Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistoric society, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifacts. The Bronze Age also included the domestication of the horse.

As regard to metal working, the naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3000 BC. The Bronze Age is regarded as the second part of a three-age system for prehistoric societies, though there are some cultures that have extensive written records during their Bronze Age. In this system, in some areas of the world the Bronze Age followed the Neolithic age. On the other hand, in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Neolithic age is directly followed by the Iron Age. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age follows the Neolithic Age and precedes the Bronze Age.

Origins

The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial. It is possible that bronzing was invented independently in the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BC, which would make them the makers of the oldest known bronze; but others date the same Maykop artifacts to the mid 3rd millennium BC. However, the Maykop culture only had arsenic bronze, which is a naturally occurring alloy. Tin bronze, which developed later, requires more sophisticated production techniques; tin has to be mined (mainly as the tin ore cassiterite) and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make the bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of heavy metal usage.

Near East

Periodization for the Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East is as follows:

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, the Bronze Age begins at about 2900 BC in the late Uruk period, spanning the Early Dynastic period of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian periods and the period of Kassite hegemony.

Ancient Egypt

In Ancient Egypt, the Bronze Age begins in the Protodynastic period, c. 3150 BC.

• Early Bronze Age
  • Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
  • Old Kingdom
  • First Intermediate Period of Egypt
• Middle Bronze Age
  • Middle Kingdom of Egypt
  • Second Intermediate Period of Egypt (Hyksos)
• Late Bronze Age
  • New Kingdom

Levant

• Early Bronze Age
  • Ebla
• Middle Bronze Age
  • Amorites
• Late Bronze Age
  • Mitanni
  • Ugarit
  • Aramaeans

Anatolia

• Hittite Empire
• Arzawa
• Assuwa

Persian Plateau

• Elam
• Konar Sandal
• Kulli culture
• Tappeh Sialk
• BMAC

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