I mentioned how the Sea Peoples demolished the kingdoms of the Late Bronze Age in the last entry. The Bronze Age ended with the collapse of ancient empires such as the Hittites, and the Iron Age began soon after. Humanity entered the final chapter of prehistory, and it brought great changes to people’s life and environment in ancient times. The Iron Age is best viewed as an age of change and progress. While there are so many, I think the three most significant changes of the Iron Age are advanced steel metallurgy, inter-civilizational connections, and the greater scale of warfare.
Iron itself has already been forged by Bronze Age empires, such as the Hittites. However, the iron of the Bronze age was very fragile, useless, and, most of all, impossible to mass produce. By the Iron Age, iron metallurgy had improved enough to create steel of quality and quantity. Personally, I find that iron lost its value as sacred metal, and people started forging tools made of steel, much stronger than bronze or previous iron. Once the sacred metal used to make the unique dagger for the pharaoh, iron was now the metal the peasants loved for its durability, strength, and lightweight.
Second, the Iron Age also drastically changed the nature of history by further extending the connections and encounters between civilizations. To illustrate, the Phoenicians in the Iron Age sailed throughout the Mediterranean Sea and established trading posts in the Levant, Africa, Greece, Sicily, and Spain, connecting the entire Mediterranean under one trade network. On the other hand, the Neo-Assyrian Empire rose to prominence around the early-mid Iron Age and achieved an unprecedented feat of uniting Turkey, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Those regions came under the control of a single power for the first time in history. I believe it was all made possible by the development of steel metallurgy, which enabled the forging of more powerful weaponry, inciting conflict and conquest on a much greater scale. As connections between civilizations diversified, I believe trade also become more important than ever, and it is no coincidence that the Phoenicians and the Assyrians, two of the most successful Iron Age civilizations, were all originally merchants.
In addition, the Iron Age was well known for its innovative war tactics and weaponry. Empires started developing new tactics and weapons to take control of the battlefield. The Assyrians developed multiple siege machines to demolish the fortification. The Assyrians also incorporated engineers and miners into the army to build machines and break through walls. I myself found Assyrian military innovations very interesting. Mesopotamian cities traditionally built tall and long walls to defend themselves. The Assyrian military countered the walled defense by inventing siege towers to assault from the top, battering rams to crack the wall in front, and hiring miners for the army to dig the path under the walls. Enemies had to deal with three possible routes that the Assyrians might use, and I think it made it much easier for the Assyrians to overcome the defenses.
The Iron Age was the era of great change and development. It is very impressive how those changes were made in a chain reaction; the invention of steel metallurgy led to better tools and weapons, and better armaments led to an evolution of warfare. The spread and development of the Iron Age slowly build up the power and awareness of civilizations worldwide, heading towards the Classical Era and laying the foundation for the advent of territorial behemoths.