Summary: Iron Age Developments
Key dates:
The discovery of iron was very significant as copper and tin were becoming hard to find. There was much ore in Co Antrim. When this ore was dug out of the ground, it was heated in a forge by the smith who then hammered it into shape. Moulds were little used, if at all.
Iron Age people may have produced cast iron by accident but it was not easily shaped and the workers then did not have the technology to convert it into wrought iron. Most of the iron used was probably bog iron ore and this was extracted using long handled wooden shovels.
A few objects of forged iron suggest that iron making skills were developed only gradually. However there is little evidence from this period which saw the end of the Bronze Age and the emergence of the Iron Age and it has been referred to as a Dark Age in Irish archaeology.
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