; 600 BC. Though the large-scale production of iron implements brought new patterns of more permanent settlement, use of iron for weapons put arms in the hands of the masses for the first time and set off a series of large-scale movements and conquests that did not end for 2,000 years and that changed the face of Europe and Asia. See also Bronze Age .