The iron age is an extremely important era in the history of human development. The earliest iron discovered and used by human beings is a meteorite falling from the sky. Meteorite is a mixture of iron, nickel, cobalt and other metals with high iron content. A long time ago, people used this natural iron to make blades and ornaments, which is the earliest case of human using iron. Natural iron is scarce on the earth, so the smelting of iron and the manufacture of iron products have gone through a long period. When people gradually mastered the technology of smelting iron on the basis of smelting bronze, the iron age came.
The earliest written record about the use of ironware in China is the golden cast iron tripod in Zuo Zhuan. In the Spring and Autumn Period, China had used iron tools in agriculture and handicraft production.
Iron is widely distributed in nature and is one of the important elements in the earth's crust. Because natural pure iron hardly exists in nature, and iron ore has a high melting point and is not easy to reduce, human beings use iron later than copper, tin, lead and gold. The earliest ironware found in some ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Southwest Asia were all made of meteorites. 1972, a Shang Dynasty iron-edged bronze cymbal was unearthed in Taixi Village, Gaocheng County, Hebei Province, China. Its age is around14th century BC, and the iron blade is embedded in copper cymbals. The iron blade is forged with cymbals after the meteorite is heated. Similar iron-edged copper shovels and iron-assisted copper shovels have been unearthed in China, which are equivalent to the late Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty, and the iron part is also made of meteorites. People once found an axe made of meteorites in the ancient tomb of city of ur built by ancient Sumerians in West Asia and an axe made of meteorites in the ancient tomb of city of ur built by ancient Sumerians. In ancient Sumerian, iron was called "Anbar", which means "fire from heaven". The so-called fire from heaven is a meteorite. The ancient Egyptians simply called iron "Shi Tian". It can be seen that people first knew iron from meteorites. The number of meteorites falling from the sky is very small, so the vessels made of meteorite are of course precious and mysterious. Few meteorites are used as tools, so there is no obvious impact on production, but through the use of meteorites, people have a preliminary understanding of iron.
Many nationalities in the world have mastered the technology of smelting iron. Hittites in Asia Minor had mastered the technology of smelting iron around 1300 BC, but King Hittites regarded smelting iron as a patent and prohibited it from spreading abroad. After the decline of Hittite kingdom, iron smelting spread abroad. According to archaeological excavations and literature records, the two earliest and most common areas where iron was used were Hittite neighbors: Syria, Palestine in the east and Greece in the west. At that time, Phoenicians, Phoenicians and Israelis lived in Syria and Palestine. In Genesis of the Old Testament, Cain, Adam's eighth grandson, was good at making all kinds of copper and iron tools and utensils. Many iron smelting furnaces have also been found in Palestine, dating back to13rd century BC. Up to now, the earliest known iron plow was found in the Palestinian Gairal site (BC13-12nd century), which shows that iron has been widely used in industry and agriculture in this area. It is generally believed that Syria and Palestine were the centers of ancient oriental iron production after 10 century. During the same period, iron was also widely used in Greece. In the residential sites in the pottery area of Athens before 10 century, iron and weapons are very concentrated, including long swords, spears, knives, axes, file tools and other objects, especially small objects such as iron bars, which shows that the use of iron has become quite common. Since then, iron has spread to other parts of West Asia, Central Asia and North Africa through Syria, and to Eastern Europe and Western Europe through Greece.
Iron is hard, tough and sharp, better than stone tools and bronzes. When people can widely use this iron to make tools, bronze tools are gradually replaced. With the extensive use of iron, human tool manufacturing has entered a brand-new field, and the productivity has been greatly improved.