Definition of the Iron Age.

[Robert Vermaat]

The Roman iron age in northern Europe lasted untill 400AD....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ar ... al_periods

Which might be used for convenience but is of course totally useles. Yes, the Roman period was still part of the 'Iron Age', but then this was also the case of all the subsequent periods right through the Middle Age, until new (non-iron) materials were invented. I'm mystified what might be the difference between a 'germanic Iron Age' and a 'Viking Age', that one apparently neither germanic nor Iron..
Historians stop using the term 'iron Age' when a historical period starts (ie the Roman period in Northern Europe), but archaeologists may well use a different terminology.