Editing Three-age system (section)

{{Short description|Stone, bronze and iron ages of pre-history}}
{{For|other uses of Three Ages| Three Ages (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date= January 2020}}{{Use Oxford spelling|date=January 2025}}
{{Multiple issues|{{more sources needed|date=January 2025}}
{{long|date=January 2025}}}}[[File:JomonPottery.JPG|thumb| [[Jōmon period|Jōmon]] pottery, [[Japanese Paleolithic|Japanese]] [[Stone Age]]]]
[[File:Solvognen-00100.jpg|thumb| [[Trundholm sun chariot]], [[Nordic Bronze Age]]]]
[[File:House keys. Nahal Hever. Israel Museum, Jerusalem.JPG|thumb| [[Archaeology of Israel|Iron Age]] house keys [[Cave of Letters]],<br /> ''Nahal Hever Canyon'', [[Israel Museum]], Jerusalem]]

The '''three-age system''' is the periodization of human [[prehistory]] (with some overlap into the [[history|historical periods]] in a few regions) into three time-periods: the [[Stone Age]], the [[Bronze Age]], and the [[Iron Age]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kipfer |first=Barbara Ann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C |title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology |date=30 April 2000 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-0-306-46158-3 |location=New York |publication-date=2000 |page=564 |quote=Three-Age system: The division of human prehistory into three successive stages – Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age – based on the main type of material used in tools of the period. [...] The Ages are only developmental stages, and some areas skipped one or more of the stages. At first entirely hypothetical, these divisions were later confirmed by archaeological observations. |author-link=Barbara Ann Kipfer |access-date=29 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Darvill |first=Timothy |title=Three Age System |date=2021-08-19 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191842788.001.0001/acref-9780191842788-e-4253 |work=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191842788.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-184278-8 |access-date=2022-03-09 |archive-date=9 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309020215/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191842788.001.0001/acref-9780191842788-e-4253 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> although the concept may also refer to other tripartite divisions of historic time periods. In some periodizations, a fourth [[Copper Age]] is added as between the Stone Age and Bronze Age. The Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages are also known collectively as the '''Metal Ages'''.<ref name=Generalitat>{{cite web |url=https://xtec.gencat.cat/web/.content/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/0034/123e50f1-ff9a-466e-9bcc-2ca2d70e2fc1/metal_ages.pdf |title=The Metal Ages |work=Generalitat de Catalunya |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref name=Britannica>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Metal-Ages |entry=The Metal Ages |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |title=History of Europe}}</ref>

In history, [[archaeology]] and [[physical anthropology]], the three-age system is a methodological concept adopted during the 19th century according to which artefacts and events of late prehistory and early history could be broadly ordered into a recognizable chronology. [[C. J. Thomsen]] initially developed this categorization in the period 1816 to 1825, as a result of classifying the collection of an archaeological exhibition chronologically – there resulted broad sequences with artefacts made successively of [[Stone artefact|stone]], [[bronze]], and [[iron]].

The system appealed to British researchers working in the academic field of [[ethnology]] – they adopted it to establish [[Race (human categorization)|race]] sequences for Britain's past based on [[cranium|cranial]] types. The ''relative chronology'' of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age remains in use,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Craniology and the Adoption of the Three-Age System in Britain |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge Press |doi=10.1017/S0079497X00001924 |last1=Morse |first1=Michael A. |journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society |volume=65 |pages=1–16 |s2cid=161193807 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Julian Richards |date=24 January 2005 |title=BBC – History – Notepads to Laptops: Archaeology Grows Up |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/archaeology/overview/notepads_laptops_03.shtml |access-date=27 December 2016 |newspaper=BBC |archive-date=25 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425063858/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/archaeology/overview/notepads_laptops_03.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> and the three-ages concept underpins prehistoric chronology for Europe, the Mediterranean world and the Near East.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Three-age System |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803104443590 |access-date=27 December 2016 |publisher=Oxford Index |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916053907/http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803104443590 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The structure reflects the cultural and historical background of the [[Mediterranean basin]] and the [[Middle East]]. It soon underwent further subdivisions, including the 1865 partitioning of the Stone Age into [[Palaeolithic]] and [[Neolithic]] periods by [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Lubbock's "Pre-Historic Times" is Published (1865) |url=http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=2556 |access-date=27 December 2016 |publisher=History of Information |archive-date=12 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612125923/http://historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=2556 |url-status=live}}</ref> The schema, however, has little or no utility for establishing chronological frameworks in sub-Saharan Africa, much of Asia, the Americas, and some other areas; and has little importance in contemporary archaeological or anthropological discussion for these regions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the three Age System of Prehistory Archaeology |url=http://www.actforlibraries.org/about-the-three-age-system-of-prehistory-archaeology/ |access-date=27 December 2016 |publisher=Act for Libraries |archive-date=14 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714140510/http://www.actforlibraries.org/about-the-three-age-system-of-prehistory-archaeology/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[Archaeology of the Americas]], a five-period system is conventionally used instead.

{{Human history and prehistory}}