Copper
From about 7000 BC a few neolithic communities begin hammering copper into crude knives and sickles, which work as well as their stone equivalents and last far longer. Some of the earliest implements of this kind have been found in eastern Anatolia.
This intermediate period between the Stone Age (when all weapons and tools are of flint) and the first confident metal technology (the Bronze Age) has been given a name deriving from the somewhat awkward combination of materials. It is called the Chalcolithic Period, from the Greekchalcos'copper' andlithos'stone'.
An accident, probably frequent, reveals another of nature's useful secrets. A nugget of pure copper, or perhaps a finished copper tool, falls into the hot camp fire. The copper melts. When it cools, it is found to have solidified in a new shape.
Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab16#ixzz0ZcnHBmQ2
This intermediate period between the Stone Age (when all weapons and tools are of flint) and the first confident metal technology (the Bronze Age) has been given a name deriving from the somewhat awkward combination of materials. It is called the Chalcolithic Period, from the Greekchalcos'copper' andlithos'stone'.
An accident, probably frequent, reveals another of nature's useful secrets. A nugget of pure copper, or perhaps a finished copper tool, falls into the hot camp fire. The copper melts. When it cools, it is found to have solidified in a new shape.
Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab16#ixzz0ZcnHBmQ2
