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The Iron Age is an archaeological age, the last of the three-age system of Old World prehistory. It follows the Bronze Age, in the Ancient Near East beginning c. 1200 BC, and in Europe beginning after c. 800 BC. It is taken to end with the beginning of Classical Antiquity, in about the 6th century BC, although in Northern Europe, the Germanic Iron Age is taken to last until the beginning of the Viking Age, c. AD 800.
The term "Iron Age" is mostly limited to Europe, the Near East, and the Indian subcontinent, although West Africa also had iron metallurgy, beginning with the Nok culture c. 550 BC and spread by the Bantu expansion. There are also cast iron artefacts in China from about 500 BC, but use of iron was minimal, and the Bronze Age in China is usually extended to the beginning of the classical period (Qin dynasty).