<P> Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of large - scale iron production in around 1200 BC, marking the end of the Bronze Age . Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of iron objects was fast and far - flung . Anthony Snodgrass suggests that a shortage of tin, as a part of the Bronze Age Collapse and trade disruptions in the Mediterranean around 1300 BC, forced metalworkers to seek an alternative to bronze . As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during that time . More widespread use of iron led to improved steel - making technology at lower cost . Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently . </P> <P> The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus and Balkans in the late 2nd millennium BC (c. 1300 BC). The earliest bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh, Jordan around 930 BC (C dating). </P> <P> In the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria, the initial use of iron reaches far back, to perhaps 3000 BC . One of the earliest smelted iron artifacts known was a dagger with an iron blade found in a Hattic tomb in Anatolia, dating from 2500 BC . The widespread use of iron weapons which replaced bronze weapons rapidly disseminated throughout the Near East (North Africa, southwest Asia) by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC . </P> <P> The development of iron smelting was once attributed to the Hittites of Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age . As part of the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age, the Bronze Age collapse saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron - working technology in the region . It was long held that the success of the Hittite Empire during the Late Bronze Age had been based on the advantages entailed by the "monopoly" on ironworking at the time . Accordingly, the invading Sea Peoples would have been responsible for spreading the knowledge through that region . The view of such a "Hittite monopoly" has come under scrutiny and no longer represents a scholarly consensus . While there are some iron objects from Bronze Age Anatolia, the number is comparable to iron objects found in Egypt and other places of the same time period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons . </P>

Where did the iron come from in the iron age