The Iron Age, 1000 – 500 BC

by Jack Le Moine

As iron spread through the civilized world, activity in and among civilizations leveled up. China acquired iron around 600 BC.

In the first century of this age, Kings David and Solomon ruled Israel. Just to the NW, the Phoenicians ranged throughout the Mediterranean. India adopted the caste system. In Mexico, the Olmecs, still in the Stone Age, produced giant heads 9 feet high.

During this age, Assyria revived its super-power status and the Middle East remained as the foremost area of civilization. Its reach activated a coalition of enemies who destroyed it by 600. To the west, the Greeks rose to major-power status. During this period they established colonies around the Agean Sea and west to Sicily and Italy. Athens experimented with democracy.

New: Carthage and Rome were founded in this age. Old: China regressed to a feudal society. The collapse of Assyria brought Egypt a twilight glow of prosperity before the Persians came.

At the end of this age, Confucius was alive in China and Buddha was alive in India. Zoroaster lived sometime during this age.