Professor Tom Moore

So the idea that there is a new group of people coming in is not the case.

It's more of a change in society.

To add to the complexity there, it's also worth remembering that there is almost certainly a change in the climate between about 800 and 400 BC.

So it gets a bit colder and wetter.

So all of these things are happening concurrent with each other and societies are changing.

So that's why when you say, when does the Iron Age start?

It sounds like a really easy question, but actually it's not quite so easy.

Yes.

I mean, one of the things you've got to think about with iron technology compared to bronze, it's a very different kind of technology.

So with bronze, if you're casting them, iron has to be smeltaged and then smithed.

There's a different process there.

They're not the same technological process.

Also, it's

It's worth thinking that people don't necessarily see the advantages of iron or perhaps even need the advantage of iron.

If you've built an entire economy on bronze working and obtaining bronze or the materials like tin and copper to make bronze, and you build your whole society on that, iron technology is not necessarily something you want or need to adopt straight away.

So

We can be a little bit kind of assuming that as soon as people find iron technology, it's better.

Actually, when you first make iron, it's not necessarily better than bronze for the things you need it to do.

So there is a long period where people are playing with that technology.

They're imitating it.