Abstract: To systematically investigate the effects of temperature and humidity on the atmospheric corrosion of archaeological iron in museums, accelerated corrosion experiments were carried out under 13 distinct environmental conditions with different temperatures and humidity. The corrosion behavior of archaeological iron in museum atmospheric environment was characterized by mass gain measurement, macroscopic and microscopic observation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The protective capability of the corrosion layers was quantitatively characterized using the protective ability index. The results show that when the relative humidity exceeded 60%, the corrosion rate of archaeological iron increased dramatically, thereby damaging the protective effect of the corrosion layer. At a certain humidity, the increase of temperature significantly weakened the protective effect of the corrosion layer, and promoted phase transformations among corrosion products and accelerated corrosion reactions. Based on all the analysis results, it could be concluded that a temperature of 20 ℃ and a relative humidity (RH) of 30% were ideal conditions for preserving archaeological iron. Under cost constraints, maintaining relative humidity at 45% could significantly reduce the corrosion rate of archaeological iron.