History is divided into periods of time (or "ages"), and each age has a defining characteristic. We are familiar with modern artistic and scientific periods, such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. We also label historical periods by the major empire of the time, such as Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome. Previous historical periods have also been identified metaphorically as the "golden era" or the "heroic age."
But the most established way of identifying ancient history is by the type of metal that was used for tools, weapons, and pottery. These are the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The Stone Age is basically all of human history until about 4000 BCE. During the Stone Age, people used stone, sticks, wood, and other items found in nature for tools, weapons, and materials. They used big rocks as hammers, pointy rocks for arrow spears, and sharp rock shards as knives.
About 6000 years ago (in 4000 BCE), people in the Mediterranean and the Near East learned to mine copper, and it became a primary material for weapons, shields, and daily items. Not long after, people mixed copper with tin and other metals to produce bronze. Bronze became the main material for the next 2000 years, and this time period has become known as the Bronze Age. During this time, bronze was used for weapons, shields, and tools, and these bronze items enabled towns to grow into empires.
In the next several weeks, I am going to write about the Empires of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age produced some of the first large empires and civilizations, including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, the Hittites, and more.
These empires are interesting because of their size and their accomplishments. They produced some of the first and largest "state societies" that went beyond tribal chiefdoms of a single family. They established a rule of law (such as the Code of Hammurabi), and they had a system of government that included tax collecting, the military/army, a judicial system, international relations with their neighbors, and different sectors of the economy (farming, mining, international shipping, fishing). These empires also controlled large territories, they supported large cities, they were multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, and they had legendary wars with each other.
First, the Copper Age
The Copper Age is a short transitional time period between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. Historians are not really clear if they should consider the Copper Age its own unique historical period, or if it is a transitional period from stone to metals, or if it is the early part of the Bronze Age. Anyway, the use of metals first started with the use of copper in around 5000 or 4500 BCE in Sumer, early Egypt, Minoan Crete, and also in China and in India. In some isolated places, it may have been used as early as 7500 BCE.
Copper is a metal in its natural form, so it is ready to use, and it is soft and malleable, so it can be bent and shaped to produce tools and objects. Originally, copper was mined (extracted from the ground) and shaped as a cold metal. Later on, it was heated and purified through smelting so it could be purer, then it was shaped with hammering tools. Eventually, the copper was fully melted and poured into a cast mold, and objects were created ready-to-use.
These activities sound totally normal to us today, but they were major accomplishments in the historical period. People had to recognize that the blue-green metallic substance in the ground was valuable, could be dug up, and could be combined with other metallic substances. These were not big blocks of copper or tin or iron; instead, they were clumps of dirt with small pieces of metal that had to be dug up and purified.
After learning that the metal was useful, they had to create furnaces that could produce enough heat to melt the metal. This required an oven or furnace that was made of stone, clay, and dirt and could contain a lot of heat, plus it had to allow oxygen and other gases to circulate through it. The furnace also needed a clay or stone bowl at the bottom that could hold the melted copper. Later on, people had to learn about the right combination of metallic substances (how much copper and tin to produce bronze), and they had to create casts out of rock or other items to pour the melted copper or bronze for molding.
Communities that could do this had a large advantage. They could supply their own communities with stronger tools and weapons, and they could produce items for export to other communities.
Knowledgeable blacksmiths could also go to different communities and set up a smithy in a new location. These people were valuable to warrior chiefs who wanted their own metallic weapons, they could help make farming and household tools in a community and improve their efficiency, and they could turn a farming community into a center of manufacturing. Manufacturing towns benefit from producers even today, and they certainly did back then too.
Not Everywhere at the Same Time
Today, when new consumer technology is created, it spreads pretty quickly all over the world. That's why you see smart phones in both rich and developing countries. But knowledge and expertise with metallurgy did not spread so fast in the ancient world. Countries in the Near East / Fertile Crescent (around Palestine and Israel and Egypt) as well as in China and India invented these processes very early, but they reached Europe and Africa much later.
And of course large civilizations in the Americas (such as the Maya, Inca, and Aztec) did not exist until in thousands of years later, so metal manufacturing did not happen there until very recent times. Different regions were also affected by the availability of raw metals, skilled workers, trade routes, and the political stability of the community.
As a result, some communities were working with bronze or iron, while other communities were still in the Stone Age or in a Hunter-Gatherer way of life. Just because there was a lot of metal manufacturing in some areas of the world, it did not mean that all parts of the world were also producing or using metals. As a result, communities that had metal tools and weapons had an advantage over those that didn't, and they could use that advantage for conquest and domination both through peaceful international trade and also through war.
From Metals Manufacturing to Empire Building
In the next several weeks, I am going to write about ancient civilizations that produced and used bronze metals. Through my study, I am going to test the idea that advanced metal manufacturing was responsible for creating large empires that lasted a long time. The overall idea is that these empires had the most advanced manufacturing technology and the strongest metal at the time, so they were able to expand their size and create sustainable economies.
In peacetime, people could use these metals for farming, livestock butchering, construction of buildings, artwork, and household chores. During war times, they could produce stronger swords, shields, chariots, and protective armor.
I’m actually curious if this idea is really true. Were these ancient empires so successful because of the metal tools and weapons they used? Or, were other factors more important reasons? Perhaps they had better farm ground and access to more food so they could feed bigger armies. Perhaps they had more skilled leaders who could organize military campaigns, gain the support of their people, and make strong political alliances. Perhaps they had better military tactics and were able to out-maneuver opposing armies.
One important related question I have is why some empires fell apart and disappeared. If metal manufacturing got better over time, these empires should have gotten stronger. But maybe the empires that fell couldn’t keep up with the others. Maybe they couldn’t get enough raw metal and produce enough to sustain their empire. Or maybe there were other issues - food shortages, lack of military training, too much luxury and leisure, internal political strife.
Right now, I don't even know which ancient empires were part of the Bronze Age, so I will start by learning about some of the empires I am familiar with: Ancient Egypt, the Assyrians, Babylon, Mesopotamia. Were these are all in the Bronze Age? Did they all exist at the same time? I know I studied some of these empires in World History classes in high school, but that was almost 30 years ago, so I don’t remember, and we probably didn’t study these empires in great detail.
I invite you to follow this newsletter over the next few weeks and to learn about the Bronze Age with me. And, if you find something interesting, send it to me.
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.