![ReconstructedOetziAxe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/ReconstructedOetziAxe.jpg)
The
Copper Age, also called the
Eneolithic
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often v ...
or the
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
Age, has been traditionally understood as a transitional period between the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
and the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, in which a gradual introduction of the metal (
native copper
Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native coppe ...
) took place, while stone was still the main resource utilized. Recent archaeology has found that the metal was not introduced so gradually and that this entailed significant social changes, such as developments in the type of habitation (larger villages, launching of fortifications), long-distance trade, and copper
metallurgy.
Some of the earliest Copper Age artifacts were found in the 5th and 6th millennia BCE archaeological sites of the
Vinča culture
The Vinča culture (), also known as Turdaș culture or Turdaș–Vinča culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5700–4500 BC or 5300–4700/4500 BC.. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, ...
such as
Majdanpek
Majdanpek ( sr-cyr, Мајданпек; ro, Maidan) is a town and municipality located in the Bor District of the eastern Serbia, and is not far from the border of Romania. According to 2011 census, the municipality of Majdanpek had a populati ...
,
Jarmovac
Priboj ( sr-Cyrl, Прибој, ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. The population of the town is 14,920, while the population of the municipality is 27,133.
Geography
The municipality of Priboj i ...
and
Pločnik (including a copper axe from 5500 BCE). Somewhat later, in the 5th millennium BCE, metalwork is attested at
Rudna Glava mine in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
, and at Ai Bunar mine in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
.
3rd millennium BCE copper metalwork is attested in places like
Palmela
Palmela () is a town and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 62,831, in an area of 465.12 km².
The municipality is located in the Lisboa Region and Setúbal District, about south of Lisbon. The municipal holiday is 1 ...
(
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
),
Cortes
Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to:
People
* Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name
** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador
Places
* Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...
(
Navarre), and
Stonehenge (
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
). However, as often happens with the
prehistoric times, the limits of the age cannot be clearly defined and vary between different sources.
Inception of metallurgy in Europe
The theory that
metallurgy was imported into Europe from the Near East has been practically ruled out. A second hypothesis, that there were two main points of origin of metallurgy in Europe, in southern Spain and in West Bulgaria, is also doubtful due to the existence of sites outside the centers of diffusion where metallurgy was known simultaneously with, or before, those in the ‘original’ nuclei, such as
Brixlegg
Brixlegg is a market town (since 1927) in the Kufstein district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The town lies in the Lower Inn Valley and at the entrance of the Alpbachtal.
Neighbouring municipalities
Alpbach, Kramsach, Radfeld, Rattenberg, ...
(Tyrol, Austria), while sites closer to the supposed origins of metallurgy, such as in the north of Spain, show fewer metal artifacts than sites in the south and practically no evidence of production.
Currently, the general opinion is that the development of metallurgy took place independently in different places, at different times, with various techniques. One fact that supports this interpretation is that, although the final products (beads, rings, sickles, swords, axes, etc.) are quite similar throughout Europe, the method of production is not. Thus the use of
crucibles was the technique utilized in the south of Spain, whereas central Europe employed a
slagging process, but Cabrierés (France) used a primitive oxidizing non-slagging process, while in the British Isles the absence of debris, slag or ceramic suggests another technique.
Consequently, the way in which metallurgy was initiated differs considerably depending on the region. There are areas in which copper seems to play a crucial role (i.e., the Balkans), whereas other areas show no interest in it at all. Then there are societies that use copper artifacts, but do not practice metallurgy, and there are other ones that fully adopt some of the cultural innovations but ignore the rest. One example of the latter is
Basque country in northern Spain, where splendid large
dolmens are present along the
Ebro river
, name_etymology =
, image = Zaragoza shel.JPG
, image_size =
, image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza
, map = SpainEbroBasin.png
, map_size =
, map_caption = The Ebro ...
, but metal is rather infrequent, and when it does appear between the trapping, it is more often
bronze or
arsenical copper
Arsenical copper contains up to 0.5% arsenic which, at elevated temperatures, imparts higher tensile strength and a reduced tendency to scaling. It is typically specified in boiler work, especially locomotive fireboxes. It also helps prevent embr ...
than
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
.
Reasons to use copper
Copper is the eighth most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, is available all over the world, and is one of the few that can appear in a pure state. It is not complicated to work with, and a bare hammering can be enough to transform a nugget into a bead. The eye-catching look of native copper makes it easy to recognize, and even flashier if converted into jewelry, a possible motivation for humankind to start the metallurgy with it. An evolutive technological process has been described, although there are authors like Javinovic, who think that it is not necessary to pass through the first stages to reach the last one.
Converting copper
To start with, the raw material must be obtained.
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
can be found in over 160 different minerals, but mining activities are entailed to obtain them in large quantities if a reasonable amount of copper is wanted. Some of the most commonly exploited minerals are
cuprite
Cuprite is an oxide mineral composed of copper(I) oxide Cu2O, and is a minor ore of copper.
Its dark crystals with red internal reflections are in the isometric system hexoctahedral class, appearing as cubic, octahedral, or dodecahedral forms, ...
,
malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
,
azurite
Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic carb ...
,
chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mo ...
,
chrysocolla
Chrysocolla ( ) is a hydrated copper phyllosilicate mineral and mineraloid with formula (x<1)[ or .][
The structure of the mineral has been questioned, as a 2006 spectrographic study suggest material identified as ...]
and
tennantite
Tennantite is a copper arsenic sulfosalt mineral with an ideal formula . Due to variable substitution of the copper by iron and zinc the formula is . It is gray-black, steel-gray, iron-gray or black in color. A closely related mineral, tetrahedri ...
; e.g.
malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
was extracted in
Rudna Glava (Serbia), Cabrierés (France) or Chinflón (
Riotinto, Spain). In fact, one of the possible explanations about what ''
Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy.
Ötzi is believed to ...
'', the ancient
mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
found in the Alps who lived around 3300 years BCE, was doing at of altitude is that he could have been prospecting for new ores of minerals.
Secondly, the mineral is separated from the
gangue
In mining, gangue () is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body ...
. This is only possible by
smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...
or
beneficiation
In the mining industry or extractive metallurgy, beneficiation is any process that improves (benefits) the economic value of the ore by removing the gangue minerals, which results in a higher grade product ( ore concentrate) and a waste stream (ta ...
. To do so, it is necessary to use a furnace that is able to reach at least .
Lastly, a wide range of specific tools and resources have to be available, such as furnaces, moulds,
crucible
A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands te ...
s, mauls, etc.
*Stage A: Although
native copper
Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native coppe ...
nowadays is frequently displayed in museum showcases of mineral collections, it once occurred copiously during prehistoric times. In
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
or
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
, collecting the mineral was once as easy as simply picking it up from the ground. In fact, native copper is no longer as easy to find in that state these days. The treatment of this native mineral was also uncomplicated through cold-hammering. This only permitted the production of a limited range of artifacts like awls, pins, or beads. In larger objects, the metal cracks when it is cold-hammered.
*Stage B: Annealing the metal on an open fire ( is hot enough) reduces its hardness considerably and gives in malleability. This permits the manufacture of slightly more sophisticated objects, like bracelets, but is still a rather limited technique.
*Stage C: In the first two steps, the material used was
native copper
Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native coppe ...
that does not actually need specialized technology. Probably, due to the situation that native copper was increasingly difficult to find, copper ore is used in this third step. This is a very significant development. In fact, this is truly the beginning of the
metallurgy, as the mineral has to be smelted to separate the copper from the
gangue
In mining, gangue () is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body ...
, requiring technology.
Early mining in Europe
Minerals of copper were known from ancient times. In Crete, little fragments of
malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
and
azurite
Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic carb ...
were powdered and used as make up or to decorate ceramic in an early date such as 6000 BCE.
Therefore, the minerals were not collected because people were looking for copper but for virtues like those mentioned or simply because of its brightness and colour, but this knowledge of the minerals is critical since they already knew how to recognize them and where to collect them when, later, they started the systematic search for ores.
Numerous examples of mines are known all over Europe, from the east:
Rudna Glava (Serbia), Ai Bunar (Bulgaria); to the west:
Mount Gabriel
Mount Gabriel () is a mountain on the Mizen Peninsula immediately to the north of the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland.
Mount Gabriel is 407m high and is the highest eminence in the coastal zone south and east of Bantry Bay. A roadway s ...
(Ireland),
Great Orme
The Great Orme ( cy, Y Gogarth) is a limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, north-west of the town of Llandudno. Referred to as ''Cyngreawdr Fynydd'' by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, its English name derives from the Old N ...
,
Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 4,780.
Alderley Edge is northwest of Macclesfield and south of Manchester, at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone escarpment, Alder ...
(United Kingdom); crossing Central Europe:
Mitterberg (Salzach, Austria),
Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Cabrierés (France); to the south:
Riotinto,
Mola Alta de Serelles (Spain); and the Mediterranean:
Corsica, Cyprus, and the
Cyclades
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...
islands. It is remarkable that, usually, it is not a single mine but a complex, with a variable, large number of mineshafts, as in
Rudna Glava (30) or
Mount Gabriel
Mount Gabriel () is a mountain on the Mizen Peninsula immediately to the north of the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland.
Mount Gabriel is 407m high and is the highest eminence in the coastal zone south and east of Bantry Bay. A roadway s ...
(31).
Techniques and tools
The techniques observed in all of them are quite similar. Basically they used the thermic alteration or firesetting (Mohen 1992, Craddock 1995, Eiroa et al. 1996, Timberlake 2003). This consists of applying fire to the rock and then pouring water over it: the rapid changes of temperature will cause cracks within the rocks that can be totally broken with the help of mauls and picks. Then the useful masses were selected, crushed and transported to the production centre that could be in the surrounding area (
Mitterberg) or far away (
Rudna Glava).
The mines were exploited in extremely efficient and clever ways, according to the technology available (Jovanovic 1980, Craddock 1995, Timberlake 2003). The entire convenient mineral was collected and the abandoned shafts carefully refilled with gangue and rocks (Mohen 1992; 85). For example, at
Mount Gabriel
Mount Gabriel () is a mountain on the Mizen Peninsula immediately to the north of the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland.
Mount Gabriel is 407m high and is the highest eminence in the coastal zone south and east of Bantry Bay. A roadway s ...
, it was estimated that they extracted the astonishing number of of rock, gangue and ore. The usable amount of copper was 162.85 tonnes and the final smelting finished metal was 146.56 tonnes (Jackson 1980; 24). The entire process was thoroughly described in 1744 by Lewis Morris, Crown Mineral Agent for Cardiganshire, and, incidentally,
antiquarian.
The tools employed are mainly presented in Lewis' observations, but other ones have been recovered in archaeological context:
*Stone tools: The most frequent find are the stone hammers, normally made of hard rocks accessible to the mine, beach or river pebbles. There is no standardization of these mauls but is common a system of hafting, usually a groove carved in the middle for where a rope was tied to the handle, like the twisted hazel recovered in
Copa Hill
Cwmystwyth mines are located in Cwmystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales and exploited a part of the Central Wales Orefield.
Mining heritage
Cwm Ystwyth is considered the most important non-ferrous metal mining site in Wales providing a premier example ...
.
* Antler and bone tools: Picks and scrapes made of bone and
antlers have been found in the majority of the mines.
* Wood: Evidence of wooden tools are more infrequent. Nevertheless in places like Ai Bunar or
Mount Gabriel
Mount Gabriel () is a mountain on the Mizen Peninsula immediately to the north of the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland.
Mount Gabriel is 407m high and is the highest eminence in the coastal zone south and east of Bantry Bay. A roadway s ...
were recovered
shovel
A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore.
Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made o ...
s and wedges. A rudimentary system of stairs or
scaffolding
Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely use ...
s can be supposed (Mohen 1992).
* Metal: The use of any metallic tool is rather strange and extraordinary. It seems that the copper was not used for the miners' tools. However copper
chisels and discarded axes could be utilized as wedges.
* Other evidence: The presence of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
and
charcoal, crucial for the firing (fire-setting) and furnace (fuel), is habitual. Leather sacks (at Ai Bunar) and shoulder baskets (at Copa Hill) were used to transport the crushed mineral.
Society
![20140611 Varna 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/20140611_Varna_08.jpg)
The information available about the people of the
Copper Age has not substantially increased along with the number of archaeological sites. Several ideas have been proffered, one of the most followed is that the metal itself did not bring abrupt transformation into the people's life, or even more that early copper does not produce anything useful at all, meaning with this that with the copper, they produced mainly
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
and, overall, weapons that obviously were not within reach of the majority of the population but only to privileged individuals. In other words, the real importance of the metal is not utilitarian but social. This is a suitable explanation about the rising of Great Cultures of Metal such as
Vinča culture
The Vinča culture (), also known as Turdaș culture or Turdaș–Vinča culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5700–4500 BC or 5300–4700/4500 BC.. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, ...
(Ex-Yugoslavia)
Tiszapolgar and
Unetice culture
The Únětice culture or Aunjetitz culture ( cs, Únětická kultura, german: Aunjetitzer Kultur, pl, Kultura unietycka) is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600BC. The epon ...
(Central Europe),
Remedello and
Rinaldone (Italy),
Montagne Noire (France),
El Argar
El Argar is an Early Bronze Age culture that was based in Antas, Almería, within modern Spain. It is believed to have been active from about 2200 B.C. to 1500 B.C.Lull et al."Emblems and spaces of power during the Argaric Bronze Age at La Almol ...
and
Targas (Spain), etc.
As the period moved forward, especially around the 3rd millennium, new and complex realities would appear strongly linked to the metal, like the impressive fortified villages of
Los Millares
Los Millares is a Chalcolithic occupation site 17 km north of Almería, in the municipality of Santa Fe de Mondújar, Andalucía, Spain. The complex was in use from the end of the fourth millennium (c. 3000 BC) to the end of the third mi ...
(Spain),
Vila Nova de Sao Pedro (Portugal) or the more modest
cairn next to Copa Hill in the United Kingdom destinated to control the centres of extraction, or the equally and generalized cultural phenomenons of
Megalithism,
Rock Art,
Bell Beakers Vessels that are known from Scandinavia to the South of Spain and from Scotland to Turkey.
See also
*
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
*
Copper Age
*
Copper metallurgy in Africa Copper metallurgy in Africa encompasses the study of copper production across the continent and an understanding of how it influenced aspects of African archaeology.
Origins
Scholars previously believed that sub-Saharan Africans either did not h ...
*
Metallurgy
*
Native copper
Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native coppe ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*Cvekic, Ljilja (2007) Prehistoric women had passion for fashion
*
*
*
*Eiroa, J.J. et alii (1999): Nociones de tecnología y tipología en Prehistoria. Barcelona. Ariel.
*
*
*
*Mohen J.P, Peroni, R, Katinchorov R. and Tasié R, Eccedy I. and Kovacs T, Merpert J.M, Briard J., Thrane H., Kaelas L. (1996) Europe in the Copper Age, in History of humanity: scientific and cultural development Vol.2, From the third millennium to the seventh century BC, edited by Dani A.H., J.-P. Mohen. London: Routledge; Paris: UNESCO, pages 320-391.
*Moreno A, et al. (2003) Metallurgical control and social power. The Bronze Age Communities of High Guadalquivir in Archeometallurgy in Europe (International Conference) vol. 1 Milano: Associacione Italiana di Metallurgia, pages 625-634.
*Ortiz T., L. et al. (1990): El hábitat en la Prehistoria en el valle del Río Rojo (Álava) "Cuaderno de Sección Prehistoria-Arqueología", núm. 3, San Sebastián.
*
*
*
*Ruiz-Taboada, A. & Montero-Ruiz, I., "The oldest metallurgy in western Europe" in Antiquity by Crawford, Osbert Guy Stanhope, 73(282), Princeton University Press for the Research Institute on International Change, Columbia University, 1999, pages 897-903.
*Shennan, S., "Cost, benefit and value in the organization of early European copper production" in Antiquity by Crawford, Osbert Guy Stanhope, 73(280), Princeton University Press for the Research Institute on International Change, Columbia University, 1999, pages 352-363.
*
*
{{Neolithic Europe
History of metallurgy
Copper
Copper Age Europe
Technology by period