• What is the Copper Age?
• Beginning of the Copper Age
• Characteristics of the Copper Age
• Copper Age Economics
• Social organization of the Copper Age
• End of the Copper Age

We explain what the Copper Age was in prehistory, its economy, social organization and other characteristics. Also, its beginning and end.

Copper was the first metal that humans learned to melt.

What is the Copper Age?

The Copper, Eneolithic or Chalcolithic Age is the period of the prehistory that served as a transition between the Neolithic period (c. 8,000 - c. 3,500 BC) and the Bronze Age. Marks the start of the Age of metals (c. 5,000 - c. 1,000 BC). As its name indicates, it was a stage characterized by the appearance of the first metal managed by the human being: the copper.

The temporal margins of these periods are only approximations, since the technological progress of each prehistoric stage was not homogeneous throughout the planet. Thus, the Copper Age is associated with the discovery of native copper by humanity, which was unaware of the smelting processes and proceeded to manipulate it by hammering and chilling.

However, as this period progresses, new procedures appeared from the hand of ceramics and firing, giving rise to the beginning of metallurgy and the possibility of achieving alloys. In this way, humanity later discovered bronze, and entered the second stage of the Age of metals: the Bronze Age.

Beginning of the Copper Age

Before the formal beginning of the Copper Age, this metal was already handled in some regions of southern Turkey and northern Iraq by means of cold or slightly heated work. Evidence of this are the copper pendants found in the Shanidar caves in the Zagros Mountains, whose manufacture is estimated around 9,500 BC. C., that is to say, of the first stages of the Neolithic.

But the first proper evidence of the handling of copper was found in Anatolia and southern Kurdistan, regions rich in this mineral. They consisted of copper slags, that is, residues from its treatment, originating from some time around 6,000 BC. C.

The peoples of this region or of other neighboring ones obviously valued the metal and quickly learned to melt it, as evidenced by the findings of around 4,000 BC. C. in the present territories of Pakistan, India, Israel and Jordan. During that millennium, copper production became massive in Eurasia and the Balkans, reaching the Ancient Greece and from there to other regions of Europe.

For its part, in the American continent the use of copper becomes evident much later, around 1,000 BC. Its use spread especially in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands.

Later it was used in the form of alloys with silver and gold in 500 BC. C., in the current regions of Colombia and Peru. But the indigenous cultures did not see in the metal its potential to make utensils or tools, and preferred to use it in a decorative or ritual way.

Characteristics of the Copper Age

Of course, the massive and artisanal use of copper is the most typical and characteristic feature of this stage, so much so that it gives it its name. Initially it was used in its pure state, which made it no better than other flint or obsidian utensils.

But in addition to this, this period was characterized by:

• An increase and intensification of human production, as a consequence of the incorporation of new copper tools and new techniques agricultural.
• Greater social stratification, due to greater specialization of production, especially in artisanal trades.
• A noticeable increase in exchanges and Commerce between neighboring prehistoric cultures.
• The appearance of new modes of occupation of the territory by ancient civilizations, which constituted a economy less domestic and more integrated, under the mandate of local chiefs who kept the surplus produced.
• Prehistoric societies reached proto-urban levels, especially in the Mediterranean, and for this reason they are considered today as pre-state, since they later gave rise to the appearance of the Condition.

Copper Age Economics

In addition to copper, pottery was used for practical and ritual purposes.

The appearance of copper brought with it new economic possibilities, not only productive ones. On the one hand it allowed the manufacture of new tools, and on the other hand it increased the exchange, since ceramics developed enormously in this period.

Vessels, ornaments, pendants, and weapons were manufactured and traded as metal became more proficient. Around 3,000 BC The smelting of copper began to become massive and, therefore, its main alloys emerged, with arsenic and other metals.

On the other hand, at this stage new agricultural techniques such as plowing and irrigation were introduced. The vine and the olive tree were domesticated, which, together with the appearance of the cart or cart, led in the cattle raising to the so-called Revolution of derivative products, thanks to the use of milk and the brute force of cattle, and the wool of sheep and camelids.

All this meant a step forward in the constitution of interlocking local economies, thus overcoming the domestic modes of the Neolithic.

Social organization of the Copper Age

The Copper Age was a period in which humanity gained in social complexity, as a consequence of the changes in the diversity and magnitude of production. New models of leadership, a stronger stratification of the societies and a noticeable increase in economic, social and cultural exchanges were characteristic of this period.

This brought with it an evident demographic increase, which expanded, nuclearized and stabilized many populations. Thus began the path that later led to the emergence of the first states.

On the other hand, metallurgy brought new ideas around materials and their transformation. Its impact on the civilizing imaginary could give rise to the emergence of new deities linked to the forge and metals, as well as male warrior deities, displacing the traditional Neolithic mother-goddesses, typical of an agricultural or proto-agricultural society.

End of the Copper Age

The mastery of copper and its new alloying possibilities, once the most basic metallurgy was discovered, led to the obtaining of new materials. Stronger forms of copper and novel alloys were created that we know today as bronze (copper alloyed with tin).

This event marks the end of the Copper Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age. It is estimated that it happened around the year 4,000 a. C. in the Middle East and throughout the year 3,000 a. C. in Asia and Europe.