Palstaves

Socketed axes

Five thousand years ago, a bronze axe was probably the most useful tool you could own. You could chop down trees, cut wood, scrape hides and even plow the ground for planting seeds.

The invention of metal working marked an important advance in technology. Metal tools lasted longer than ones made of stone, bone or antler. They held their edge, and could be re-sharpened when they went dull. Used metal could be melted down and recast to make new items.

Bronze in history

Copper ore

Bronze was one of the first metals humans used to make tools and weapons. The appearance of bronze implements in the archaeological record indicates the end of the Stone Age in that area.

Producing bronze, a combination of copper and tin, requires a lot of specialized, coordinated effort. First, you must mine or otherwise obtain the raw metals. Then you have to melt, refine and mix the metals. Finally, you must master the technology of making molds to cast the metals into something useful.

Archaeologists excavating the Roman fort at Arbeia in England

Scientists have noted that, when some cultures started to use bronze, they also tended to start living in cities. Cities, supported by agricultural surplus, have different people doing different jobs, and a centralized government to coordinate the work—the exact conditions needed to produce bronze. Thus, bronze may have been factor in the rise of some urban centers.

Bronze also encouraged trade networks. Copper and tin are mined in only a few places. These raw materials were often traded and transported over long distances. The finished products could also be used for trade, or as a form of money.

Merchants and metalsmiths would bury tools of all different shapes and styles in founder’s hoards. They planned to trade or recycle the items later. Sometimes these hoards were lost or forgotten, only to be discovered by archaeologists thousands of years later.

Rust never sleeps

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