The Bronze Age culture began, for Europe, in the Aegean and Greece shortly after 3000 B.C. and copper axes appeared in Hungary a little before 2000 B.C.-in both cases due to Asiatic influence. Other copper influences came into Europe by way of Spain about 2000 B.C. and diffused widely, apparently in association with the Bell Beaker culture. At the same time there were further developments of the Megalithic culture throughout its area. The Bronze Age for Europe as a whole is usually considered to cover the period from about 2000 to 1000 B.C. and is divided into three sub-periods: Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age (or Bronze I, II, and III).
c. 1000- The Iron Age began not long after 1000 B.C. with the development of iron metallurgy in Austria and its spread through the rest of Europe. The first part of the Iron Age is usually referred to as the Hallstatt period (about 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C.), the second part of the La Tene period (500 B.C. to I A.D.).