The multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the chief hard substance for the manufacture of tools and weapons. … See more

The emergence of metallurgy may have occurred first in the Fertile Crescent. The earliest use of lead is documented here from the late Neolithic settlement of Yarim Tepe in Iraq,
The earliest lead (Pb) finds in the ancient Near East are a 6th … See more

Andean civilizations in South America appear to have independently invented copper smelting.
The term "Chalcolithic" is also applied to American civilizations that already used copper and copper alloys thousands of years before the … See more

In the region of the Aïr Mountains in Niger, independent copper smelting developed between 3000 and 2500 BC. The process was not in a developed state, indicating smelting was not foreign. It became mature about 1500 BC. See more

A copper axe was found at Prokuplje, Serbia, contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking, circa 7,500 years ago (5500 … See more

Ceramic similarities between the Indus Valley civilisation, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Iran during 4300–3300 BC of the Chalcolithic … See more

In the 5th millennium BC copper artifacts start to appear in East Asia, such as in the Jiangzhai and Hongshan cultures, but those metal artifacts were not widely used during this early stage. See more