The Iron Age is the period of time when people began to use iron to make tools and weapons, and it lasted from about 1200 BC to 550 BC. The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age, and it was during this time that we saw the rise of major empires such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks. However, it is important to note that the three-age system, which is a way of dividing prehistory, considers the Iron Age to end in a particular culture with either the start of its protohistory, when it begins to be written about by outsiders, or when its own historiography begins. The date when it is taken to end varies greatly between cultures, and in many parts of the world, there was no Iron Age at all.