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The Bronze Age is a period in the development of human societies when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consisted of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. The Bronze Age is part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In that system, it follows the neolithic in some areas of the world. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the neolithic is directly followed by the Iron Age.
Origins
The earliest evidence of bronze metalworking dates to the mid 4th millennium BCE Maykop culture in the Caucasus. From there, the technology spread rapidly to the Near East and after some time to the Indus Valley Civilization (see Meluhha).
Near Eastern Bronze Age
The Bronze Age in the Near East is divided into three main periods (the dates are very approximate):
EBA - Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC);
MBA - Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC);
LBA - Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1200 BC);
Each main period can be divided into shorter subcategories such as EB I, EB II, MB IIa etc.
Metallurgy developed first in Anatolia, modern Turkey. The mountains in the Anatolian highland possessed rich deposits of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, Egypt, the Negev desert, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. Copper was usually mixed with arsenic, yet the growing demand for tin resulted in the establishment of distant trade routes in and out of Anatolia. The precious copper was also imported by sea routes to the great kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city states and the invention of writing (the Uruk period in the fourth millennium BC). In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people partially changed the political pattern of the Near East (Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and possibly the Israelites). The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing powerful kingdoms and their vassal states (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitanni). Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean civilization (Ahhiyawa, Alashiya) in which the copper trade played an important role. This period ended in a widespread collapse which affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
Iron began to be worked already in Late Bronze Age Anatolia. The transition into the Iron Age c.1200 BC was more of a political change in the Near East rather than of new developments in metalworking.
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