Thank you Jojo! Just a bit more on metals.


Early metalworking predates the Bronze Age, and reaches back beyond even the Chalcolithic into the late Neolithic, it has been going on for 10,000 years.

Much of the archeological work has been done in the Middle East, notably so by Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho and V.Karageorghis at Enkomi in Cyprus.
Cyprus was rich in copper, and actually the word copper comes from Cypria (Cyprus).

Because of the unusual character and initial rarity of metals, they were first used for decoration, rather than utility, for ornaments rather than for knives.
The earliest known copper object is an oval-shapped malachite pendant from the Shanidar cave in Northeastern Iraq from the ninth millennium B.C.
From Cayonu there are hammered copper pins (8th millennium). From Ali Kosh there are beads of native copper (7th millenium).
From Catal Huyuk there are copper beads strung on garment finges carbon dated to the 6th millennium. These were hammered, which was the technique prior to pyrotechnology. The earliest piece of smelting slag comes from 5800 BC at Catal Huyuk. The earliest use of tin bronze was from the 4th millennium, as seen from finds at Tell Yehudiyah and Tepe Yahya, as shown by my old Prof. Lamberg-Karlovsky at Harvard.

Kathleen Kenyon in Archaeology in the Holy Land,(1979:61) writes of a troglodyte community at Tell Abu Matar who left behind abundant underground silos for grain storeage and were copperworkers. The preliminary reduction was carried out in open fireplaces, then the ore was smelted in specially constructed ovens, which were circular basins about 18 inches in diameter. The interior of these chambers was glazed from a mixture of melted metals, silica and residual matter. The ore was then refined in stone crucibles. This is the earliest evidence in the area of metal working. Since the nearest source of raw materials was 60 miles away, a regular trade must have existed. The tools and implements of the inhabitants of Tell Abu Matar are still of flint.
The copper objects, such as pins, rings, ornamental cyclinders, mace heads and handles had a cermonial rather than a warlike significance. The metal items were still regarded as far too precious for rough use.

A hoard of copper objects from Nahal Mishmar in Israel dates from 3430 BC (by carbon dating from associated hoard material. This is from the Chalcolithic Period.
There were 429 objects found in this hoard, mostly round objects, mace-heads, chisels, and crown-like cylinders with elaborately moulded birds on them.
It has been suggested that these were cult objects from a nearby shrine that were hidden when that shrine was attacked as noted by the destruction level from the same period.

Hauptmann and Weisgerberger wrote about ancient copper production in the area of Feinan, Khirbet en-Nahas, and Wadi-el-Jariye,in the Wadi Arabah, Jordan.

Elizabeth Friedman writes in Technological Style in Early Bronze Age Anatolia that Anatolian metallic ware is found in the Taurus mountains, an area rich in metal resources: silver, gold, copper, tin and iron. Moreover, a study of the central Taurus region revealed tunnel and pit mines, which on the evidence of pottery and radiocarbon dates, have been dated to the Early Bronze Age. Ore processing tools, crucible fragments and slag have found on various sites throughout the region. Furthermore, the tin mines at Kestel near Göltepe show clear evidence of being worked during the Early Bronze Age (Yener et al. 1991; Yener and Vandiver 1993).