 In the area, as elsewhere in Central and Western Europe, the early Iron Age led to changes in social organisation, including a marked tendency toward the development of social hierarchies.It seems that at the top of these hierarchies was an aristocracy that had developed in the context of the increasingly important trade in iron ore and iron.Whether they really were "princesses" or "princes" in a modern sense (i.e., a noble or religious aristocracy) or simply represented an economic or mercantile elite is still the subject of much discussion.