Atlantis?

[Equinoxe]

Write a book, using the research.

Ha! Indeed, but it'll have to be compelling. Hmm. I think I may have changed my mind about Atlantis...

I think the Iron Age began long after the explosion on Santorini. It was like 1,000 to 800 BC. Apparently the Iron Age was a bad time all around, a time when many sophisticated civilizations fell.

Gosh, I find it so evocative to imagine sea traders and their cities in the Med 36 centuries ago! What a fascinating and romantic image.

The Iron Age is somewhat difficult to date, because the use of iron had existed for quite a while before it became the dominant material -- in fact, the use of iron predates the use of bronze, but at that point it was primarily ornamental and worth more than gold. Bronze is actually a much better material than plain iron: it's sturdier, more durable, and holds an edge better.

Large scale use of iron by the Hittites dates to the 14th century BCE, but bronze was still the dominant metal. Truly widespread use began between around 1200 and by 1000 iron became the dominant material in the Eastern Mediterranean, likely due to a disruption in the tin trade, possibly from the east (somewhere in Bactria perhaps). Egypt continued to use bronze as their primary metal for another half a millennium. Sometime after the rise in the use of iron, the process of carburisation was discovered, probably accidentally. It was that development of a low grade steel that finally made iron a superior material, though bronze continued to be used through the ancient world for a variety of purposes. The Hoplite's breastplate and helmet were generally bronze, though their sword and spear were iron.

It is Romantic, isn't it? The Minoans and the Phoenicians are amongst my favourite ancient civilisations. I'm quite fond of thalassocracy.