The Three-Age System

Within the study and elucidation of history, an important concepts to understand is that of the division of history into certain key phases of the development of humanity and human civilization. One such system is that known as the Three-Age System which divides periods of Prehistory and Early History (predominantly) into ages based on the type of tools used which seem to be decent markers of the stage of civilization.

The Three-Age System

In the Three-Age System divides the development of human civilization into three major periods of the: Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Each division primarily based on the types of tools and levels of technology used by a population of each given age.

The Stone Age is so named because Early Humans at this time used stone technology, while the Bronze Age is so named because at this stage humanity invented techniques that enabled them to fashion tools, weaponry, decorative or ceremonial objects now out of mental. Specifically out of bronze. Then the Iron Age marks the period when humans developed the more advanced technique of working with Iron, which required much higher temperatures and more advanced techniques.

However, the Three-Age System refers to more than just the type of tools being made, because at each of the three ages we see a corresponding shift in civilization such that the type of tools being made speak to more than just technological development of a people, but their progress along the path to modernity.

The Stone Age

The Stone Age is the age of human development that essentially covers the period of time from the first human ancestor, the first creature that modern archaeologists classify as the genus Homo, which was Homo Habilis in Africa some 2.5 million years ago (2.5 Mya) roughly, basically until the Invention of Writing and the First City in Mesopotamia c.3200 BCE.

Therefore the Stone Age division of the Three-Age System is the longest of the three by far. The Stone Age spans the era where humans made tools of stone and existed almost exclusively at the nomadic hunter-gatherer phase of human society.

The Stone Age is further divided into the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) from about 2.5 Mya to 15,000 BCE, at which point the elusively amorphous Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) begins in some regions, which is believed to mark a short period of slightly heightened technological and cultural development before the final (and perhaps most important) period of the Stone Age.

This last main division of the Stone Age is called the Neolithic (New Stone Age), one of the most important periods in the human story, when people began to transition by about 10,000 BCE in the Near East and Mesopotamia from nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life to settled life in villages, with the invention of agriculture, pottery, and animal husbandry. This can be pointed as a definite marking point when human civilization truly begins, until the Dawn of History.

The Bronze Age

After the Neolithic Revolution in the Near East where humans learned to settle in villages, produce their own food by cultivating the land, and raising animals for food and milk alongside their crops, humanity changed forever. This type of settled life led to a vast increase in social complexity, leading to the invention of the pottery wheel, the invention of writing, great monuments, increased textile skill and complexity, along with the first cities which all occurred in the Early Bronze Age.

The Bronze Age technically begins when humans first started working with Bronze. Copper was worked alongside Stone near the end of the Neolithic. Though Bronze was an advancement of the working of copper because bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (or copper and arsenic) with a ratio of about 9:1.

However each age speaks to more than just tools, and refers to cultural developments as well. Thus the Bronze Age is when the complexity of humans and our civilization explodes in an unprecedented stage of the evolution of life on Earth. Nearly all of what modern humans are can find its roots in this period.

The Age of Iron

The final stage of the Three-Age System is the Iron Age which succeeds the Bronze Age which occurs in the Mediterranean after an event known as the Bronze Age Collapse c.1177 BCE, by some estimates. The more general time frame is between 1200-1150 BCE.

The dawn of the Iron Age begins with the smelting of iron or steel, which was much harder to work than copper and bronze because it has a higher melting point. This means that it required a hotter furnace to heat the metal, which took a new level of technological and early scientific sophistication to invent. This is why the Three-Age System has value, because the technological development is a marker of greater cultural development.

The invention of iron working techniques created superior tools because iron tools are harder and more durable than bronze tools. One of the results of this shift is a superior class of weaponry, new tools of war, which gave the cultures who used bronze a considerable advantage over those who did not. As a result, cultures changed.

The Three-Age System Around the World

There is criticism of the Three-Age system, some believing that it is too simplistic. Yet while this is true, the Three-Age System is simplistic and does not describe an absolute chronology of human development, it serves well the purpose that it was intended for. It creates a degree of order and structure in our understanding of the great ages marking the evolution of our species, one that is corroborated by archaeology.

Furthermore, the Three-Age System is widely in use because it is effective. Its wide use alone within history and archaeology makes understanding it a necessity for those students of history.

The main shortcoming of the Three-Age System is that transitions between each age took place at different times in different regions of the Earth. location dependent, because these advances in human civilization took place at different times in different regions. Ancient Near Eastern peoples entered the Neolithic (with the invention of agriculture) by around 8,000 BCE. Much earlier than peoples of Europe, and around 10,000 years before the Native Americans who never worked with metals or invented agriculture, and were therefore thrust right from the Stone Age into the Iron Age with their contact with (vile) colonizing Europeans.

This is the greatest flaw in the Three-Age System. Each age starts at a different specific date depending on region and culture. Yet this hardly diminishes its usefulness, because how could one expect a single system to perfectly describe global history and human evolution which by necessity would follow paths unique to each culture and people. Therefore it still provides a great framework for learning and understanding history.

A Timeline For Global Age Transitions

• Stone Age
  • Paleolithic [2.5 Mya – c.20,000 BCE]
  • Mesolithic [c.20,000 – c.10,000 BCE]
  • Neolithic [c.10,000 BCE – c.3300 BCE]
• Bronze Age
  • The Near East (including Egypt) [3300-1200 BCE]
  • Indian Subcontinent [3300-1200 BCE]
  • Europe [3100-600 BCE]
  • Nordic / Scandinavian Bronze Age [1700-500 BCE]
  • East Asia [3100-300 BCE]
• Iron Age
  • Ancient Near East (1200-550 BCE)
  • Europe
    • Aegean 1190-700 BCE
    • Italy 1100 – 700 BCE
    • Balkans (1100 BCE – 150 CE)
    • Eastern Europe (900 – 650 BCE)
    • Central Europe (800 – 50 BCE)
    • Great Britain (800 BCE – 100 CE)
    • Northern Europe (500 BCE – 800 CE)
  • East Asia [1200 BCE – 200 BCE]
  • South Asia [500 BCE – 300 CE]