When was bronze discovered

As the stones became heated by the fire, the metals contained in the rocks were melted and mixed. Around this time, there was an increased use of many metals other than copper and lead in Mesopotamia as there is evidence that both gold and silver were exploited as native metals. It is thought that Bronze properly appeared in the region around BC.

Weapons were cast mostly using classic bronze, while armour and helmets were hammered into shape from mild bronze. Around BC, the manufacture of bronze spread from the early Mesopotamian cities to Persia where it was commonly used to create weapons, ornaments and fittings for chariots. One of the earliest well dated bronze objects, a knife, was found in the Gansu province of China which had been cast in a mold. At this time, bronze from Crete and the Western Mediterranean were largely made using arsenic.

This inevitably led to smith developing symptoms of low level arsenic poisoning over a period of years. This eventually led to bronze being developed with the more difficult to obtain tin. By BC, tin was the overwhelming preference for manufacture of bronze. Casting techniques had also become sophisticated enough to create human sized statues as well as smaller lost-wax figurines. This preferred form of Bronze manufacture started to appear more readily in Egypt and China around BC.

The earliest forms of bronze casting in these regions were created in sand for objects such as bells. Eventually, this was improved with molds being made from stone and clay being the material of choice. As bronze was harder, almost equally durable and decidedly easier to cast than copper, although much more liable to fracture if not properly made, its use spread rapidly.

In the Mediterranean countries bronze was not supplanted for over 2, years and it lasted a good many centuries longer in north-western Europe, where methods of extracting and working iron were slower to follow those of Hallstadt and Rome.

Meanwhile, both bronze and copper ran side by side. Museum labels on exhibits are not to be trusted unless analyses have been made and it is only in recent years that this has been systematically undertaken. The ancient tin was nearly always stream tin, nuggets of the ore being found in the stream gravels, perhaps in the search for gold. Tin ore occurs in Armenia, but everywhere in the world it is much rarer than copper. This new metal is expensive to make, plus a craftsman is needed to make this new alloy.

Bronze tools, weapons, statuary, jewelry, and even toys have been discovered from this time period. Toward the end of this period they are using bronze to make tools and weapons. Few tools are made in the beginning, but by BC bronze has replaced all stone tools.

Eventually they will make such items as axeheads, knives, spearheads, razors, and swords. The vast use of bronze continues to about BC.