The Iron Age

Abstract

European archaeologists formulated the idea of an Iron Age early in the nineteenth century, as they began organizing the growing collections of antiquities in museums then being established in different parts of the continent (Kühn 1976). Changes in agricultural technology and the large-scale earth-moving connected with the construction of railroads resulted in the discovery of great quantities of archaeological materials. At the same time, the growing awareness of and interest in Europe’s prehistoric past stimulated the establishment of many new museums and local antiquarian societies and led to ever more archaeological excavations. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, scholars concerned with archaeology began convening at international conferences to share discoveries and ideas about the growing field of study. The formulation of a detailed framework for the European Iron Age dates from these conferences of the 1870s and 1880s.