Iron had been known as a metal for centuries before the collapse.

Hittite craftsmen made iron objects, and iron finds appear in archaeological contexts across the Late Bronze Age world.

But iron working was difficult and relatively rare.

Bronze — which melted at lower temperatures and was more easily worked with the technology of the time — remained the dominant metal for tools and weapons throughout the Late Bronze Age.

The collapse of the bronze supply chains was one of the most disruptive economic consequences of the Bronze Age Collapse.

Bronze required both copper and tin, and tin in particular came from sources far from most of the Bronze Age civilizations — from mines in Afghanistan, possibly from the British Isles, through long and complex trading networks that were precisely the kind of interconnected system that the collapse disrupted.